C for Cricket, C for Crisis, C for Catastrophe

Pakistan bowed out of cricket’s World Cup in utter shame yesterday with a shocking defeat to debutants Ireland. I pitied them because of their glorious cricketing history and the fact that I would have loved to see an India-Pakistan clash, but then I get the news about India (Yes, I didn’t stay up whole night watching the game). Certain words which cannot be expressed publicly came up to my mind when I heard about the defeat. How could India lose against a team that doesn’t even vindicate its Test status? How could the team fail, except of course Sourav Ganguly, against a side that is just making its third appearance at a World Cup?

The haunting factor here is that let’s hope we do not see a repeat of the “riots” that took place following India’s defeat to Australia in the 1st round last time out. Let us pray and hope the country stays calm and gives the team a chance, although they wouldn’t be much deserving of any sympathy should they follow Pakistan back to the sub-continent. Life comes to a standstill with such a morale killer, doesn’t it?

A look at the positives of a defeat (I know it’s a boring sporting cliché, but do you have a better phrase to put it in?) shows us that it can’t get any worse than this. I mean, let’s admit that we have hit rock bottom. Ganguly’s warrior-like willingness to build the innings after the unexpected opening breakdown is a major positive and the man’s determination, even at his age, is remarkable considering that a whole nation had virtually lost hope in him. Yuvraj’s resilience also made us feel like it was going our way.

A final note - Keep your fingers crossed; your prayers focussed. Control your rage. It’s not over yet. Peace.