World Cup Se World cup Tak.

Sounds so much like the guarantee that electronic companies offer for their products.
It does not have to do much apart from the fact that we brought home a Thomson TV sometime just before the 2003 world cup. The vendor had said the guarantee applies until 2007 World cup and believe me you; we got to take their word for consistency. Just in time before the world cup 2007, well beyond the guarantee period of 4 years our TV had its fall which never had a problem otherwise. Leads me to believe more and more in Murphy the great.

Talking about World cup, well I rather feel that I should stop talking about it. But anyways I have this small incident of ours that I would so like to narrate to you guys.

We were in our 5th SEM BCA, amidst living life as seniors for the last time in Degree. We were a bunch of enthusiastic, uninitiated classmates who liked taking part in all the extra curricular events and sports, being the most favorite of it all.
We were also the champs in cricket from the previous year after having defeated our seniors in the college tourney. So on paper we were like the great Indian team, expected to win the tourney in our final year.

The event began with us enjoying a distinct advantage of having a direct entry into the second round on virtue of being the champs the previous year. We had our warm up match against first Year B.Com students which we won totally hands down and thus stepped into the dreadful phase of complacency.
Come the big day when we actually had to take them on, we were confident maybe a little over confident. We fielded first and got them all out for less than a hundred in 12 or something overs. We were happy to chase the score and took on the field, but little did we know that it wasn’t to be our day. Wickets kept tumbling one after another and within no time we were 5 or 6 down and then I walked in with a still to be fit right hand after a wrist stress fracture.

First ball: “Sanju to face Vineet bowling from the Nandini milk parlor end. A well pitched ball on off-stump and safely defended.”

Second ball: “Sanju inspects the fielding all round and gets ready to face. Here comes Vineet and again a good length ball this time, which is glided towards point. Sanju calls for a run, refused by the partner well in advance and no damage done.”

Third ball: “Sanju is thinking if he will be able to get the remaining 20 odd runs, and thinks of the future, the celebrations, etc. Bowler is ready on his run up and starts again. This time the ball is on leg stump and Sanju decides to go for his favorite shot the ‘paddle sweep’ which had got him so many runs in the previous year, but he forgets that it’s the hands that help coordinate the line of the ball and not legs alone. In attempt to place the ball, exposes his leg stump and misses the line of the ball completely.

Guess what… Booooowleddddddddd!!! Yeah no heroics just clean bowled.
We always think that there is someone who is there to complete the job left unfinished, I am no different. But that day nothing had to go our way and we lost the match by some 15 runs. All lost since the tourney was a knock out match, there was just no looking back.

The news makes it to the sports notice board 3rd Yr BCA lost to 1st Yr B.Com through the official neutral umpires.

How well I understand what the Indian team might be going through now? Losing to Bangladesh and getting kicked out of the world cup.

We however did not have so much at stake though. Sitting at the corner end of the ground trying to digest that we had infact lost the match. Cigarettes lit one after another hoping it would help us digest the defeat. But we were coming to terms with the fact that some defeats are hard to digest. With our minds ceasing to work at the moment, in came our peers from other streams who tried to get behind us, in time of our sorrow.

“Bad luck boys, it happens” said one.
“Guys, you were champs previous year. So you’ve had it all. Never mind” said another.

But the seniors wala fire in us was kindled by this statement an other person made.

“Guys, how can you take it down like this just smoking it off? After all you guys are the seniors. You should give it back to them.”

Suggestions started pouring in as to what kind of seniority approach we follow.
After quick brainstorming, we decided that since it was declared a holiday that day unexpectedly, we claim that the match was a warm up game. We took or rather thought we took the umpires, two second year guys into confidence of farcing the whole match. Have a look at this letter that we wrote to our HOD, seeking his help.

Following days turned from good to worse and we were on the verge of getting suspended from all other games, but for the intervention of our HOD. Our fight for a wrong cause was to never bear any success and we got used to the fact of the upset that hit us.

The fact remains, the in India and especially in cricket there is a certain kind of ego that leads to the obsession of the game. Otherwise which single country can boast of a billion fan-following to any sport?

If only this could change to a billion people just following cricket as a sport and not as a religion. Then it would be so easy to move on with it.

So many If and thens, unfortunately works well with a software program and not with a national team who have failed to live up to their country’s expectations.

~Sanj