Those in the Indian subcontinent have a very
intriguing relationship with the game of Cricket. It's a bit like the
relation you would share with your wife, or your girlfriend (or should
I rephrase it as girlfriend/boyfriend? Twenty20 has attracted a whole
legion of female followers, I have been told), or your family. There
will be the occasional tiff, there will be times when you don't want to
talk to each other, there will be times when you will be absolutely
sick of each other, but at the end, it's a part of your being, your
DNA. It's a way of life.
So, when India and Pakistan bowed out of the World
Cup within a week of each other this summer, the streets first
resounded with criticism, calls for heads to roll and general
dejection, before going completely silent. It is unusual for someone to
walk on the streets and commute through buses and trains in the
subcontinent in the middle of a Cricket World Cup and not hear anyone
talking about the score or discussing the general state of cricketing
affairs.
Cynicism and a general
defeatist attitude come with a part of being a cricket follower in the
subcontinent. If you hear someone who used to be passionate about the
game look at the Indian team grabbing yet another defeat from the hands
of victory announce aloud that he is done with the game and the team
and is never going to bother with cricket again, you do not take him
seriously. A victory or two is enough to dismiss all the eternal vows
and promises. But there is a limit to which that can be pushed.
Politics, mis-administration, internal strife and in-fighting, lack of
anything to cheer about on the field and most of all, extreme media
overkill had meant that the marginal utility derived from the game was
rapidly slipping into negative. Cricket was disappearing off the
charts. The instant appeal of the Beautiful Game and the glamour and
lure of the European leagues meant that Football was rapidly seeping
into the mindspace of the youth (it still is and will continue to do
so, but that is another story.)But you cannot keep a man and his muse
away for too long. Improve the quality of the product, they say, and
your audience will come to you before you go looking for them. The
upswing began with the India-England series. Top quality cricket, a
comeback to form of Indian Cricket's divine pantheon- Dravid, Sachin
and Saurav -and it all ending perfectly with a landmark Test series win
set the platform.
The Twenty20 World Championship has been nothing short of a dream.
Almost everything that could have gone right, has gone right. Close
games, nail-biting finishes, fantastic quality of cricket, good
atmosphere (crowds, music and, of course, the dancing girls) and a
fantastic final can do magical things for the sport. Unfamiliar with
the format, the Indian subcontinent and Twenty20 were on a blind date,
testing the waters, feeling each other out.
The chemistry, it can now be said, looks like it is going to work
spectacularly. Cricket is back on the streets, text messages and phone
calls are once again being exchanged when the country’s cricket team
goes out to play. Monetary rewards, plots of land and other obscenely
magnanimous gifts are being conferred upon cricketers, and while still
laughing and cheering, the people are back to criticizing the largesse
and the adulation the cricketers are getting. A nation is celebrating;
it has rediscovered its love.
Once the smoke and the heady scent of victory clears, things will be
back to normal. People will find reasons to complain. The Twenty20
World Cup isn’t going to stop or solve the BCCI’s circus of
controversies. There is spark in the team, but it isn’t Australia yet,
and the next defeat won’t be far away. But this is not the time to
think about it. This is the time to sit back and watch in contentment
as cricket spills onto the subcontinent’s streets again.
After all, only an extreme pessimist spends his honeymoon worrying about the alimony he may have to eventually pay.