Bleeding Blue?

Originally published on: 30/03/2011

Every time there’s a cricket match scheduled for the near future, people all around me start going crazy, and I’ve always wondered, What is it about cricket that creates this nation-wide hysteria? Personally, I’ve always thought of it as the most boring game ever invented, with the exception of golf.

I doubt World Cup football would have as many viewers as the cricket World Cup does throughout the country, even if there was an Indian football team playing at that level. It’s astounding, and at times pretty scary, when you realize how far some people are willing to go to make sure they get to watch a match, especially if it involves India and the World Cup. And if it’s a match between India and Pakistan, you’ll hardly hear people discussing any other topic.

Go out on a day when there’s a match in the city, and travelling on the road outside the cricket stadium is hell, unless you go that way while the match is going on, in which case you have a nice smooth ride with absolutely no traffic. It’s the most common thing in the world to see crowds of people outside appliance stores, watching cricket on the television sets up for display. People who can’t avoid travelling make sure they get home (or some place with a screen) before the match begins. Domestic servants forget about time constraints and other houses they work in to squat down in front of the television, stare open-mouthed at the proceedings on the field and cheer for the Men in Blue.

I still puzzle over why cricketers are considered heroes in this country, or why most people aren’t nearly as excited about more focused games like tennis or football. Hockey may officially be the national game, but it is sadly pushed to a corner while cricket hogs the spotlight as the most beloved sport.

All that being said, I can’t help but give cricket the credit it deserves for being the strongest binding factor for Indians, cutting across all boundaries and uniting billions of people from all nooks and crannies across the nation. I’ll never understand what magic the sport has that possesses people put their lives on hold for several hours, and I don’t think I ever will, but in the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter at all, because there are some things you just can’t explain.

So I ask myself, am I bleeding blue like millions of excited Indians? Well, somewhere deep down in my heart, beyond my attitude of general condescension towards the sport, I am.