This past month the World Cup of Cricket, the only World Cup according to the subcontinentals, has been held in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India pitting national cricket teams from all over the world in an epic struggle for crickets most coveted prize. In this time, cricket fever has infected most of India as the home team has won all of their matches thus far and have made their way to the semi-finals. Not hailing from a Commonwealth country, I have for the most part sat on the sidelines and watched as India has been engulfed with cricket madness. All that changed Wednesday.
On Wednesday, India met Pakistan for the semi-finals of the World Cup. Firstly, you must understand that in Pakistan and in India, cricket is a national obsession. I compare it with the Brazilians and soccer/football except the Brazilians are actually consistently good. From Lahore to Mumbai, this sport is viewed with passion and when India loses clutch matches, it is not uncommon for many things to get broken in India.
The second reason that this match is so important is that India and Pakistan love to hate each other in everything. Having been the same country and the same people for centuries, Indians and Pakistanis have the relationship of a mother and a daughter that share the exact same mannerisms – never good. Over the years, the two countries have officially and unofficially poked each other politically, militarily, economically and now athletically. This is the type of rivalry that makes for seriously good sports whether its hockey, football or, well, cricket.
I must admit having lived here for almost a year, I have taken no interest in Cricket. I have made no attempt to learn the game or even pretend to be interesting in the national game. I realize that it is culturally insensitive, but I got a lot going on –like trying to get my internet working. Like any mob mentality, though, be it mullets, jeggings or Al Gore, the fever finally got to me, as well.
The match was to begin at 2:00pm on Wednesday which presented the obvious problem of no one showing up to work that day. Could you image if the Super Bowl was played at 2:00pm on a Wednesday? To circumvent the issue and to show what a culturally sensitive boss I was, I installed a satellite TV in the cafeteria and invited the entire office to watch to watch the match, well actually part of the match since it would actually go until 10:30pm that night. They loved it!
Now, as the boss, I couldn’t actually not show up for the match, so at 2:00pm, I trundled to the cafeteria to sit with a very enthusiastic group of cricket fans who were eager to explain ever aspect of the game. Since I believed that a sport is not actually a real sport unless you run of risk of injury while in full and constant contact with your opponent, I was pretty convinced that Cricket had the appeal of Kenny G in a skirt. After 2 hours of being schooled on the rules and idiosyncrasies, though, I must admit I got sucked in.
At first, the game simply looked like a more complicated, less orderly version of baseball. The pace was slow, the players looked bored and there was more commentary than action. As the game progressed, though, there are subtleties in cricket that the baseball simply cannot replicate. For instance, the teams only bat once, so basically the team that bats second is in a long, dramatic catch up phase. Since the scores are in the 200-300 range, it is a long and painful process with periods where they look like they are on target to win and periods where all hope is lost. You can never answer the question “who’s winning?” until the final ball has been bowled. After 3 hours, I had a layman’s understanding of the game and was hooked.
In the end, India squeaked out a victory and the nation went into a national celebration. All night fireworks exploded and people cheered in the streets of every city and village. It was irrelevant that this was a semi-final match, as Pakistan had been vanquished and all was right with the world as far as every Indian was concerned. There is still the final match to be played against Sri Lanka on Saturday for the actual World Cup, but as far as India is concerned, that is just a bonus. The real match was played on Wednesday and I was a fan!
On Wednesday, India met Pakistan for the semi-finals of the World Cup. Firstly, you must understand that in Pakistan and in India, cricket is a national obsession. I compare it with the Brazilians and soccer/football except the Brazilians are actually consistently good. From Lahore to Mumbai, this sport is viewed with passion and when India loses clutch matches, it is not uncommon for many things to get broken in India.
The second reason that this match is so important is that India and Pakistan love to hate each other in everything. Having been the same country and the same people for centuries, Indians and Pakistanis have the relationship of a mother and a daughter that share the exact same mannerisms – never good. Over the years, the two countries have officially and unofficially poked each other politically, militarily, economically and now athletically. This is the type of rivalry that makes for seriously good sports whether its hockey, football or, well, cricket.
I must admit having lived here for almost a year, I have taken no interest in Cricket. I have made no attempt to learn the game or even pretend to be interesting in the national game. I realize that it is culturally insensitive, but I got a lot going on –like trying to get my internet working. Like any mob mentality, though, be it mullets, jeggings or Al Gore, the fever finally got to me, as well.
The match was to begin at 2:00pm on Wednesday which presented the obvious problem of no one showing up to work that day. Could you image if the Super Bowl was played at 2:00pm on a Wednesday? To circumvent the issue and to show what a culturally sensitive boss I was, I installed a satellite TV in the cafeteria and invited the entire office to watch to watch the match, well actually part of the match since it would actually go until 10:30pm that night. They loved it!
Now, as the boss, I couldn’t actually not show up for the match, so at 2:00pm, I trundled to the cafeteria to sit with a very enthusiastic group of cricket fans who were eager to explain ever aspect of the game. Since I believed that a sport is not actually a real sport unless you run of risk of injury while in full and constant contact with your opponent, I was pretty convinced that Cricket had the appeal of Kenny G in a skirt. After 2 hours of being schooled on the rules and idiosyncrasies, though, I must admit I got sucked in.
At first, the game simply looked like a more complicated, less orderly version of baseball. The pace was slow, the players looked bored and there was more commentary than action. As the game progressed, though, there are subtleties in cricket that the baseball simply cannot replicate. For instance, the teams only bat once, so basically the team that bats second is in a long, dramatic catch up phase. Since the scores are in the 200-300 range, it is a long and painful process with periods where they look like they are on target to win and periods where all hope is lost. You can never answer the question “who’s winning?” until the final ball has been bowled. After 3 hours, I had a layman’s understanding of the game and was hooked.
In the end, India squeaked out a victory and the nation went into a national celebration. All night fireworks exploded and people cheered in the streets of every city and village. It was irrelevant that this was a semi-final match, as Pakistan had been vanquished and all was right with the world as far as every Indian was concerned. There is still the final match to be played against Sri Lanka on Saturday for the actual World Cup, but as far as India is concerned, that is just a bonus. The real match was played on Wednesday and I was a fan!
Kenny G in a skirt was a pretty funny visual, but not quite as funny as envisioning you in jeggings!! :)
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