Let me be frank. I don’t watch cricket. I haven’t seen a single match in years. I don’t follow scores and records. Heck, I don’t even know the names of all the players in the Indian cricket team!
Yes, it’s possible I am a rare specimen of the Indian janta. An anomaly. Who doesn’t show at least a slight interest in the biggest craze of this country? But well, this is who I am!
I don’t care if there’s a crucial match scheduled at the same time as a good movie on TV. I would rather watch that flick. It doesn’t matter to me that Sachin lost on his hundredth century in some match. (Correct me if I am wrong!) I would show the slightest attention to the fact that India is playing in our city that day. I may absent mindedly read in the newspapers about India winning or losing the latest match; then would turn over to the comics, forgetting all about it. I don’t even notice when the World Cup or IPL or what all there is comes and goes.
I have never sat myself down on my couch for a cricket match. I have never asked anybody about the match results or the next match; even though I am surrounded all around by huge fans of cricket. I have never read up the player stats or match analysis reports.
I don’t know the rules properly. I hadn’t known about the different styles of hitting the ball before the recent Pepsi advertisements. I don’t know the difference between spinners and the rest of the bowlers. I don’t understand the different signals used by umpires except the most popular ones of signaling a six or four or out.
I don’t get it when people get so excited before a match. I don’t understand how anybody can watch a whole match ball by ball from the start to the end. I find it utterly boring! I am totally clueless when people start discussing cricket. The language of cricket is Greek and Latin for me.
Well, when I say that I am not interested even in the matches between India and Pakistan, enough is said!
But what happened yesterday? Was yesterday’s match any different from any other World Cup match? Have we not played against Australia before too? And in previous World Cups too? Have I not remained unaffected by the excitement in the people around me during the previous matches?
Then why did I catch myself praying in my mind for India to win the match yesterday? What was the tension coursing in my body for? Why did I feel the electricity that was sparkling in the office yesterday give me a jolt as well? And why did I feel my heart skip every time I was reminded of the ongoing match while I sat at my desk pretending to be nonchalant?
Is it because we are so close to holding the much coveted Cup after a long time? Have I heard enough praise for Dhoni’s men to start believing in them myself?
Is it because of one legendary man and the nation’s expectations from him? Is it because deep inside I too feel that Sachin and India deserve a World Cup now? Is it because this is his last World Cup?
Has something of the country’s mania has leaked into me too? Am I hit so hard by the wave of cricket mania? Have I been bitten by the cricket bug as well? Am I also feeling the patriotic urge to support our team and wish it good luck?
Whatever it is, I am starting to feel the same as India prepares to play (beat? J) Pakistan in Mohali. This match might find one more non-follower unable to contain the excitement as Sachin opens the innings on Wednesday. Maybe after the World Cup, I will return to normal disinterested state. I may not know the dates of the next upcoming tournaments. But the World Cup 2011 has converted at least one person to the religion called cricket, albeit for a short time.
This time, as in the India – Australia match, I might again feel like whooping when I hear the crackers of celebration bursting after the match!
The fever is catching on… let the thrill begin!
-- Pune, 25th March 2011
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