Indian Cricket Team, the Gentleman's Game of Cricket

Moving on from football to cricket, which is India's national sport, my favorite pastime, and the "game of eleven idiots" (as George Bernard Shaw once put it), I believe that only a very small percentage of Indians are unaware of what cricket is, with the majority being the millions of fools who are devoted supporters of the Men in Blue (the BCCI Indian Cricket team marketed to the core). For many Indians (including myself), cricket is the foundation of life itself and bigger than life. Football is to Brazil what cricket is to India. To watch India win the game is what a true Indian cricket fan longs for, lives for, and values above all else (accompanied with a big smile).

The 2003 World Cup semifinal appearance of India was one of the highlights of my life. Unfortunately, March 23rd, 2003, also ended up being one of the most depressing days. Ricky Ponting (Punter) reportedly had other intentions and, as his nickname suggests, better bets. On that dreadful day, I and many other Indians were reduced to tears while wearing our "Men in Blue" Tri-Colour painted T-Shirts and faces due to a few errors made by the Indian cricket team, which is captained admirably by Sourav Ganguly (Dada, Prince of Calcutta, God of the off-side). We wiped away our tears of sadness and hoped that we would experience the same glorious moment that the generation before us had watched at Lords in 1983. In that match against the then-invincible West Indies Cricket team, Kapil Dev's Indian cricket squad, the underdogs, won us the world cup.

My passion, my love, and a very beautiful game is cricket. For an Indian cricket fan, there aren't many things more beautiful than the magnificent Sachin Tendulkar straight drive (down the ground), that flawless Rahul Dravid square cut, and not to mention the precisely placed drives on the off-side by the off-side God, Sourav Ganguly. makes cricket appear a little bit romantic (Yuvraj makes cricket literally romantic, to his female fans, he is also great at fielding and very good at batting, sorry ladies).

The claims that Indians are overly sentimental about cricket are true—I have personally been accused of this. I mean, emotions do arise for people occasionally in life. I sometimes wonder why it's impossible to imagine life without cricket. Then I recall that my enthusiasm for cricket was inherited, since it runs through my blood (like many Indians). I can distinguish between two times in my life: before the 1992 World Cup and after it, thanks to my father (though he does not admit it, he loves cricket as much, maybe more). Even if cricket is no longer played in a gentleman's attire, it still has much of its alluring charm.

Read more:
Cricket Betting
Cricket's International Development

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