World Cup Final 2011 Highlights

Originally published on: 03/04/2011

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!

Even *I* am excited. In my head, I’m still doing cartwheels all over the place! I may usually shun anything cricket related, but hey, WE WON!!!!!!!!

The game was exciting to the very end, and it had some brilliant moments, even if you leave out the great performances by many of the cricketers. Here are some of my personal favourites:

The neat sixer by Dhoni that won us the World Cup!

Bhajji crying and wiping his tears with the national flag. Couldn’t help going “aww!” Mom and I were just hoping he doesn’t get into trouble for that.

By the way, I was looking for pictures of this and got many results back from the time he slapped Sreesanth and made him cry, and though I felt sorry for the kid at that point, he looked so funny crying! (I’m sadistic like that) Here are a couple of photos:

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Sangakkara’s speech – He looked so sad I felt really sorry for him, but such a beautiful, gracious speech, and such a lovely accent! I still haven’t found a link but as soon as I find one, it’s going up here.

Sehwag’s spot interview – I hardly know what he’s saying…

Dhoni’s speech (This is so classic, it actually deserves a separate post dedicated solely to it and nothing else, but it also has the Indian team with the Cup, so here)

“Jokes apart” – Wait, what were you joking about??

“Well in India that will be rude you know” – Haha, okay

“Hard luck Gautam, but I think he’s the one to blame” – Er… what?

Well, “jokes apart”, it’s nice that he’s so self-confident. And why wouldn’t he be? He helped us win the World Cup, and (at least for now) we all love him.

Update: I found Sangakkara’s speech!

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.