What Cricket tells us about us
I am glad India tied the match. No, not for me, but for those who would have had a sleepless night last night, should India have lost. Despite the fact that cricket's downright boring, I must say the saving grace is the crowd. Its far better if you get to see the crowd than the match. Plus it can teach you so much about the way we are in India.
Lapsing into trademark silence was what the crowd did when England took to batting. And I wasn't surprised. After all cricket's seared into India's collective psyche. Whether in our drawing rooms or at the ground, cricket and our response to it as a game amply demonstrates us for who we are. Applauding an opponent player's pull that reaches the boundary doesn't come easy to us. In fact doesn't even cross our mind. Now you know all about the lapsing silence and pregnant pauses the crowd took last night. Winning is so important, 'cos that's our only hope at self esteem. Every where else we are battered into submission. Whether at work or at play, it isn't easy living our lives. The victories are few and far in between. What's more, maybe the victories will never be ours personally, and so we are forced to wish it in others. We are forced to stand in queues, get beaten so we can get a ticket and watch someone else (oops, I mean us), win
And silence becomes our way of reacting to what we end up embracing as personal failure. Pity, if the Indian team fails, we lose. On the ground, and in our heads. Thank God yesterday at least we tied. But then the nightmare is far from over. What if we don't make quarterfinals? What if we lose in the QFs? What about Semis? Will we make the cut? What if we lose in the Semis? And so on...
It could turn into a nightmare. Something we won't wake up from in a long time. Here's hoping it ain't so! Here's hoping India wins. So we win!
Lapsing into trademark silence was what the crowd did when England took to batting. And I wasn't surprised. After all cricket's seared into India's collective psyche. Whether in our drawing rooms or at the ground, cricket and our response to it as a game amply demonstrates us for who we are. Applauding an opponent player's pull that reaches the boundary doesn't come easy to us. In fact doesn't even cross our mind. Now you know all about the lapsing silence and pregnant pauses the crowd took last night. Winning is so important, 'cos that's our only hope at self esteem. Every where else we are battered into submission. Whether at work or at play, it isn't easy living our lives. The victories are few and far in between. What's more, maybe the victories will never be ours personally, and so we are forced to wish it in others. We are forced to stand in queues, get beaten so we can get a ticket and watch someone else (oops, I mean us), win
And silence becomes our way of reacting to what we end up embracing as personal failure. Pity, if the Indian team fails, we lose. On the ground, and in our heads. Thank God yesterday at least we tied. But then the nightmare is far from over. What if we don't make quarterfinals? What if we lose in the QFs? What about Semis? Will we make the cut? What if we lose in the Semis? And so on...
It could turn into a nightmare. Something we won't wake up from in a long time. Here's hoping it ain't so! Here's hoping India wins. So we win!
Comments
Is it because here in india "The victories are few and far in between" ?
Had India not been Playing Cricket, most of us would have not been seeing these matches also..
so the number of people who are really passionate about cricket as a sport is relatively less, and so the no of People who would appreciate a Good Cricketing Short would also be very less...and thats the reason those Good Cricketing Shots by opponent does not Get Much of Applaud by the Crowd which is there more for India and Less for Cricket..?
No. because we are deeply insecure about ourselves!
Hitesh,
Yep, more for India than for the technical brilliance behind the shot....
Is it not a part of any sport that the fans want their team to win badly
When the stakes are high and expectations higher the crowd definitely wants to side and stick to the team they are supporting
How can we generalize about the mentality of Indians..
Yes , we do tend to take Indian wins personally but isn the "taking Personally" part that makes us spend 7hours and in this world cups case add 7 more hours of waiting and stuck in traffic snarls..
Have you heard of sport being religion in a country? And I mean literally!? (Sure, count South America and football in!)
And if you have, then count them similar to us, and so the generalisation you suggest holds good. Else its peculiarly Indian!