13) Because we will not have to sit through one more rerun of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy‘s mushy mind-and-body heart-and-soul ditty for Visa. Or drink another frightful bottle of Pepsi gold. Or wear that silly blue band.
12) Because the Heroes of ’83—Kapil and Mohinder and Kirmani and Srikkanth and Yashpal and even Sunil Valson—will get another chance to play the devils who could do no wrong in 2011.
11) Because we can objectively judge how good Fit-Kit, Orient PSPO, Anchor switches, HP Power and all the wondrous products endorsed by our stars are without their stardom influencing our decision-making.
10) Because we now get time to memorise the names of the top-six Ireland batsmen because they will get six—yes, six—more chances than the “world’s strongest batting lineup” to walk out to the middle.
9) Because Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra and the rest of Bollywood won’t have to mouth silly good luck messages, and they can resume wishing themselves and their movies good luck.
8) Because we won’t have to take part in any more milk-them-when-we-can signature or SMS campaigns, and we can all get back to the country’s national sport: forwarding jokes.
7) Because Mandira Bedi will now get some time to take care of whatever it is that is causing her to look the way she is looking. If it means Botox, so be it, bring the Mandira of 2003 back before the Super Eight begins.
6) Because the high-fliers who have been sent by their companies to warm the corporate boxes can come back early and start working on making the fourth-quarter results look better.
5) Because Rajdeep Sardesai‘s CNN-IBN can stop being the Official Channel of the Indian Fan and try to be what it should be: an objective news channel which has a sense of balance and priority. Sorry, or was that NDTV?
4) Because K. Srikkanth and Navjot Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja and Surinder Khanna and Nayan Mongia and Madan Lal can go back to their wives (and check their bank balances) this side of midnight.
3) Because we can now enjoy the cricket the way it should be—cheering for those who do well, marvelling at how they do it—without being breathlessly asked by some imbecile every few minutes, ‘Sachin kitna maara?’
2) Because we can tuck our India Shining/ India Rising crap in our suitcases for another four years and get back to being what we really are: coasters who don’t have the same high expectations from anybody else, least of all ourselves.
1) Because we can now understand at great leisure that there are more countries than ours which play the greatest game in the solar system. And that the richest cricket body doesn’t necessarily have to produce the best cricket team.
And what about the tug of war between DDs and SETs for the cricket rights??
And stupid Supreme court intervention?!!
Another great article.
Brilliant stuff.
The acme of articulation!
Well said! My favorite: That we can “get back to being what we really are: coasters who don’t have the same high expectations from anybody else, least of all ourselves.” How thoughtful.
It’s okay to lose, but they didn’t even fight. No passion at all. They seemed to be in some kinda stupor. Dravid and Chappel should explain to the BCCI what’s going on.
A choleric Chappell, in an absolutely nonchalant voice, has flatly declined to provide any reasons for the Indian batsmen committing hara-kiri. His ‘I-don’t-give-a-fish’ attitude was shocking.
I couldn’t help but reminisce the tone and tenor of Bob Woolmer during his last press conference. That poise and dignity was missing in Chappell’s fulmination at press persons.
People get killed for being gentlemen, for shouldering the responsibility of a loss, for standing up and admitting ‘Things could’ve been different, but I was wrong’. How tragic!
nice points, our “tigers” are coming back! i am proud of them..
hoo haa india hoo haa india!
Are we having a welcoming ceremony for our boys? No SRK this time. Johnny Lever perhaps?
i guess the ‘Ooh Aah India’ can now be Ooh Aah Ouch!!!