World Cup 2011: My India-Pak World Cup Story

For the story to make sense, I need to rewind to 1999. The wonderful politicos had announced that the match would be screened at the beach on a large screen. I had no plans to watch there. It was 2:30-ish PM. Folks at home settled around the TV. But alas, we lost power within 10 overs, thanks largely to the beach screening. So we had no choice but to listen to radio commentary on a battery powered walkman with speakers. (Yes, in ’99, they were still cool). In what was an unusually long power cut on our area, the power returned only after 10:30 PM.

Interestingly enough, something similar happened yesturday. There was no power cut, but there was a TV issue at home. Got to see parts of India batting. After the 5th wicket fell, the TV issue got very bad and had to switch off.

So yet again, for an Ind-Pak World Cup match, I had nothing but radio commentary; got a chance to refresh some of my “book” Hindi. But thank god for “Akaash Vaani”, I could still follow the game. Also found out that there was a 15-20 second delay between radio commentary and Star Cricket feed, for there was a short delay between my celebrating a Pak wicket and my neighbors loud cheering. So much for that! The annoying little part about the Akaash Vaani commentary was the premature declaration of India’s victory – at the fall of Afridi’s wicket – and interview with Rathnakar Shetty on the successfully “completed” World Cup.

This gave me a chance to appreciate the power of visual information. You see so much visually, and no amount of high pitched, emotionally charged audio can replace one snap shot. A picture is truly worth a thousand words!

After all the firecrackers, it started to settle that after 2003, India have made it to another World Cup final. Heart also went to Afridi and Pakistan’s heart broken fans. But somebody had to lose this. Only wish the match was a closer one!

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Why India lost to Pakistan? – ICC Champions Trophy 2009

The freakish record we held against Pakistan is gone now and I can’t say it doesn’t hurt. Granted, Pakistan weren’t the strongest team of the 8 that play the Champions Trophy. But there have been other times lately when they weren’t as strong, but we weren’t this disrespectful either.

India went about this pompously. We didn’t respect Pakistan as a worthy opponent on the cricket field. We expected to throw some stuff at them and for them to fall prey to it. They don’t have batting solidity; their bowlers don’t have the experience; Afridi is a freak; Yousuf is selfish; Asif may not play. All this we said; maybe for a second, even if we forgive such arrogance, we cannot pardon the disrespect for the history that has been India-Pakistan cricket. India didn’t see this a match they must win, didn’t see it as stepping stone to the semi final, didn’t even see it as a clash worth its popcorn money. They saw it as just some cricket match. If we lose this, we need to win the other two.  That’s all it was.

If India lose to Australia and the West Indies and don’t make it to the semis, I won’t feel as let down as I felt after this loss. India-Pakistan was special, and it doesn’t seem to be anymore. That is a loss that’s hard to explain but will leave most Indian cricket fans with a dull headache that ceases to throb.

Pakistan lift Kitply cup

After storming bad weather amid a barrage of criticism, Pakistan managed to beat India and lift the Kitply Cup. As an India supporter, I’m not too upset, in fact, I’m OK with it. Some sloppiness aside, it was an evenly matched contest that we got to see in the final. Although I didn’t watch the entire match and cannot comment on most of Pakistan’s batting and Indian new-found middle order, I must say that Pakistan did well to win. Maybe it had to do with the PCB Board members’ presence. 🙂 Having said that, they seemed to lack self-belief. Until the fall of the 8th Indian wicket, they didn’t really believe that they had the match.

As for India, I got to see what I wanted to – the consequence of an Indian top order failure. As Pak broke thru the Delhi-Daredevils’ opening pair of Gambhir and Sehwag, the Indian batting seemed only a bit better than that of Delhi Daredevils. I mean, you don’t expect Yuvraj to hang around and play a long innings – he seems to have become more of a T20 batsman in ODI clothes with the temperment not helping one bit. Dhoni coming down low in the order didn’t help, neither did Irfan Pathan’s struggling angled-bat shots. Being beaten several times, Irfan seems to have lost it. I remember the days when he used to open the batting with Tendulkar, and then open the bowling. What has happened to that batsmen?

Meanwhile, too much cricket has indeed been played over the past couple of months. That is perhaps to blame for some of the loss of intensity. But then again, it’s only just another one of the zillions of cups. Do you also feel this way? Is this just another cup? Does this loss of India mean anything to you? If it doesn’t is that because there have been too many ODI tournaments or that India’s recent success has made us more tolerant as fans?

As for me, I’m looking forward to the upcoming India-Sri Lanka Test series.