TEAM INDIA – The Enigma

I am one of those millions who ruined a good night’s sleep in anticipation of a good match, a contest closely fought and ultimately a win for India. Alas!!! None of my wishes were fulfilled. Never have I seen such a spineless show by the men in blue. Ummmmmmm on second thoughts I have. In fact I have seen it a few times too many for my liking. Which brings me to what I am trying to answer thru this blog.

No, it is not abt y India lost the match or who played badly or who is at fault or what should be done next. In fact it is not abt cricket at all. It is abt me and my relationship with Indian cricket.

The two most enigmatic teams in the world today are India and Pakistan. For two entirely different reasons. Pakistan because it is the most unpredictable bunch of cricketers ever to have walked the earth. Brilliant one day terrible the next. But amazing and fun to watch.

India because of me. Because I fail to understand myself. Why is it that I am disappointed every time they play to their abilities…….and hence lose( I think I am being too cynical here but what the heck we r out of the world cup. A little bit of cynicism never hurt anybody). And more importantly why do I always hope that the next time around they will put up a better show. I really do believe in the saying “never repeat the same mistake twice”. But still when it comes to cricket I start watching every match with the hope of seeing our team win. Guess it is natural to feel so but after soooooo many failures I still hope of their winning the next match(god alone knows when that will be now)

I guess one possible reason is that being very interested in sports both as a player and a spectator, I really want to see India do well in sports. And given the condition in other fields I believe and everyone wud agree that our best chance of doing well in international sport still lies in cricket. And so every time the Indian team steps on the field I find myself cheering for India and hoping for a win. Coz it is a lil more than a lil embarrassing to see a country of countless millions being beaten time and again by countries with only a few hundreds of ppl.

Coming back to cricket……and my relationship with it…….i want to do something to lessen the effect that it has on me. Coz it does have a lot. I find myself happy after a win and sad after a defeat so much so that it mars all desire to do anything else but sit and brood as if I have flunked some exam. At least I am better than other ppl who go around burning those poor players’ homes. Coz I do agree with most ppl when they say that however bad they play, burning homes is not a punishment for incompetence. There is a very distinct difference between incompetence and breach of trust.

Anyways incompetent or not is not the point of this post. And I still haven’t found answers to my questions. One good thing I have decided to do this time around is to not read any sports pages or news channels for a few days. No more angry fans or technical stuff abt what they did wrong or where their left shoulder didn’t align with third man and so on. I know all of that and they know all of that and it is not going to make an iota of difference to anyone. So spare me all those after effects and let me get on with life as if it was just another game. After all it is just another game. Only problem it is much more than just a game. And I am constantly striving and hoping that it becomes just another game for me and for the rest of India and the world. And when that happens it might be surprising how team India suddenly starts performing better. Just wishing of course. Bye

Siddharth