March 02, 2003
 

Politics and Cricket

So we managed to win that 'it is just another World Cup game' game yesterday. Funny how the same chaps come out at the post-match celebrations/ceremonies/press meets and say 'It was a big game and we needed to win it'. It is also very strange to see the Prime Minister and a few other prominent parliamentarians offer their congratulations to the Indian team after the victory v/s Pakistan. Surely if, as they put it all the time, sports and politics should not mix, why didn't they congratulate the team after the win v/s England? Why didn't they offer their consolations after the Aussie thrashing? That said, at least the win will shut up those like Aamer Sohail, Wasim Akram or Pervez Musharraf who claimed that the reason India backed out of playing cricket against Pakistan was because they were scared of losing.

The scary bit is about how a lot of people (and some in the media too) are losing their perspective by saying that with this thrashing of Pakistan, India has already won its own World Cup. Cast your mind back to 9 March 1996, after Akram, Sidhu, Waqar, Jadeja, Sohail & Prasad (in that order) had helped India win against Pakistan in the quarter-final of the World Cup. At that time, everyone said the same too (I suppose in India as well as Pakistan). A few days later, I'm sure a lot of these very people would have either been part of the mob that ensured that the semi-final at Eden Gardens was interrupted and awarded to Sri Lanka. Well, even if they were not there, I have no doubt they'd have condoned the shameful acts of the perpetrators at Calcutta. I, for one, would any day take a World Cup league stage loss to Pakistan if India won the Cup!

Labels: 2003 world cup

Rambled @ 4:00 PM

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