The Fall of Demi Gods

More than expectations

I was surprised by the way Indian Cricket team played in this Cricket world cup till their Semifinal in World Cup Cricket 2019. Honestly, I did not expect they will go this far in World Cup 2019.

Was it really a WORLD CUP?

It is funny to call it a World Cup in the first place. It's really funny when there is a bunch of few countries that play cricket, India included. These 10 countries playing each other for a trophy; the world of sports hardly care about. But India cares, I believe.

I have lost interest a decade back. And I thought maybe people also lost interest in Cricket. The evolution of IPL and other twenty-twenty leagues in these Cricket playing nations have somehow kept the cricket in the ventilator. Cricket is dying slowly, at least the traditional cricket. I see clear signs of fall of cricket craze in India. The nation was on a frenzy for this game from the times of radio age cricket heroes to  CRT TV age up to millennium first decade. 

They followed the legends of Sunil Gavaskar, Srikanth, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Srinath, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurabh Ganguly, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, and the list is big enough. But, not anymore. It’s a business now. The charm of listening match commentary on Medium wave radio was far exciting than watching it on an HD TV.

The sheen is gone

I don’t find that noise anymore. Maybe I am growing old and my ears have also started to give me a miss? Maybe people are busier in their works after all; who has the whole day to waste on Cricket? Or maybe Tennis, Football, Hockey, Kabaddi, Badminton are more appealing these days?

Arrogance is the new norm

The legends retired. With the increasing onfield arrogance of Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ashish Nehra, Gautam Gambhir and other ‘Tatpunjiye’ players who were hardly few matches old, I realised it was time to quit the following cricket. Cricket remained no more a gentlemen’s game.

These all players are the Nick Kirgios of the cricket. You couldn’t watch cricket with your family. Remember the ‘Monkey gate’ between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds? It was not ‘Symond is a Monkey, it was  ‘Symonds ki Maan ki’! The flawlessly abusing Sardar took a proud to call on Symonds’s mother on the field. 

The scuffle between Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi? These mucky cricketers couldn’t just handle the neo-acquired success perhaps.

I unfollowed Cricket but not many. So many still love these demi-gods and clap when they are doing ‘Ma-Bahan ki’ on the field. Perhaps abusing someone has become the new norm of Cricket these days.

Who cares anymore? I was able to find some of the cricket lovers in my locality who were very hopeful for India winning this World Cup and they were following this world cup like they were onto Opium.

India played well in league matches and was topper in the point table. 

The house of cards

Well, it was amusing because Indians have been a batting prowess always. Thanks to the dead pitches of subcontinent even since the beginning where a pacer dies a slow death without getting many wickets no matter how much he bends his back. 

And the trend is now being followed by other countries as well so that these pitches could produce more runs for viewers delight. That’s why we never had fiery bowlers like the rest of the countries used to have. We don’t find Marshall, Walsh, Ambrose, Mcgrath, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee these days. They have all been tamed. Not by these so-called great batsmen but by pitches.

A hilarious meme shared on the social platform 

The famous collapse

So when the real pitch test arrived for Indian batting Gods in England in a bowler suiting environment, the much-famed battery collapsed like a house of cards. it was funny to see all those giants how they were struggling in facing an average pace attack and fell like the dry grass leaves.

The Firefight

Now, the post-mortem of the match is under progress. People are looking for scapegoats. They need someone to hang to soothe their emotions. The blame game has just begun. 

Someone bashing MS Dhoni for being selfish for his slow game. Of course, Dhoni is a selfish player but evidently, he was not in this semifinal match against New Zealand. Here I am with his defenders who have genuinely a point that when the most run getter is getting out on one run why to blame Dhoni only for the defeat?

So dreams of many million Indian are postponed to the next four years.

Meantime you could enjoy Wimbledon tennis where two greats Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are going to face each other in Semifinal today. It can be a repeat match of 2008 final; arguably the best match of Tennis History!