As I write this, India has just finished its best ever showing at an Asian Games and is hosting the One Day International Cricket World Cup 2023. For the first time, the Indian contingent won over 100 medals with Shooting, Archery and Athletics leading the way. I loved watching the games as much as I could. Neeraj Chopra was brilliant and the contest with Kishore Jena was fun. The highlight was the men’s Kabaddi final between India and Iran. I did not watch much of it, but when I did, it was that long drawn out denouement of the contest. Such occasions in sport are rare and remarkable when they happen. The referees looked confused out of their skins. I don’t recall any incident in the past where the referees have gone back and forth on their decision to reward points during a live game! No one seemed to know the right thing to do. When they did make a decision and call out the result of that decision, either team would sit on the court in protest! Commentators have called it as having gone beyond a farce, but it was just plain funny. There have been occasions in the past when teams have walked off in protest against a decision that they have felt was biased. It has always appeared childish to me that professional teams behave like we used to when we were kids. Thankfully, professional sport has not fallen to the level that we were used to as children. In hindsight, we spent as much time arguing about outcomes as much as we did in playing the game. It could be football or cricket, the result was the same. It’d be fun to watch a professional game played in the same way once in a while. More passion any day!
Moving on too the Cricket World Cup or CWC for short, it promises to be good viewing. I have not been as excited about watching a CWC as much as this in some time now. All the teams are at full strength (or at least most of them are). The ODIs as a format are losing attraction in favour of T20s nowadays, of course. But ODIs really are a good representation of Test match cricket, much more than T20s can ever be. Of course, the lure of the T20s is there for everyone to see – the shortened version is just right for an evening of cricket. But, hey, a World Cup comes around once in 4 years and a day’s cricket, while difficult to watch during a workday or even a weekend, is still quite interesting. Watching cricket is usually less about sitting and watching every ball and more about letting it run in the background while other tasks are being performed.
I like India’s chances this time around. Having just watched the team play the Asia Cup and the warm-up games against Australia, they just seem to be on top of their game. The body language of the leaders in the team has been good. There are lots of leaders in there too – Hardik, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ravi Jadeja, R Ashwin and Bumrah have all been captains of franchise teams or the national team at various points in their careers. All of them seem to be tuned in and providing their inputs to the appointed captain, which is the way it should be. Of course, victories or losses are not entirely in the team’s control. Playing well certainly is and they seem to be doing that. I like the composition of the team also – they have relative youngsters in Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan. A fit and fast bowling Hardik Pandya will be important and if India are to win the tournament, there will be at least one key game in which he will prove to be the match winner. The ingredients are all there – good fast and spin bowling options, batsmen in form and and a couple of all rounders. If they play to their potential and luck stays with them, they should be able to go far. I will be following their progress, that is for sure.
Mithun's Musings 