Where Cricket is a religion and every fan a Demigod.

In India, there is a common saying that Cricket is a religion and Sachin is the God. I reckon every cricket fan here is a self-proclaimed demi-god. In the sense, that irrespective of his education, background or no. of years he has actually played or followed the game, he is the only one who knows it all. And he knows it in a way like no one else does. No wonder, every nook and corner in our country is always buzzing with an intense cricketing debate, where every participant holds a strong view and interestingly the right view as well J. And per my observation you can classify these demi-god cricket fanatic in 6 broad categories.

The Factual Bombardier – He is the one who is always ready with numbers and statistics and will try to win every argument by the sheer weight of these nos. He will bombard you with a bevy of nos. the moment you tell him that whenever Sachin scored a 100, India lost or Sachin never scored when the team needed it the most. So if you wish to indulge into a debate with one such gentleman, be ready for a heavy statistics dossier.

The Old times Advocate – Now whatever our current stars do, this breed of fan would downplay that by singing praises in favour of the yesteryear greats. So if you go gaga over Virat Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar, be ready to hear that ‘these new age stars are no match to the old war horses like Gavaskar and Richards’. And if you try to defend your stars by their nos., they will quickly resort to, ‘ the bowlers of this era are hardly a match to the legends of 70s & 80s, so these nos against poor bowling attacks count for nothing’.

The long lost fanatic – He is someone who was once upon a time a cricket fan but has now lost the appetite to follow the game and hence isn’t as updated today. But interestingly, he fails to accept the fact that he isn’t abreast with the current know-how of the game and goes on debating with full gusto. So if you talk about Virat Kohli’s glorious run of form, he will quickly jump and say ‘but he failed in all the matches in 2015 WC in OZ’. And if you politely update him with Kohli’s unbelievable streak of runs, he would either digress or downplay the fact saying ‘but still he has to become far more consistent to be a good player’.

The ever so pessimist cribber – Whatever be the state of the match, be it the start of the match, or a sure shot winning situation, this guy will make sure that you always have that semblance of doubt about our chances in the match. So even if we need 2 runs of the last over with 5 wickets in hand, he will quickly quip ‘ don’t trust them to win as yet, they  can still get all out’. Or even if we are playing against a low rung team, he will be the one to remind you of a potential upset.

The bubbly dynamite – How often have you come across a wannabe female Cricket lover who tries very hard to portray herself as the most die-hard fan (in a group of Cricket fanatic male friends) but sooner than later goofs up by asking something very trivial. Something like, ‘hey why is Dhoni not playing Zaheer today, I like him so much’ or if Rahane takes a catch they will credit that wicket to his name.

The I told you so irritant – And the most irritating of them all, the ones who come up with their ‘I told you so’ after something unexpected has already happened. So if Bumrah got hit for 4 sixes in the last over, this gentlemen would quickly say ‘ I told you so, he will leak runs in this over’. Or if a part timer comes and gets a wicket 1^st ball, he will immediately pop up saying, ‘ see, I told you he will strike’ and so on.

And the most interesting and hilarious cricketing discussions happen when these varied cricketing demi-gods unite for a post-match dissection. So in a country where Cricket is a religion and every fan is a demigod, an expert with a very strong and ‘right’ point of view, you can never take the risk of underestimating or downplaying the Cricketing prowess of any Cricket fan.

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kin…

Post Script – And then, there is also a breed of Cricket fanatics who are not so concerned about their team but are only bothered about the players they have selected in their team – The Fantasy League Maniacs J.

Where the Anti-Hero outcasts the Real Hero.

The month gone by was a very contrasting and saddening one for the very idea of India. Two young Indians hogged the limelight this month but for very different reasons. On one hand a brave son of our country, Hanumanthapa, eventually lost his life to a monstrous avalanche by being buried under a 35 ft. snow cover, serving his motherland in inhuman conditions. And on the other, a youngster by the name Kanhaiya Kumar exercised his freedom of speech and idea of nationalism in a way that took the entire country by a storm. Unfortunately, where we should have ideally spent the month in celebrating and coronating the former for his sacrifice, thanks to our vibrant and sensationalism seeking media we opted to divulge all our attention and energy towards the latter’s heroics.

Now a large section of media has been advocating Kanhaiya’s controversial speech through the tenets of ‘Freedom of Speech’. But can freedom of speech shield or cover for any level of obscenity? Can you abuse your mother under the gambit of freedom of speech? Can you go to Times Square, New York, hail Osama Bin Laden and still leave scot free stating you were exercising your freedom of speech? There has to be some sanity, some logic and some sense of responsibility that has to be exercised even while exorbitantly leveraging ones freedom of speech.

But since there are theories doing the rounds that the entire Kanhaiya fiasco has been made up, the video was doctored and the poor guy was made a scapegoat. Let us for a moment not discuss what all he supposedly said (or not said). And only focus on the celebrity status that has been bestowed upon him by the media and some political parties. They believe he is the voice of present day India, he is the one who is asking the real questions and he is the one who is also the future of the nation, which otherwise is in darkness, under the current government. But are things really as alarming?

He feels that under Mr Modi the nation has gone to an age which is akin to Hilter’s era. Really? But you still delivered that shameful speech and went on to become the most celebrated hero of the year. He feels that onslaught of poverty, high inflation and all the miseries that the common man of this nation have to bear is due to Mr Modi. Really? Not many were probably aware then, that prior to 2014 (since Modi took charge) this nation was a wonderland. He also feels that the current regime has forcefully saffron-ized the culture of this nation. Really? Your supporters have been professing this theory even when Modi & Co were in opposition but a thumping majority still brought them to the helm. And much to the merriment of the opposition parties and media houses he has a long list of such accusations and Prime Minister mocking theatrics, which is ironically not obscene and objectionable as it is well within the purview of freedom of speech.

Now anywhere in the world, irrespective of whether you are making sense or not, if you are a good orator, you are bound to get plenty of attention. And if you can mock, criticize and dissect someone and make people laugh out of it, you certainly attract a few more eyeballs. Modi did the same leading up to 2014, people related to it and he single-handedly became the nation’s no.1 neta. But ask him how today how difficult it is to manage that faith and the burden of humongous expectations. He might be doing a good job but today he has as many detractors and dissenters who are finding everything that he did in 2014 as sheer gimmick. So it might be easy for Kanhaiya ji to remind people of how things are not so rosy under Modi but were they picture perfect for the last 60 years, under the erstwhile leadership? Or how are things in West Bengal where his ideological political outfit (CPI) ruled for over 35 years?

Its easiest to just sit back, criticize and find problems in anything and everything one does? But not so easy to suggest few solutions to these problems. I am quite sure, the celebrated hero that Kanhaiya today is, won’t have any solutions himself to the long list of problems that he has been blaming and accusing the government for. True traits of successful politician may be, but then he has categorically denied that of any political ambitions and has even emphasized that he is just a student. If so, why don’t you focus on your studies rather than creating such a ruckus. In fact, try studying for 18 hours every day without taking a leave for the next 2 years, it might not only augur well for you and your family but will also do lot of good to our beloved nation.

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kin…

Post Script – The most unfortunate role in this entire episode has been of electronic Media. In the common good of nation, where they shouldn’t have given any credence and coverage to this entire stupidity and rather focused on the real heroes like Hanumanthapa, the lure of sensationalism and TRPs have led them to make a hero out of nothing and stoop to sad levels.