My LOC (Love O' Cricket)

Meet MELLO...the official mascot of the 2007 cricket World cup.

Oh yeah…its world cup time again. The greatest cricket carnival has its stop at the Caribbean station this time around. And as before, Indian cricket team (oops! Make that Team India, else it may be considered blasphemy) is expected to come back home with the title. The great Indian fan has come to expect nothing less, specially after the team’s performance in the last world cup, and even the recently concluded twin series’ against WI & SL. I am one such fan too. And like everyone else, I have my own opinion on various matters.

First of all, it is sad what happened to Bob Woolmer. Though it is still not clear whether it was due to natural causes or homicide, cricket lost a great champion. I am a big fan of Hansie Cronje & Woolmer, for the way they made South Africa such a force to reckon with, without being nasty. (Sunny bhai, I am with you on the Aussie thing. Nice guys need not always finish last, as Roger Federer would demonstrate.) Its pains me that neither of them is alive today. May they rest in peace.

India’s loss to Bangladesh has come as a rude shock to the Indian cricket fan. The extreme reactions that it invoked were totally unwarranted. People say, “With all the experience we had, it’s a shame we lost.” I say, we had one bad day. Absolutely nothing went right for us that day (except for Zaheer and Munaf’s batting “exploits”) and such days are not uncommon for us. Also, give some credit to the Bangladesh team. They played superb cricket in all three departments and they displayed superb spirit too. Its not that it was totally out of blue. They defeated the mighty Aussies not so long ago, and begin the world cup by beating New Zealand. Kudos to their coach Dave Whatmore, who is once again showing his magic after SL’s ’96 triumph. Another testimony to what a good coach can do.

It took a world record thrashing of Bermuda to cool the tempers back home. Indians are good at accumulating these records. India always likes to be in the record books, it doesn’t care which end though. I am sure there are as many records made against the Indians, as there are those made by them.

It has all boiled down to the crucial India vs Sri Lanka match now. There are numerous permutations and combinations being discussed on TV channels and TOI. But the bottom line is, India HAS to beat Sri Lanka. And the implications of this results are mind boggling. If India fails to make it to the super 8, 150 million dollars worth of advertising revenue is at stake. There was a banner during the Bangladesh match that aptly summed up the kind of reactions Indians can expect if they return home soon. It said, “Go to Barbados (venue for our super 8 matches, if we qualify) or stay in Trinidad (Our current base)”. And Greg Chappell would definitely face the axe.

Personally I have something at stake too. My long time judaii from the idiot box was supposed to end come the world cup. But the Bangladesh defeat has put things in perspective. Dipayan says, “If India doesn’t qualify, then why bother”. I just hope India does a repeat of the ’99 world cup, where they thrashed SL under similar circumstances. Else, this picture might actually turn out to be true. (I dont want this road to the Indo-Pak peace process)

So, in chorus with the Pepsi Blue Billion, I go “Uh Ah India, Ah yeah India” (Whatever that is supposed to mean!)