My Two Cents on Indian Cricket World Cup Campaign

I looked over the last one and half months at two interesting things going around which captivated me and got me hooked to my mobile phone. This has been years in the making and finally got to this point of fruition. I should have written and posted a month ago but due to something beyond my control, I couldn’t update this space for as much a time. I am done waiting and I would like to relieve myself by speaking out. If you think what those two are, it is Cricket world cup in India and the Telengana state elections(which I would cover in next post) - both of which are highly interesting events for me coming out in the last month. It is generally hard work that generates interest, and a lot of hard work went into the making of these two, which gives something to look up to other than the work. These are also spaces which occupy my thoughts, push me to take sides and root fanatically for the victory. With so much at stake as a viewer, I developed a habit of looking at my mobile phone with as much interest as in the game of cricket or elections. I was left after the last 40-50 days nurturing and immersed in this ‘good’ habit on most occasions including weekends. It might not be bad either. I used to explore places in U.S. on these off days but these days I am exploring India from my mobile phone. Something might be out of place or in the right space. 

Coming to the first one, the cricket world cup takes place once in 4 years with the most recent edition just concluded on November 19th but importantly in India. I waited for 12 years to reclaim the cup after 2011 victory in home soil but unfortunately it never happened in 2023 including the last two times as well in 2015, 2019. We need not complain much as the last two took place in other nations but winning the cup on home soil in 2023 in the sport with the largest home fan base in world rooting for India must be the goal for my contemporary generation of players. A generational opportunity to win the cup has been lost as India went down to Australia in the final. Ever since I was aware of entertaining myself by watching live cricket on TV from a young age, the interest grew on me and took me deeply connected to the sport. It might be because of some great individuals playing the sport which tends to attract crores of people into its viewership. When there is a potential to attract an audience of tens of crores of fans, the expectations will be sky high which might require as much efforts from the playing eleven. Simply put, in world cups and in events like these, you don’t simply play the ball on its merit, but you need to play it for the gallery and for the people. The delta in these approaches towards playing the game decides the delta in winning the cup for a hundred crore versus coming second best, more so for an Indian cricket team.  

It happened in 2007 and 2011 when the team won a couple of world cups in two different formats and the long wait didn’t bear any fruit. Out of frustration, I had written a post on cricket in 2007 after the team lost the 50 over world cup in group stages in the very year. Something turned around and the team won the 20-20 world cup in the same year, followed by the traditional world cup four years later. This is the same frustration after 16 years since the team failed to win anything in the last 12 years. Part of the reason more than India failing to win the cup is it was lost to a cricket team which I most despise. There are reasons for it which everyone knows, and I will also put mine here in a bit. Hopefully, the tide turns around for India and put it on a cup-winning spree for the nation which enthralls in just one sport. More than a game it has a potential to make crores think good about being an Indian and make a winning cry rather than sit in disbelief and disappointment year after year.  

It might be years in the preparation and some hard work but not which is required that might have gone into the making of the home world cup for the Indian cricket team. The team has won a record 10 straight games till the semi-final in every city it has played and uplifting the thousands of direct audiences who egged on for a victory. I imagine a bit more about cricket and more particularly Indian cricket which can be rightly so. A lot of good work in the country has been symbolized by producing great players and cricket ebbs and flows in tune with the story of the nation. Players like Sachin were looked upon like gods of the game at their pinnacle. Players like these and the rare breeds with highest stardom written all over them, representing the best a region or a state has to offer are catapulted into playing cricket in India. It is these stars which run the game for the nation, its board and countless populace drawn into their hold like a magnet. Then there are true slogans – In India, cricket isn’t just a sport, it’s a religion and Sachin is the God of the cricket. It is not for nothing. I remember, most of the households which had televisions in the 90’s got pulled into the live games like no other. Most had a reason to gather for these games and every idle adult got entertained, enriched and elevated by watching these games. If a sport has the power to affect people's behavior and time so easily for hours and for the better, then it is no longer a sport, it is a cult religion. 

  

Coming back to this edition of world cup, the final became the anticlimax for an otherwise terrific run by the Indian team. The team peaked in semi-final where a monumental display, a surreal record-breaking century by Kohli to surpass Sachin for the most number of ODI centuries in Mumbai and in front of the master himself lifted Mumbai along with its fans and innumerable celebrities who descended to watch the game. The ingredients are all there for more than a perfect semi-final win but unfortunately it isn’t the same in final where the unbridled run from the team couldn’t weave magic yet again for a perfect 11. Of course, Indian cricketers cast a magic spell in 10 matches like no other team in the tournament and one heroic effort from a star yet another time has failed to arrive. 

  

More than just a game, in a way, it can be said these pitches, stadiums, cities and everything part of the whole played a part in succeeding the team, since whatever the team touched turned into gold till semi-final. Observing from outside and nothing to take away from the player brilliance, it felt like the Indian engines are blazing all cylinders giving a good momentum to the team, which has it winning all the matches comfortably. As said, cricket is just more than a game in India where winning brings a lot of deductions and losing brings as many deductions as well. 

 

The entire machinery was putting all the links together for a win by phasing out all other disturbances as our team went on a positive footing with attacking game plan from match 1. Aspiring to win every match including final is a good positive approach as teams like Australia did in 2003, 07 and West Indies in 1975, 79 where they clean swept the world cup. The same could be the case with Indian team in 2023 where we clearly dominated every other team and most certain to lift the trophy marching into the final. But one culprit team snatched the victory, silencing a billion and bringing a bitter end to an otherwise terrific campaign. Funny, but the pain comes when this Australian team does this giant killing time and again and again adding insult to injury.  

Let me share some history here. We purchased a small television few years back and watched 2003 world cup live when I was in 10th class. India went all the way to final where it clashed with Australia. I was very tensed just like the Indian players. Taking advantage, the Australian batsmen, in particular Ricky Ponting, dissected and made a mockery of Indian bowling by hitting them nonchalantly to pile up a huge score. That dominance is my nightmare to date, and I feel that Ponting innings has hit and hurt every Indian fan watching live. The Indian batters in turn has no reply to the mighty Australian bowling who toyed with ease and claimed an easy victory. I was hurt 20 years back and continuing all the way into 2023 without any gap, respite and change. In the same time, these Australians won the ODI world cup 4 times including in 2007 when Ponting became modern day great by lifting two successive world cups. I simply ask one thing, when you get hurt one time, did you retaliate and settle the score or yield meekly time and again. For me, Indians have accepted to take the defeat without correcting course. How come the Aussie won the test championship final in 2023 by defeating India and India without learning from mistake got defeated again in ODI world cup few months later. Both are world cups in different formats and India, having won every other match have been outsmarted and rolled over by a better team and captain without any fight.  

 

There is no justice in world cricket as the common balance tilts heavily in favor of Australia and the stars, gods of India still don’t pose any challenge to the mighty, alien, out-of-earth Australian team. Certainly, gods of people on earth are getting defeated by aliens from outer space. The balance isn’t in the center or there isn’t a level playing field for any other reason you cannot remain unmistakenly unassailable most of the time, seemingly win at will, lose at will, dominating at will and producing winning captains on world stage one after the other and other. Nothing to take away from the giants of the game, what worked for the Aussies who play the sport for just a few summer months in their country in a casual way, while playing a game as a game and nothing more to herald a hegemony from Bradman many decades ago to their equivalents in this day and age should be a case study and part of the coaching manual for every aspiring Indian cricketer. Unless you compete with the competition on the world stage and reach the top, there is no reason to get over content and appease the hunger by winning small matches, beating our own drums, playing our own music and shouting our lungs out at nothing. The benchmark is there, and the achievements are there and there is nothing preventing us from growing to reach there other than overcoming our own selves in between. A major cricketing nation cannot make much noise, flex its huge monetary muscles without working silently and producing results on the field when it matters the most. 

 

Ultimately, as can be seen from 2007,2011, the gap to fill and win a cup is miniscule and playing in convenience occasionally by taking nice breaks doesn’t overcome that delta. You need good player managers, hard taskmasters and rigorous work ethic, not just in cricket but in any field to meet the collective objectives and not the lower individual goals. That view at the larger picture and tenacity to stay aligned to it should make a difference to the backdrop of Indianness of the Indian cricket in playing to the gallery and winning cups, even if not trying to follow alien Aussie footsteps in Aussie context.