The wait for the World Cup. I am sick almost of all the Facebook pages being filled with myriad updates, but I must confess, that this World Cup victory has its special place for me too.
For the one and only reason being that we scored over Sri Lanka. The 1996 semi-final at Eden Garden was when I stopped watching cricket. Or at least, stopped putting my heart into it at any rate. I remember feeling crest-fallen, broken, and my heart really aching. For the way we played and the way we treated the players during the match, handing it over to them because it had to be called off due to rowdy behavior. I vowed I would never ever again put my heart into any sport because it causes vicarious heart-ache to see the team lose and fail. I am glad I could finally chase those ghosts away last night. Now when I recollect 1996, I will always remember 2011 too :) And I won't feel so depressed.
For my much-proclaimed "I don't follow cricket", I did watch the second innings of the QF against Australia, the SF against Pakistan and the final.
Never was there an easy victory. All of them were hard-won, simply because the pressure (off the field) was always enormous (unlike in 1983). We truly deserved it, there was no fluke or stroke of luck in play. So we can be happy that the cup is home.
In all the hullabaloo surround the result and the "bringing home of the cup", there is just one man, the heart is warming up to. MS Dhoni. If there was ever an Indian captain who deserved to lift the cup after 1983, it is him. Just look at him on the field and off it. An epitome of calm, both in wins and losses. And his post match ceremony statements were awesome. Simply superb. I bow to you MS, you are truly inspirational :) And what a captain he has been. T20 world cup, test #1 and now THE world cup. He rocks. I hope he has a future that flourishes just as his past has :)
And I hope the next cup doesn't happen only when the son has kids (I was 3 when it last came home)!!
For the one and only reason being that we scored over Sri Lanka. The 1996 semi-final at Eden Garden was when I stopped watching cricket. Or at least, stopped putting my heart into it at any rate. I remember feeling crest-fallen, broken, and my heart really aching. For the way we played and the way we treated the players during the match, handing it over to them because it had to be called off due to rowdy behavior. I vowed I would never ever again put my heart into any sport because it causes vicarious heart-ache to see the team lose and fail. I am glad I could finally chase those ghosts away last night. Now when I recollect 1996, I will always remember 2011 too :) And I won't feel so depressed.
For my much-proclaimed "I don't follow cricket", I did watch the second innings of the QF against Australia, the SF against Pakistan and the final.
Never was there an easy victory. All of them were hard-won, simply because the pressure (off the field) was always enormous (unlike in 1983). We truly deserved it, there was no fluke or stroke of luck in play. So we can be happy that the cup is home.
In all the hullabaloo surround the result and the "bringing home of the cup", there is just one man, the heart is warming up to. MS Dhoni. If there was ever an Indian captain who deserved to lift the cup after 1983, it is him. Just look at him on the field and off it. An epitome of calm, both in wins and losses. And his post match ceremony statements were awesome. Simply superb. I bow to you MS, you are truly inspirational :) And what a captain he has been. T20 world cup, test #1 and now THE world cup. He rocks. I hope he has a future that flourishes just as his past has :)
And I hope the next cup doesn't happen only when the son has kids (I was 3 when it last came home)!!
2 comments:
I was recollecting the Eden Gardens match as well, but more for the behavior of the crowd that day.Couldn't concur more with your opinion of Dhoni, and about how it took the next generation to arrive for India to win the cup!!
Gambhir did a great job too. He set the platform for the victory !
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