What a match, it was Cheeku!
Dhoni and his team were lucky, cool, collected and with the demeanour of champions! Shahid Afridi and his team had courage, surprises, lot of smiles and grace under fire! This was cricket at its best! But the greatest credit to the crowds…it was the most civilized behaviour in any Indo-Pak match in many many years!
There was so much hype and deafening jingoism as the media backed by big-ticket sponsors built up the frenzy for the game. “It’s war!” screamed the headlines. The war was on, but it was more to do with grabbing headlines and eye-balls! The top-line and the bottom-line of the ugly Pakistan bashing in India and perhaps the reverse in Pakistan was how to keep the cash registers ringing!
And then suddenly a few days ago, sane voices began to be heard. It started with a couple of articles in the newspaper followed by CNN-IBN’s Sardesai and Arnab Goswami of TimesNow and the others. The fact that the Pakistani team was quietly building up numbers to reach the semi-finals. There were no strutting around in the media, there were no loud claims. Shahid Afridi’s team was moving up from the position of having been written off. And rise they did!
Even during the high tension game with India, there was no acrimony. The players behaved well with each other. What touched the heart were the smiles that the fast bowlers would flash after each deadly bowl delivered and the child-like exuberance of Akmal, the wicket-keeper.
And Shahid Afridi was most endearing in defeat…the man walked up to the mike and said Indian had won because they played better…and with a sweet smile he apologised to his country while hoping that everyone who had seen the match had enjoyed it.
Cheeku, we all did…and you were so much there. Tubby and Tintin had organized the match-party! And everyone who loved you and all those you loved were there: Gaurav Kashyap-Karishma, Abhishek, Vikas, Freyah, Callie, Sachin…there was a riot of laughter, excitement, pin-drop silence, fervent prayers, Tintin’s constant advice to the players…! And in the midst of it all, you were the presiding deity, orchestrating fun, inducing laughter, instigating pranks…
As always, all of us were drenched in the infection called life, the way you always show us it is…
Love
Dad