The love of a sport, to me, would always manifest in actually playing it. If I were to ever sit in front of a television to watch a match, any match, it would be for the love of the sport of couch-potatoing. Incidentally, I am quite confident at my chances of becoming a world champion. But that will have to wait till the Olympics-organizer-guys wake up to the mass appeal of the sport.
The only reason I have ever seen matches in the past has been for the entertainment, the company and the fervor of the company. I remember this one match, probably the only cricket match I have ever seen without getting into fist-fights with Vaibhav, my brother, for the control of the remote. It was a World Cup match, a quarter-final, India vs Pakistan. And Ajay Jadeja kicked ass. This is pretty much the most information I can recollect about any cricket match so far. This, in stark contrast with Vaibhav, who rattles off cricket statistics like the talking encyclopedia every Indian man is.
Anywho, apart from that one match which gave me one of my first crushes in my own personalized version of recorded history, there are barely anymore I remember anything whatsoever about. Then why is it, that as a nation, we are all such maniacs about this sport? My profound take on the deep issue at hand, is that most of us enjoy it because most of us enjoy it. Which makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Don’t get me wrong. As long as it is something that makes people happy, that leads to such elation, such celebration and such (albeit misplaced) sense of national integration, I don’t mind whether it is cricket or Rakhi’s swayamvar. What I don’t understand is the insane nail biting, the GPRS usage that shoots up as cricinfo pages are refreshed every 30 seconds under the tables of high profile corporate conference rooms during matches, the celebrations over someone else’s achievement (Yes, Sachin may just be God. But what is that to you unless you are a priest?). The riots over matches with rival countries. The (seemingly pointless) statistical rattling – The fastest century. The highest score. The most wickets. The lowest run rate. The highest strike rate. Test match. One-day. 20-20. And don’t even get me started on the IPL melodrama! Somehow it never makes any sense when I think clearly (and I tend to do that for most part of the day. May be thats what I’m missing!).
Let the bashing begin.
Mahima Vashisht 
Quite a honest confession Mahima ! And no wonder it comes with no strings attached.. What a line to finish it all, "Let the bashing begin."I ain't gonna sweep it or reverse sweep it either ; but I've got to tell you one thing : that after Anuranjan Roy's "God" – A Tribute to Sachin http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=anuranjan+roy&init=quick#!/notes/anuranjan-roy/god/338935072760, you are bound to top the Cricket Blogger's Rating Points (BRP).Such is the craze of Cricket in India that we people like the lovers and haters of it alike 😉 [Thanks Roy Sir for helping me with the above line] … and so we all shall like all that Mahima has written :)Coming back to you and your love / hatred / neutrality for Cricket, it's hardly a surprise to me ! Coincidentally, I've never been fond of reading blogs, and I too used to think of it as a waste, a fancy I could not fathom why people got into it. And to be frank, the two of you've inspired me to start one of my own. The point that I'm trying to make is that if you could inspire me to a thing I once thought useless, the entire cricket crazy junta might too pour in and inspire you to start watching Cricket more than what you've done.And it's only then that Mahima, shall you achieve the power to be one with the hearts of millions of people around you. [I'm sorry you may see traces of Swami Nityananda here, but that was not the intention :)]Abhigyan
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Hehe.. Thanks! Incidentally, I do follow Roy's blog quite religiously and comparison with it is compliment enough for me to ignore the Nityanandisms :)I'd half expected Roy to be the first one to begin the bash session (Ref: His FB wars for and against Sachin being God). For now, awaiting thy blog eagerly, Abhigyan…
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Hmm… bash me as an terrible MCP for this but you wouldn't be a girl/woman/lady if u understood what is so great about watching sports with passion! It's a Mars-Venus thing (Though I have no idea on earth what that book contains). Congrats on proving yourself once again a staunch member of the fairer sex and commiserations for missing out on a lot of major fun!
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'AN' terrible MCP indeed. Congratulations on proving yourself a staunch member of the unfair sex too! Some mutual admiration here… 🙂
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…says the guy who's best argument is a stereotype? 😛
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Can't really help it if the situation calls for invoking the stereotype and if someone does full justice to the stereotype!
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