Why I am happy that India lost

I have no interest in cricket, but is subsumes you because you are surrounded by everyone who does. It’s on the news, on TV and on newspapers. So you can’t fail to notice that there is a cricket match going on. And sometimes you get t watch it because those around you want to watch it. India lost out to Bangladesh and then to Sri Lanka and are out of the World Cup. Thank goodness. I am relieved. Here’s why.

So that they stop the annoying ads on TV

Pepsi has released a new ad in which thousands chant something like ‘Hu Ha India’. And then they end up with ‘World Cup Ko La’. Where Ko La stands for ‘get it’, and also for Cola. The guys who made the ad thought they were brilliant. In fact, it is the most annoying ad I have seen, especially when they kept relaying it even after the debacle against Bangladesh. There’s another ad where the team members turn into tigers. May be these are just donkeys which donned Tiger uniforms (as an old story goes). Even when Sachin performed really bad and was out, he reappeared in the ads right after. It’s like saying, ‘So what if I failed in the game, I am always a winner on the TV ads’. And to top it all, these team members are paid millions- and I cannot reason why.

So as to stop the over-obsession with one game and one team

There is nothing wrong with Cricket as a sport. It is just another sport. But a really boring one though- it’s too long and ends up wasting lot of time! There are two things Indians are completely obsessed about- one is Cricket and the other is Indian Movie industry. Nothing else comes close in enrapturing their complete attention, their body and whole soul. This over-obsession with just one or two things is a big disease- according to me (and it needs to be cured). We almost never bother about any other sports. Any village you go to in India, even a remote one, kids are playing this silly game. Nothing good came out of it.

Since we are obsessed with this game, I should naturally presume that we sponsor and encourage this game wherever it is played. That does not happen at all. All the minor league, college league, or state league games are completely unwatched. Compare this to few other countries and their sports. Brazilians or Germans watch soccer wherever it is played, even when one club or a city plays another. Americans watch their sports wherever it is played, even when a college team plays another. That’s not exactly what happens in India. Almost nobody watches when Mysore plays Bangalore (I don’t even think such a game actually takes place). So, are we genuinely interested in this sport or just in one team (which happens to be Indian National team)?

Come to think of it, we don’t know how this Indian team is made up. Who selects them? On what criteria? What are the other lower level games who put up these contenders? Ranji is such a low-key affair, its not even telecasted on TV. If Indians are genuinely passionate about this game, you would see companies sponsoring sports at all levels- at district, city, state, college. If they are genuinely interested, you would see people watching their college team play. But that does not happen. We are completely and entirely over-obsessed with the Indian national team and nothing beyond. The team which gets constituted (miraculously) are pampered like anything. Without having done anything spectacular, these sportsmen become millionaires, are considered heroes, appear in almost every ad, and woo Indian movie stars. What they do on the cricket ground is much less spectacular than what they do outside. Indians getting less obsessive about cricket, and concentrating on other things, including other sports, is a healthy sign.

So as to help India have a healthy youth

Losing the only sport on which the entire nation is over-obsessed is not good for the morale of its youth. Except cricket, there’s no other game and no other sport to rely on. Add to that, the Indian cricket team has this amazing proclivity to disappoint most of the times. The supposed heroes fail to perform almost consistently whenever India is in dire need of heroism. Watching your country go down in the only sports it plays is such a morale buster. Other countries with good populations have many sports to be proud of. Chinese or Russians do well in Olympics in many games. They don’t have one single sport and one single team to put all their bets on. Germans can look forward to soccer, hockey, athletics, F1, etc. US has many sports of its own to concentrate on. Every culture and region has some good number of sports to rely on, and each sport has many games at different levels to satisfy everyone. Some teams lose, some teams win, one can always root for some team and be happy. Indians have only one sport and only one game (at national level). And what great achievements we have in this only sport India is obsessed about? It won only one world cup in more than 25 years; that too in a tournament which is played at the most by 10 other countries of which 8 or so are regular playing teams. Losing in such tiny competition must be doing some good damage to the morale of this nation’s youth. It tells us that we are good at nothing. I would rather escape the game saying it is against our religion. It’s a better excuse than getting beaten up by every little nation.