The writing on THE WALL

Posted by Jay-talking!

Call 1 - "Hey, didja watch the match?""Yea.. S Africa are a great team!" Call 2 - "Hey, what about the match? How was it?" "Cool, man, Hayden is GOD!" There you have it. Every friend, acquaintance, colleague, passer-by that you want to chitchat cricket with seems to have forgotten India's exit from the World Cup. After all, why remember 2 sleepless nights when there are better things in life to rejoice about. Its almost a rerun of last week when India lost to Bangladesh. When I called up people the next day, they were all asleep. I could guess the agony and the frustration through the night they must have gone through before relaxing in deep slumber now. Somehow cricket brings out the worst face of people too. Just place the mild mannered doctor next door or probably the local milkman in front of a television set during a cricket match involving India and you might probably learn a thing or too in the choiciest vocabulary about bad language and the Indian cricket team. It definitely introduces a sense of unity in the watchers in terms of the emotions that they go through. The funny thing for me was the reaction of people after the Ind-B'desh match. Call 1 - "Hey g'morning, woken up at last!! How did u find the match?" "Great..it was pretty close!""Close? What r u tlking abt? Maan...B'desh won comfortably, right?" "Wot? B'desh? Ireland won against Pakistan!! Thats what I am interested in!!" Cool!! Nobody was interested in talking about India's loss. They had had it in one night. The Pakistan loss was a small consolation. Anyway, thats life!

Just imagine the frenzy that would have been created had Sachin Tendulkar scored the fastest century in the world cup against S Africa!! M Hayden goes about his job as a regular bloke. Now we know the issue. Its extremeties at play that has the Indian effort undone. Which also brings us to the biggest question of the decade.

Whatever has happened to Sachin Tendulkar?