Cricket World Cup - A Thought

Yuvraj Singh, match of the tournament of 2011 cricket world cup, was diagnosed with cancer soon after his team won the cup.

Where does he go for his medication? Why does he have to go abroad? He should have found the treatment in his own country, one would expect. "India" (with a sizable non-Indian support staff) was the world champion, right? World champions should be good enough, if not the best, in basic things like healthcare, right?

Your children are not educated, even those who have degrees. Your boys are effete and your girls are molested and half your working population stands in queue of foreign embassies for work permits, of any type, of any where, as if you are not a country but a hellhole everybody wants to get out of. And you are not ashamed of all that! You are ashamed of a loss in a cricket match!

Perhaps our sense of pride and shame need to be restored to sanity.

Last week, one of our media channels - Times Now - tried to trend #ShameInSydney on Twitter, hoping to ride on the wave of sentiments similar to what they would have observed in neighboring Pakistan few days back. Thankfully, the TRP ploy backfired and what actually trended was #ShameOnTimesNow.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way twitterati in large refused to go down to the level media had decided for them. However, many creeps couldn't resist mud-slinging at a Bollywood celebrity to taunt her boyfriend - their star player - leaving a very bad taste in mouth. 

The fans should be more critical of their own performances as all of us play our own sports in our own arena. We must cheer our teams, but I don't see any glory in winning through someone else's hard work. This "Lagaan" must go. A Bangladesh or Pakistan or even India can not defeat England just by defeating them in a cricket match. We must realize that we have been thoroughly defeated in all the games that really matter. And it's hightime we lifted our game.

Let's not overload a sport; let's not outsource our aspirations to 11 men.