Cricket is one of the things I love to hate.
I dont like the fact that people can get so mad at one thing. Passion is fine, good for you. But how much time and emotion can you invest in a sport? I personally consider it a waste of emotions and not to mention time. Not that I dont spend time shopping or just watching some other crap serial.. but thats not waste ... not to me for sure;) I am seriously amazed how we can follow something so closely, pray for the team's win, fire crackers when the team wins and sulk the whole day when we lose (oh so often) . How we are able to load some players with countless "Bharat ratna" and millions of advertisements... and yet let the other sports or poor millions die in oblivion. How we are able to raise some "Ganguly" to a certain pedestal one day and throw stones at his house the other. I am simply baffled by the amount of emotion involved in it !!!! We probably find it difficult to realise that the real war between India and Pakistan was at Kargil or the real heroes were the NSG guards who saved Mumbai and not the wildly held notion of Sachin saving or not saving India!!!
But for all my apathy (hatred is too small a word) towards the game, I am still fascinated by one quality of it... its ability to unite people. Somehow in India it has cut across class. Men irrespective of their age can discuss the sport for hours and watch it till eternity. Somehow everybody has an opinion on who should have been sent to bat first and whether there should have been an extra fielder on leg-side!!! I have seen people stop on the way to Vaishno Devi and ask for latest score... people posting the scores and discuss later on my office discussion portal... unknown people bound together by a common thread "Cricket". Men who would otherwise push and shove each other in a local train are at peace if there is live commentary going on!!!
I sincerly wish that all those who cheer for one country can stand together and work for that country too... that if we can accept one Dhoni to lead Indian team, we can certainly tolerate other people from Bihar as well...that the way we think Indian cricket team should be the best team in the world... we think that India should be at the top of the world too... and probably be as passionate about this cause too!!! Amen!!!