Congratulations India

Strangers to cricket used to ask me how come Indians spend a whole day watching cricket. When I would tell them that there is something called Test cricket too which is a 5 day version and people do sit and watch for 5 days, they would just fall on the ground in disbelief.

Lately I too kept losing interest in cricket and many reasons could be attributed to it. Whether it is due to long stretch of the game, more important priorities, disgust for the overzealous passion and obsession in India towards this game, too much attention to only one game and complete ignorance of the other and so on.

And in these circumstances, 20-20 has come as a pleasant treat. Whoever says that the game of cricket is being ruined by these 20-20 are utter fools in my mind. Well, I might be a fool in their minds too :-) But I must say that 20-20 is going to survive because it is a thorough entertainment without too much of time involvement.

When did we see such a steady blasting display of talent in the past in 50 overs matches? It has been proved time and again that under pressure, with expectations clearly set, amazing talent comes out. And that is what we have seen throughout this tournament. We must have lost track of how many sixes have been hit. Almost every match had scores of above 6 an over run rate.

And finally the treat that everyone wanted came like a gift. India meeting Pakistan in the final is something everyone dreams of. And exactly that happened. The way India and Pakistan reached the final has been brilliant. It was through pure display of convincing talent. And the final was definitely not a let down. It was a treat to watch every performance, whether it was the batting performance of Gautam Gambhir and Misbah ul Haq or the bowling performance of R.P Singh and Irfan Pathan.

Oh yeah, it was fun to watch Sreesanth being taught the lesson of humility too. I sometimes fail to understand why people confuse confidence with rudeness. That is what happened with Sreesanth. Some of my friends say it is fine to behave like that with Aussies. Ha ha... an eye for and eye? God save these mindsets. I am sure Sreesanth would have behaved the same way with Pakistan batsmen too if he was not fixed in the second over for 21 runs :-) I was thrilled to see that display for sure. On the other hand R.P Singh kicks ass. Absolute composure and pure display of talent.

At the end of the day it was brilliant cricket. The way Pakistan came close to victory was brilliant. Very rarely do we see a team bringing the ball and runs to score difference from 30 to 2. And only Pakistan has done it consistently. Even Australia could not do it in their game against India. I thoroughly enjoyed Misbah's blasters just like I did when Yuvraj did.

It would have been a great gesture if Dhoni had praised that effort of Misbah. Anyway he didnt. Afridi's comments were absolutely professional I felt.


Alright, now the obsession starts. Sorry it has started last night.

Hopefully the TV channels will not keep showing this win again and again and again for the months to come.
Hopefully the obsession to one man has not again started
Hopefully the obsession to one game has not again started
Hopefully the obsession to one leader has not again started
Hopefully consistency will kill this obsession
Hopefully consistency will be our habit.

Because, when we are obsessed about one thing, we behave irrationally when rude surprise hits us. Like painting the same heroes' houses black?

Ah!!! What a game to watch it was. Pure pleasure.