Win or lose, cricket is us

Life, in the end, is a few stories we remember and want to tell. In the past six weeks, many cricket-lovers of India relished a story like few before. It was a bold and beautiful story of a cricket team. It was filled with magic and unfolded like a dream. That the dream ended last night in Ahmedabad doesn’t take away those moments. So, yes, congratulations Australia. You played like champions and peaked when it mattered most. And thank you, Rohit Sharma and your team, Rahul Dravid and your associates, for the moments and memories you gifted to us. Cricket is the outdoor cinema of our everyday lives. Like a blockbuster in single-screen times, it keeps running week after week, month after month. But in recent years, many purists of a certain hue and vintage had abandoned the game like one discards a friend who’s shifted ideology. In the past six weeks, though, even the deserters, the scoffers, those who barely glance at TV screens during a game, were wowed and wooed back by the Men in Blue. New viewership records were made on TV and digital media. It wasn’t just the chain of wins, but also the way they came about. India had lifted World Cup trophies in the past. But it wasn’t used to dominating tournaments, like the Aussies did in 2003 and 2007. It wasn’t showered with adjectives such as “unstoppable” or “flawless”. It wasn’t used to players and pundits admitting that India is the best team of the championship until Sunday night happened. Rohit and company took the fans to a fresh emotional terrain, made them taste a new emotion: the emotion of pride laced with happiness that comes when you see a world-class Made in India product. medium105336541India ranks a lowly 126 out of 150 countries in the 2023 Global Happiness Index, calculated on six wide-ranging parameters: GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption. But Team India’s triumphs gave moments of collective happiness to millions that those wide-ranging parameters cannot capture. The delight was magnified by serendipity. The Asia Cup triumph in September notwithstanding, Men in Blue looked far from having checked all boxes when the World Cup began last month. Players were coming back from injuries. Many fans weren’t sure how their fitness would hold and whether they would be able to perform to the desired degree. Others had either floundered or were unproven in high pressure knock-out encounters. But with every passing game, Team India became like a giant jigsaw puzzle slowly falling into place. Chance too played its part. Who knows when or whether one would have witnessed Mohammed Shami’s record-breaking run but for all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s ankle injury that forced a reshuffle in the pack. The team, a work in progress since Virat Kohli assumed white-ball captaincy in 2017, found its tune because captain Rohit decided to be the lynchpin in India’s Plan A. Eschewing the lure of centuries, the front-page photo of the raised bat, he boldly took the risks to dictate the terms of engagement. In a country where both batters and fans are obsessed with centuries, that was a remarkable call. Strike rates don’t fetch you headlines, but they put the opposition on the backfoot, making life easier for your colleagues. Rohit will be remembered as a captain who put the team before himself. His style should make a great case study of leadership. Just as the contrasting lives and careers of Kohli and Shami offer lessons in how to constantly raise your game and be the best version of yourself. The World Cup proved that ODI hasn’t been ‘timed-out’ yet. Early fears of low spectator turnout proved unfounded. Even non-India games in several venues saw decent attendance. Few matches were last-over thrillers. But in many games, fortunes seesawed, infusing fans with a gamut of shifting emotions. medium105337476But despite the tournament’s success, the dice remains loaded against the 50-over format. It will be T20, not ODI, when cricket returns to the Olympics in 2028. But World Cup 2023 has demonstrated that ODI still belongs and deserves space. A T20 series between India and Australia, the two finalists, begins four days after the World Cup. When India won in 2011, the IPL began seven days later. This absurdity shouldn’t be normalised. The cricketers need a break. So do Brand India and fans. Indian cricket is on a treadmill. No goose, however golden, can live or thrive, if flogged so much. Undeniably though, the Men in Blue, even if they stumbled in the final test, were pure gold for the rest of the World Cup. When they played well, to paraphrase Browning, everything felt “right with the world”. Tailpiece: The radio cab had agreed to the ride but wasn’t moving. He called the driver. “Can you please wait for a couple of minutes, sir”, the cabbie said, “just three more balls before the innings gets over.” It wasn’t even an India game. But, as an Indian, the passenger understood. “It’s okay. Take your time,” he said. Win or lose, Cricket is Us.