Well, the whole nation is agog with rumours of Team India packing it's bags prematurely from a tour down under and yes, how can "The column" remain silent at this critical juncture?!
To sum it all up, Australia lost a cricket fan. Yours truly was a passionate admirer of the Australian way of things - the "in your face" attitude so well brought to life in the Fosters ads (the famed Australian beer brand). So when the "pigeon" (the nickname for Glenn McGrath) used to scalp the little master Tendulkar after mouthing the choicest obscenities at him from close range, including the 'F' word (so often captured vividly on camera) on being struck for a four, I used to lament at how poor we are, when it comes to succumbing under pressure and not fighting it out! Well, that is it, right? We always love fights. How often have we lamented that our team gives in without a fight - "it's ok if we don't win, but at least we should have fought hard" is something we are wont to say, at the drop of a hat. Does this trait, so much Indian that other cultures will find it a bit alien, run in our blood?
As toddlers when the story of Mahabharata is told to us, Arjuna is usually the hero that kids want to emulate. But sometime, am not able to put a finger on the age, say, when one is between 5 and 10 years old, the question: "Which character in the Mahabharata would you like the most?" would elicit a reply: Abhimanyu, or Karna (the wronged one). (Well, this attraction and fascination to heroics that end in tragedies ... is it something peculiar to a blood variant that has the inscription - "from Kerala" or is it something that transcends the Aryan-Dravidian divide is something that I would like to know?!).
Maybe this hypothesis is the answer to why the whole country is up in arms in unison, demanding fair treatment, for we have been wronged. Not only that, but this has come in the face of stiff fight that 'Team India' gave to the strongest team in the world. And more, importantly, lost, in the process. If you step back and think for a moment, whether any of these issues - "integrity" of a certain captain nicknamed "Punter" by his own (!), the alleged racist taunt, the poor umpiring and so on, would have become such burning issues, had we stuck out for the remaining 8 minutes and saved the game? By the way, I cannot understand how on earth calling someone (who is so funny with his expressions and hairstyle!) a "monkey" is racist. After all, science tells us that Homo Sapiens descended from apes. But at the same time, mouthing the "b" word, the "f" word or whatever other 4 or x-letter word that has only one meaning irrespective of the culture and language, is perfectly alright and is within the limits of the "gentleman's game"! How ridiculous can one get!
So then, maybe it's better that we lost and that too fighting till the end and to the last man. For, had we drawn the match, that sweeping use of English verbiage "a bad day at the office for the umpires" (well, the ICC Chief had the gall to tell this!) would have figured tucked away in the inner pages of our media. Like our own epic heroes, we fought and in the end we still lost, and our obsessive media caught on to the story that they knew would find instant resonance with something deep within all of us.
And yes, read this to understand why I would not support the baggy green from now onwards, unlike what I had to write earlier ....
To sum it all up, Australia lost a cricket fan. Yours truly was a passionate admirer of the Australian way of things - the "in your face" attitude so well brought to life in the Fosters ads (the famed Australian beer brand). So when the "pigeon" (the nickname for Glenn McGrath) used to scalp the little master Tendulkar after mouthing the choicest obscenities at him from close range, including the 'F' word (so often captured vividly on camera) on being struck for a four, I used to lament at how poor we are, when it comes to succumbing under pressure and not fighting it out! Well, that is it, right? We always love fights. How often have we lamented that our team gives in without a fight - "it's ok if we don't win, but at least we should have fought hard" is something we are wont to say, at the drop of a hat. Does this trait, so much Indian that other cultures will find it a bit alien, run in our blood?
As toddlers when the story of Mahabharata is told to us, Arjuna is usually the hero that kids want to emulate. But sometime, am not able to put a finger on the age, say, when one is between 5 and 10 years old, the question: "Which character in the Mahabharata would you like the most?" would elicit a reply: Abhimanyu, or Karna (the wronged one). (Well, this attraction and fascination to heroics that end in tragedies ... is it something peculiar to a blood variant that has the inscription - "from Kerala" or is it something that transcends the Aryan-Dravidian divide is something that I would like to know?!).
Maybe this hypothesis is the answer to why the whole country is up in arms in unison, demanding fair treatment, for we have been wronged. Not only that, but this has come in the face of stiff fight that 'Team India' gave to the strongest team in the world. And more, importantly, lost, in the process. If you step back and think for a moment, whether any of these issues - "integrity" of a certain captain nicknamed "Punter" by his own (!), the alleged racist taunt, the poor umpiring and so on, would have become such burning issues, had we stuck out for the remaining 8 minutes and saved the game? By the way, I cannot understand how on earth calling someone (who is so funny with his expressions and hairstyle!) a "monkey" is racist. After all, science tells us that Homo Sapiens descended from apes. But at the same time, mouthing the "b" word, the "f" word or whatever other 4 or x-letter word that has only one meaning irrespective of the culture and language, is perfectly alright and is within the limits of the "gentleman's game"! How ridiculous can one get!
So then, maybe it's better that we lost and that too fighting till the end and to the last man. For, had we drawn the match, that sweeping use of English verbiage "a bad day at the office for the umpires" (well, the ICC Chief had the gall to tell this!) would have figured tucked away in the inner pages of our media. Like our own epic heroes, we fought and in the end we still lost, and our obsessive media caught on to the story that they knew would find instant resonance with something deep within all of us.
And yes, read this to understand why I would not support the baggy green from now onwards, unlike what I had to write earlier ....
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