SUNAAD RAGHURAM writes: Channel surfing on my television a day after the great Garfield Sobers declared the World Cup open amidst a canvas of colour, I found that the customary prayers have begun in India. For an Indian victory in the finals of the World Cup.
In Hyderabad, a wrinkled old priest with vermillion marks on his forehead that could have stretched all the way to Bridgetown, Barbados, went: “Rahul Dravid naama deyasya… Saurav Ganguly naama deyasya… Sachin Tendulkar naama deyasya… Munaf Patel naama deyasya…,” into a microphone, as wild fans sporting bandannas and tilakas sat around a huge framed picture of goddess Durga with folded hands in a fervent plea to get Her to bat for India at the World Cup.
In a country where the cricket bat and ball have become symbols of a national obsession, the prayers under the aegis of the old priest looked tragically hilarious.
It bespoke a culture rooted in some ancient, almost prehistoric root, which seems to be clinging on to stupendously ridiculous oddities like having Sanskritised renditions of prayer in the name of a bunch of men whose profession—inherited from the colonial masters, no less—it is to play ball on a cricket field.
If god could help, India would keep the World Cup deep into the next millennium. Why? Because our country has more places of worship per square foot than any other place in the solar system; where even roadside trees and rocks assume divinity and mysticism in the eyes of the devout.
And, of course, because India has more fans of cricket than in any other part of the world.
A country where more time is spent in prayer than striving in the direction where the very same prayer could bear fruit; where god is all pervasive but yet there is so much squalor and suffering and poverty; where men routinely find themselves clueless both on and off a cricket field; where life is largely lived in some hope of victory, again on and off the cricket field.
Amidst the dank tunnel that alternates light and hope, darkness and desolation.
A strange country where a sense of fatalism is ingrained in the collective psyche; where the worth of sincere effort is not really paramount to the methods of men; where a large section of men and women feel that even cricket matches could be won by bombarding the almighty with rehearsed ritualism.
I’m sure if god were to be watching the games in the West Indies from his perch high up in the heavens, he wouldn’t be able to control a smile as the Indians take the field.
For, He would still be feeling deep down in his divine heart that Dravid and his men could be in a better position to win if they took their catches, bowled the right line and length, batted with gumption, and handled the pressure like seasoned men should.
And most importantly, showed the pluck, the courage, the die-hard gutsy ness, a single minded cohesion of thought and action, and wore the all-important sense of pride and honour and value of playing for the mother land.
A land whose ‘one billion’ inhabitants place so much hope in their abilities that even old Brahmin priests who have, for life, woken up at 4 am to the strains of Venkatesha Suprabhatam, don’t think twice before saying “Munaf Patel naama deyasya” while invoking the almighty!
For an Indian victory in the finals of World Cup 2007.
Related link: Why should India win all the time?
Purohiths , Moulvis are doing Pooja and Yagna for India’s victory in Finals.They have forgotten India has to qualify from Group,come to semifinals and then finals. As the article said at end of 2003 match, it’s the corporates who are calling the shots.Every Channel has 2 to 3 ‘Experts’, mouthing opinion as to what Dravid should or shouldn’t be doing!Even Murali Kartik , who with some luck should have gone to WI, is coming in his New Avtaar as Expert.
But ,it is still better than Sabha Karim who, having played ONLY ONE Test for India , started tearing Dravid to pieces for his tactics as captain in a Test Match!This can happen only in India.
Meanwhile, it looks like Gavaskar, has started his own game to get Ponting and his men in to a swearing mood.I hope his strategy of rattling the Aussies works on the field!
Its just crazy and show our limitation in having a more creative passtime.
Its time we withdraw the MEN-IN-BLUE from the current word cup.It is so embarassing to be shot out below 200 . The great 4 batsmen struggling to club bowlers . Or shut off the television and boycott cricket once for all .
Kulla TENDULKAR IS THE GREATEST
“I am in the ZONE like I was eating vada pav” :)
Well, I work for a news agency, that caters to the electronic media both at home and abroad. In electrnoic media, journalism is more about visuals and so-called sound bytes. And over the past ten days, I have had the worst possible moments and experience of editing stories (in journo’s lingo, news items are stories) related to cheering the Indian cricket team. Almost all of them were weird, hysterical and utterly sickening.
Now after biting dust at the hands of Bangladesh, will the protests of these crazy cricket fanatics turn the tide? After all those much-hyped prayers, prostrations, rolling on the roads, silliest hair-dos, paintings, composing songs etc. did not help the team.
(It is said that work is worship and not the other way. Unfortuantely, in India, worship is work as evident from Bhoomi {Gadli in Bangalore} pooja being performed to launch any Governmental or State-funded project. India is a secular nation and not a theocratic State.)
Coming back to cricket, fortunately, in south such mania may not be that rampant unlike what one observes in the north. In fact, over 90 percent of this cricket freaks know nothing else other than “chowka” (boundary)and “chakka” (sixer). In yesterday’s match when Sehwag got out, I was at the office clearing another story on the fans’ mode of cheering the Indian team. This Sehwag who is completely out of form, without getting behind the line of the ball, lent ample gap between his bat and body for the stumps to be uprooted. And I had an “expert” standing next to my desk whose comments were: Aare, woh gend ko uthake chakka marnatha!
The media is also to be blamed. What is all this hype about Team India? Just because the Aussies refer themselves as Team Australia, the conventional term of Indian cricket team has gone into the oblivion. However, in whatever stories vis-a-vis cricket mania that I edited I stuck to the old reference: Indian cricket team.
All said and done, the very sight of these bunch of cricketers representing the country makes be bow my head in shame. They are not cricket players but an assorted clan of businessmen who look more like clowns. They have no pride in donning the national colours but only concerned with the end product of match fees and lavish 5-star treatment apart from the endorsement honararium . The so-called gentleman’s game has been corrupted to a point of no return, right from the overall cricketing kit to body gestures and language on the field. No player is on the field sans sun goggles. I don’t understand what is so great to exult and clench the fists on taking a wicket, holding a catch or scoring a boundary?
The accusing finger is to be pointed at Kerry Packer and his circus for lending new twist to the entire game