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<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Does India Winning add lustre to India Shining? Much as politicians would like to include cricket in their electoral arsenal, can the game swing votes in their favour? A <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sunday Times</span> pitch report.<br /><br />Cricket is cult. It is India''s hippest entertainer. For millions of people, it is a hope hormone.As a tactic, it is the finest exhibition of mental prowess. A passion, it keeps on drawing the uninitiated and the faithless into its fold.<br /><br />At the totem pole of cricket, even politics genuflects. Such, then, is the game that has dwarfed politics on election eve. Overwhelmed by cricket''s exploits — from Virender Sehwag''s brute knocks to Umar Gul''s swinging beauties — India seems to have blissfully forgotten that Elections 2004 are afoot. Just one question haunts India: Who''s going to win the Pindi decider? <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Ticket to the future</span><br /><br />Nobody can deny that cricket has given politics a ticket to the future. But it is a bigger and bolder future. In the fall of 1970, Henry Kissinger unfurled his Ping Pong diplomacy to befriend China and transform Asia forever. In the summer of 2004, cricket showed politics a new way of building bridges: Doosra Diplomacy, or the art of mending fences differently. If anything, cricket has made us believe that our past cannot always influence our future.<br /><br />Pictures can be telling. Is there anything more moving than Inzy''s and Kumble''s kiss-and-make-up act on Day Two of the Lahore Test? It was as natural as a Viru shot. Nothing would have expressed India-Pakistan bonhomie better. Not even suave politics!<br /><br />But that''s the big picture. The broad brush of cricket is felt on the small picture too: national politics. With cricket becoming the role model for young India, politics is forced to play ball. Campaigns start with cricket allusions. When L K Advani breaks his speeches with match updates, he''s targeting a new India. When Venkaiah Naidu refers to S M Krishna as Inzy, he''s speaking in a national vernacular: cricket. It touches people''s hearts; it inspires voters; it clearly delineates the contest. In fact, the cross-fertilisation of cricket with politics rejuvenates politics. It provides the contest a veneer of youth and a dose of energy. It gives a smile and a shine to politics.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Sachin and sentiment</span><br /><br />Cricket is a mood. It always imbues people with feel-good. Such is its therapeutic effect that a Sachin ton has a bigger impact on national sentiment than a Sensex gain of 100. Just as Don Bradman motivated a Depression-wrecked Australia, Gavaskar and Sachin have inspired India in its darkest moments. But if you think that politics is appropriating cricket, drop the thought. By identifying itself with the nation''s mood at the right time, politics is getting subsumed by cricket. It is finding its very own feel-good in cricket. While US politics seeks to win on the battlefields of Iraq, Indian politics is gaining a foothold on the cricket fields of Pakistan. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">The feel-Gul factor</span><br /><br />In cricket, politics senses a new India. Once the preserve of the Bombay Club, cricket has now become pan-Indian. We see in Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh a cricket that has unshackled itself from the past. It is not driven by a desire to achieve but by a passion to compete. Viru and Yuvi embody the aspirations of teenage India through their instant-karma cricket. It''s a hip-hop cricket that you would rather watch on MTV. It''s not exactly cricket. It''s fun. It''s highly infectious. <br /><br />Advertisers have caught the bug. Now, politics is sneezing too. Little wonder, then, that India is betting on cricket to decide its future. And, in the forthcoming electoral battle, cricket could well elect the winners. But will it? Surely, India is not naive enough to cast its vote based on a cricket victory at Pindi. It is politics-savvy, not just cricket-crazy. It is mature enough to be swayed by good governance and growth. After all, it''s the economy, stupid.<br /><br />But even as India prepares to vote, it is happily applauding a worthy rival: Umar Gul, who single-handedly scuppered India at Lahore. The 19-year-old medium pacer decided India''s fate in 12 overs, an accomplishment that has endeared him to India''s cricket worshippers. It is a feel-good feeling that cuts across boundaries. It''s a taste of oneness and a whiff of the future. It''s a feeling that cricket and politics have endeavoured to create. India will surely vote for it. For, it''s the feel-Gul factor, stupid.</div> </div>