Letter of the Day

India's triumph and so on...

I heard of the victory in a movie theater. In the middle of the movie, the management flashed a slide with these words, “India win the match”. I was struck by the fact that the note did not have to say which match. We all knew, and the crowd roared. How many other theatres in India witnessed the same scene, I wonder.

I moved back to India recently after having lived abroad for a long time. Predictably, the move was difficult in many ways, all of which can probably be described by one phrase, “culture shock”. Except for one childhood love – cricket. I had not followed cricket for 15 years, and somehow, unaccountably, fell all over in love with it again.

Cricket had become part of the sinew of the nation, in a way that it was not when I was growing up in Madras, in the 70’s and early 80’s. At that time, the game had seemed to be just another bastion of the urban Indian middle class. But now, I saw children from all strata of society playing just about every where – abandoned paddy fields in my native village outside Madras, high up in the mountains alongside the Mandakini on the route to Kedarnath, and amidst trash heaps in the slums of Hyderabad.

However, the truth did not really hit my gut till the other night in that movie theater. Now I know, in a place where the mind has no jurisdiction, just how important cricket is for people in India. This sort of worship is worthy of respect.

There are so many forces that are trying to tear this country apart, and thankfully, there are many forces keeping us together. Surely, cricket is one of the latter.

In the auto on the way home, I thought the only news that could be better than the victory, would be to hear that Tendulkar failed, and we managed to win despite that. And to my amazement this is how it happened. I saw the replay of the match the next day. Nothing worked. The bowling was bad and so was the fielding. Most of the top order collapsed. Finally the two kids stood together and won the game for us. And they played well. Watching them confirmed for me several lessons about the one –day game, lessons that these players seem to know. You have to keep the score board moving by running well between the wickets, and you have to make sure that you have wickets in hand at the death. Anything is possible then. I think this is what Harsha Bogle called the modern, 21st century game. He said these two youngsters seemed to understand the modern game, and that they were 21st century players. There were just 3 or 4 overs after the 35th over when Yuvraj cut loose, and suddenly we were close to a run a ball. Until then it was just safe, sensible, unspectacular, and absolutely effective batsmanship.

My favorite moments of the match are Yuvraj Singh’s reactions to getting out. God, how young he is. You have to be young to let so much of your emotions show. It was obvious that he believed we could win; that he wanted to win very badly, and that he believed he had to be there to finish the game. This ambition and commitment, not to mention the skill that these kids seem to possess in abundance, bodes only well for the future. I think he was also correct in castigating himself. After he left, we had only two people batting for us - Kaif and Lady Luck. Harbajhan’s heart is in the right place but he cannot play the “singles” game to save his life. He does not have the technique for it. It was only a matter of time before one his wild swings got him in trouble. But thanks to the stars and Kaif’s nerveless batting, they added close to 50 runs.

I watched Ganguly’s interview on Star News this morning. Let me say at the outset that I am not a big fan of Ganguly. I suspect he leads more with his heart than his head. While this seems to have infused a streak of aggression and self-belief into the Indian team, many of his tactical decisions leave a lot to be desired. I always thought that he comes off badly in his interactions with the press. He never seems to say anything that is considered, honest and intelligent. Compare that with how Hussain or Steve Waugh speak. They are always forthright and to the point, and whatever they say makes eminent sense. You hear them and you think, yea, this guy knows what he is doing. But I was pleasantly surprised by today’s interview. Ganguly refused to participate in the hype. He said all the right things, things that are verifiably true, and that would be good for the team to hear - this is a good win, but this in no way predicts our chances in the World Cup. That is six months away. It all depends on how we play in those two weeks at the World Cup. We might play well for the next six months and fail at the World Cup. We might be our usual, mostly mediocre selves for the next six months, and play well at the World Cup. Besides, his uninhibited display of emotion after the game, had to be genuine, and deserves ungrudging respect.

At the other end of the geographical and emotional world, in Kashmir, 27 people were killed as they huddled around a radio listening to the match. Do you suppose that if you die listening to cricket commentary, you go straight to heaven? I am not a religious man, but I find myself hoping that is true.

Chalakanth Reddy