WORLD CUP 2011 INDIA LOST

INSENSITIVITY AND OTHER FLOPS IN CRICKET WORLD CUP 2011

I don’t know if you noticed this—during the semi final match between India and Pakistan A.R.Rehman’s composition of the theme music in the film ‘Bombay’ was officially played at the stadium at Mohali. Those who have seen this movie will remember that it deals with Hindu Muslim tensions in our country. It ought to have struck the organizers that this was certainly NOT the right theme at a great cricket match with an Islamic country[Jai ho might have been appropriate] Sure enough Pak captain Arfridi made a strong remark against India—more about this later.

INSENSITIVITY AND OTHER FLOPS IN CRICKET WORLD CUP 2011

One of our traits seems to be that we learn neither from success nor from failure. With memories of the scam tainted CWG not yet gone why did we bungle at the WC2011? A casual remark made by Dhoni ought to have shamed all of us especially the organizers . He didn’t attack the shoddy toilets thank you, but said that at break time when the teams returned for snacks/early dinner the food was not ready to be served. Reason?The security guys had not yet cleared the food for being served to the players. As a consequence the teams went without food and remember India had to field !! That India won is a testimony to the players’ stamina. If India had lost the semi final all of us would have attacked Dhoni and his men as being chockers , as being unable to score or take wickets when it mattered most. Dhoni in keeping with the grand Indian tradition of never talking ill of the powers that be would have swallowed the insults without telling us that he and his boys played on an empty stomach. He might have even lost his job.

The second fiasco is about the Cup itself and how the ICC refused to pay the customs duty considering that it had no commercial value . The Customs confiscated the CUP and it lies in their godown as I write this piece.This story is still unfolding but the allegation that customs demanded 300 free tickets in order to look the other way—a posture made very famous by many of our top leaders—brings shame to our country. To imagine that our victorious team kissed a fake cup !

As for Arfidi he returned to Pakistan and made a comment to the effect that unlike Pakistanis Indians are not large hearted and the problems plaguing the two countries would never be resolved if Indians continue to be so small in their attitudes. I am not aware what experience in India prompted him to say so. But the meals fiasco and the demand for freebies smack of the kind of behavior—clumsiness, red tape and corruption that plagues us and that consigns us into the comity of third world nations .

As for Afridi the man went out of the way to befriend India—he spoke for much of the time in English even though he was not comfortable in that language, maybe even more uncomfortable than Kapil Dev is. And more importantly he rarely used the expression ‘Inshallah’. I can predict that most of us would retaliate against Afridi and accuse him of diverting the attention of his compatriots from the defeat to that familiar Pak bogey—Kashmir. That may be partially true but if we do not learn any other lesson….

Hope Inshallah we do not bid for the Olympics .

K.R.RAVI