World Cup Fever

Personally, I am not a very big fan of cricket or any other sport for that matter. But there is always something about "the World Cup" which always makes me follow sports, be it cricket or football. I supported Germany (I was very sad when Paul died though,) during FIFA 2010 WC, and India for all of the ICC WCs. I guess it is the atmosphere which makes one crazy. It is highly impossible to miss the electrifying enthusiasm on all the TV channels, newspapers and on the internet. Hell, I was even psyched up about the Quidditch WC in HP and the Goblet of fire! But coming back to the scenario at hand.

They say that in India, cricket is a religion and Sachin is a God; which is kind of true. I am pretty sure there will be millions of aunties out there performing poojas, yagyas and other ceremonies in front of photographs of cricketers, praying that we win the world cup this time around. All this is excellent, but the picture isn't always as hunky-dory.

Wherever there is religion involved, parasitic fanaticism is never far away. An example would be the 1996 India v Sri Lanka semi-final. Sri Lanka won the first semi-final over India at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in front of a crowd unofficially estimated at 110 000. Chasing Sri Lanka's innings of 251 for 8, India had slumped to 120 for 8 in the 35th over when sections of crowd began to throw fruit and plastic bottles onto the field. The players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to quieten the crowd. When the players returned for play, more bottles were thrown onto the field and fires were lit in the stand. Match referee Clive Lloyd awarded the match to Sri Lanka, the first default ever in a Test or One Day International.

At least this fanaticism is restricted to the field, where frustrated crowds simply throw stuff on the field and nobody gets hurt. Perhaps the most horrendous display of this frenzy was when we lost to Bangladesh in the 2007 world cup, when houses of our players, those very people who were prayed to and sent as heroes, were vandalised, over a loss in a game which we like to show off as our religion.

I'd like to take a small detour over here. I had this excellent opportunity to be in Toronto last July, coinciding with the 2010 FIFA world cup. I was staying at 89 Chestnut, one of UofTs accomodations, just minutes away from Dundas square. Now, Canada has nothing to do with football (or soccer if you will), nor did either of the two finalists have anything to do with Canada. But the enthusiasm was extremely contagious. (Well, a partial reason for this might have been the extremely hot bevy of Portuguese speaking girls from Brazil and Argentina who were residing at Chestnut, but we'll overlook that). The people at Dundas were dancing in red, celebrating the Iniesta-Fabregas goal. (Well, I know their names too, the WC fever does catch up with me, doesn't it?). It is only when you experience such a scenario that you actually realise the "market share" that football has over cricket.

Toronto pics courtesy Ashwin Carvalho

From that day on, I believe we should consider a sport as our religion only if we know how to celebrate our victories and humbly accept our losses and respect the patrons who represent our country. With less than 2 hours for the world cup, which by coincidence is India v Bangladesh, here's hoping for a very successful (though the cup is jinxed, no host has ever won that edition) endeavor for the Indian team and expecting the crowds to behave maturely.