BENGALURU: Last week’s T20 tournament brought heartbreak for Indian fans. After having a dicey tournament and barely scraping through to the knockout phases, India eventually bowed out after being comprehensively beaten by England. It was doubly ironic and sad because India has the richest cricket board in the world.
The BCCI has been running the IPL for nearly 15 years now, and calls the shots in world cricket. It’s tantamount to the USA not winning any tournaments in basketball after inventing and making the sport popular across the world. To add insult to injury, India plays the most cricket among all of the 10 cricket playing nations in the world. But it’s been 13 years since India won an ICC tournament at the world stage.
The weekend was filled with sad posts on social media mourning the Indian team’s loss. There were, of course, some salty posts that celebrated Pakistan’s loss in the finals. But it is undeniable that Pakistan, a much poorer cricket board without access to the hi-tech gadgetry and technology available to us – played their hearts out better than the Indian team did.
For most youngsters, it might feel heartbreaking. But allow a senior citizen from the 90s to guide you through the sorrow. For you see, nobody understands disappointment more than a ’90s kid. To paraphrase Bane in The Dark Knight - ‘You merely feel disappointment. We were born in it’. It was an era without options. Travelling meant visiting your grandparents for summer vacations. Chocolates meant candies that stuck to your teeth and only came out when the dentist uprooted your teeth for eating too many chocolates. In an age bereft of social media and smartphones, the television was the No.1 entertainer in the house. And without too many cable TV channels, cricket was the only factor that caused a flutter of excitement in our heavily moderated lives.
And there is no greater tragedy than an Indian cricket fan’s life in the ’90s. It was the era when India could hardly be ranked among the top sides in the world. We frequently lost to Pakistan in crunch situations. Sri Lanka was Kryptonite for our supermen. If India were playing Australia or South Africa, it was almost a guaranteed loss. You had to cry into your pillow and go to school the next day. That was life. And since much of human greatness comes from passing on our knowledge to the next generation, here are my tips to deal with the loss.
Look for other sports. The dismal performance of the Indian cricket team in the ’90s helped me gravitate to other sports like tennis and boxing. Individual sports do not have the toxic jingoism of team sports. Pick and support a team every year for the Premier League. It helps you move on from one relationship to the other quickly. Last year, I was rooting for Liverpool. This year, I’m gunning for Manchester City. Next year, it’ll be someone else.
To quote my long-gone friend Bukowksi: Develop a hobby. Start believing in God. Raise a child. Donate blood. Feed pigeons mangoes in winter. Run a marathon. Drink from noon to next noon. Cast your vote and vote your caste. Start investing in crypto. Compete in sports you have never played a single day in life. Take leave from work. Land up in Cambodia. But please – for the love of God – stop getting emotionally attached to the performance of the Indian cricket team. You can thank me later by attending my standup shows in person. You’re welcome!