No matter what you just cant get enough of this game. My affection with the cricket spirit first started when I saw the movie Lagaan. Well obviously it was because of Aamir Khan that I went for the movie in the first place and not the game. I never really knew much about the game before that movie although I do have some distant memories of me sitting in my Granny's house as she watched a bunch of men dressed in white with some white goop smeared across their faces running around on a green ground and thousands of freaks surrounding them and screaming their guts out. Yeah you could guess that I was pretty confused back then. Well coming back to the period when I actually began to understand the madness I would say that this is a game of extremities. One second you are jamming the streets of Mumbai all the way from the airport to Wankhede stadium just to get a glimpse of the T20 champions and the next second you are burning effigies on the streets of these beloved cricket stars.
I remember the day of the Australia v/s India semi finals in the Twenty-twenty world cup. Everyone I spoke to that day was like "Oh its Australia man. Like that's impossible dude. Maybe if it were another team you know then we could have gone to the finals and played against Pakistan. Yeah that would have been cool. Like totally." After hearing so much of demotivating crap I sat to watch the match and my Mum was in the background saying "Arre you are really wasting your time. Go study for Bcom. That will make your life more meaningful." I told her off for bugging me which did upset her a little but nevertheless I saw her occasionally catching a few glimpses of the action.
Well destiny was in our favor and before anybody could digest what was happening we had won the world cup. Woohoo. And the Indian crickters became the glorified Gods once again. Companies were dying to woo these charming youngsters to promote their products. Page 3 was buzzing with news of alleged link-ups. I read this column inviting comments from celebs on Dhoni's bare actions post the victory in Johannesburg. Many women and even some men were like "Oo Mahi should really work on his abs". Give the guy a break. I thought that it was a very spur-of-the-moment thing and it really creates a sweet memory. He's a cricketer and not a plastic idol.
Well, enough of me drooling over shirtless Dhoni. Coming back to the sport.... The world cup momentum was just subsiding when the India-Australia series began. We even got our older and experienced players on to the field and India felt more confident then ever. Mahi made a comment after winning the World Cup which I just remembered, (for those of you who are confused as to the lack of connectivity in this blog, I wrote it so boohoo) "This victory was repair work for the dismal exit of India from the World cup in West Indies." Repair work yes but not for long. The Aussies showed their aggressive side once again and beat us at most of the matches that were played. During this drama my boss who rarely talks about anything else but work couldn't help himself. He said "Only India is capable of winning back-to-back and then losing back-to-back."
The Indian fans were disappointed and the blame game started once again. Fearing contempt the Indian team had no option but to charge up all their energy and beat the Aussies at two matches. This made the already enthusiastic fans more enthusiastic and instances of racism and brash talk against the Aussies started. If any of you think that I'm siding the Australians that's not true. I'm just writing whatever I can remember from all the commotion that happened. The icing on the cake for the Indians was the T20 win which proved that the Indian cricket team was simply unbeatable in the 20 over format.
All's well that ends well. Dhoni's love life blossomed in the finale, Gambhir got a car, Sreesanth is going down South and as for me (not that anyone's asking) I'm just waiting for the India-Pakistan series to begin(God bless the Future Group) so that I can write more crap for you.
I will end this with what our Vice-Captain Yuvraj Singh (unfortunately not the captain according to his father) said in a recent interview "We cannot get overconfident after this series. Because if you look back at it, when India won it was always a close call between the two but whenever Australia won, it was a distant goal to be achieved"
So what if I modified some of his words. The thoughts are the same. Remember what Yuvi (the six sixes hitter and one crore getter) said!!
