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CRICKET, INDIA'S RELIGION!

The ball leaves the bowler’s hand, pitches, kicks and turns before crashing into the timber, leaving the batsman flummoxed. And an entire nation is on its feet jumping for joy. What a marvelous sight!

No other sport can match the passion that cricket generate in our country. Why? Because cricket has brought more pride and glory to the nation than any other sport. Because our cricketers have achieved much more on the international stage than all the other sports in the country put together. And we conveniently forget that these achievements by themselves don't pull much weight on the international arena. Understandable!

Instances of other sports bringing glory to the nation have been few and far between. The legacy of eight Olympic gold medals in hockey is buried in the dusty pages of history. The current hockey team is struggling to make a fight of matches let alone win them. The handful of medals won here and there in the Olympics have been spasmodic and inconsistent to arouse any sort of emotion.

On the other hand, cricket shines like a beacon in the surrounding gloom. Ever since Kapil's Devils conquered the world on that magical day at Lord's, cricket has consistently thrown up moments of delight and ecstasy for the Indians. So what if we haven't won a series abroad in 16 years, we have hardly lost anything at home! In the recent past our cricket team has thwarted the best team in the world, featured in the finals of a World Cup and two mini World Cups, and fought gallantly on the international arena. And these achievements compared to our medal drought in the Olympics, our inability to feature on the soccer map of the world, or our lackluster hockey team, is like a Taj Mahal amidst a group of stone huts.

Can the Indians be blamed for patronizing the only sport that has been their source of pleasure and gratification? So what if it is only a ten-nation sport? What if the team has not produced victories away from home? It has still given us something to cheer about.

But a pertinent question that needs to be addressed is – why do we have sport? It is for those moments of joy, those moments of despair and distress followed by elation and excitement. It is for those moments that put your heart in your mouth, for those moments that bring a prayer to your lips, for those moments that give you goose bumps. It is not about winning medals or achieving milestones. Sport exists simply for the delight it brings with it.

Does it matter if we don’t win medals in the Olympics? Does it matter if we can never qualify for a Football World Cup? Cricket has given us something more precious. Yeah – those moments. And that is why cricket is a religion in India!