The Morning After

This post was originally on Random musings... Thanks to Dr. Shivanand for making the suggestion to have it over here. I dwelled on this thought for a while and the following post is the result of my serious musings.

Post every match that India wins closely, and I am of course referring to the country's unofficial national sport, cricket, the people of the world's largest democracy go into a state of delirium; a dreamlike state where God is in his heaven and everything is fine on earth. It's unbelievable; the effect a single win has on the minds of the simple folk that populate this country. No matter that the win has come after consecutive losses, some of which were downright humiliating. All is forgiven, let bygones be bygones.

I have been blessed with a good memory and more often than not, this has worked to my disadvantage rather than advantage. There have been instances when I have desperately wanted to wipe some incident of my memory. I wanted to ensure that the diaphanous veneer of a thought that was casting a vibrant shadow on the innards of my mind was decimated, destroyed, decapitated. Yet, there it was. Many a thought continue to bother me till date. And that is where the apathy of the nation towards the past bothers me so. I will elucidate by citing some examples:

1. The defeat to Zimbabwe in the 1999 cricket World Cup, when only two runs were required to win, and that oaf of a person, Venkatesh had gotten himself out lbw to some obscure Zimbabwean bowler

2. The 1996 World Cup match against Australia at Wankhede where we were chasing a big total and Sachin was playing well. He was stumped off the bowling of Mark Waugh. He was out on 89 runs... We lost the match

I could go on, but the point I want to emphasize here is this: like the rest of the country, I am more concerned with how India fares in cricket than any other sport. And unlike most of the rest of the country, I remember every single instance when we have come agonizingly close to victory, but have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I remember the accolades that our sportspersons in other fields have achieved: Paes-Bhupathi winning the Wimbledon doubles, Karnam Malleshwari and her Bronze Medal, Herr Rathore and his Olympic Medal and of late, GM Anand becoming the World Champion.

Yet, none affects me as much as a loss in a cricket match...

Anyway, coming to the point at hand: why is it that in a country with a population in excess of a 1000 crores, we are able to find only a single Yuvraj Singh, a single Sania Mirza, a single Vishy? And worse, whenever that person wins for the country, all of us take credit for that win, glorifying the nation for a small period of time, forgetting all the humiliation that this country has to face in sports, simply because the "system" is not good. And even worse than that, we also look to Indian born or second generation sportspersons/celebrities/famous people for glory. Case in hand: Sunita Williams, whose recent visit to India was the worst publicity stunt that I have ever witnessed. Worse than Mani Ratnam asking a certain politician to see his film before the release to quell his concerns. I am of course speaking about Bombay, and the politician is well known. I have nothing against that politician; in fact some part of me respects him. Yet, there are many from his clan who are out to destroy whatever sporting talent exists in this nation.

The T20 winning team was forced to sit behind a line of politicians who were seeking political mileage, piggy backing on the brilliance of the cricketers. India has the highest ratio of staff to sportsperson at every Olympics. I believe that we touched the 4 bureaucrats per athlete at the 2004 Olympics, a feat which deserved a gold medal. I am sure that given the meagre pay that the athletes get, most of them are very tempted by drugs for glory, and even more are tempted to seek other more rewarding avenues. Such as a well paying job in an MNC, once some recognition has been achieved. Given this background, I don't really blame any of the country's sportspersons for putting personal glory ahead of the nation's pride. Why not? You and I would have done the same thing.

I wonder when we will start displaying consistency, both as a nation and as a cricketing team. Or any team representing India in any sport.