ICC WORLD CUP: ENGLAND WON CRICKET LOST

Fate has come full circle to haunt us once again. From the infamous “Hand of God”, when Maradona scored that goal against England (1986 World Cup Soccer) to knock them out in the quarter finals to the now equally controversial  “Bat of God”, as English fans would love to call it, one can safely say that sports, like life, is a great leveller. Call it poetic justice or Karma coming around, the fact is, irrespective of who wins and who looses, for genuine sports lovers the outcome has left a bad taste in the mouth. You ended up grieving with England in 1986 and now in 2019 you end up grieving with New Zealand. What a sorry predicament for sports lovers!!

What bothered me most during this World Cup was that the lovely game of Cricket was losing on a regular basis right through the one-and-a-half month long tournament. First, the rain God’s did not relent. Matches after matches had to be abandoned or curtailed thanks to the wrong scheduling and absence of reserve day. Points had to be awarded to teams for not playing . And cricket was the loser every time it happened. What was even worse, and an embarrassment to the ICC, the ground management had thin strips of tarpaulin covering less that 20% of the ground for protecting the ground from rains. Sourav Ganguly was quick to  rub this point in as one of the things he has done for Eden Gardens was to get covers that spread over the entire ground and that too bought from England itself!! My heart went out to the cricket fans who travel from across the continent, book costly tickets in advance and have hotel reservations only for a day. How devastated would they be at the end of a frustrating rainy day with not a single ball bowled?

It would be appropriate to point out that here too fate dealt a cruel blow to India. If there had been no provision for a reserve day for rains, as was the case during the league stage, India would have made it to the semi-finals and not New Zealand. As it turned out it was on the extra day that New Zealand beat us fair and square and delivered the knock-out punch to break a billion hearts.

If weather played spoilt sport in the initial stages of the tournament, it was the fan reaction to losses that took center-stage in the later part of the tournament. Leading the pack were the Pakistani fans who just could not digest the fact that their team lost to India. Not only were their food choices, their waist line and fitness questioned but even their family was dragged in making for a very sorry spectacle. When England lost a few matches their critics too lost no time in delivering a few below the belt punches. They not only lamented the lack of variety in their bowling attack but actually saw ‘fear’ in the eyes of their captain when facing fast bowlers.

Indian cynics too had their plate full during the World Cup. Everything was hunky-dory when Indians were on a winning streak. But after loosing to England and winning narrowly against Afghanistan the knives were out. The number four position was again debated, the quality of spinners was doubted and the ‘bits-and-pieces player’ was unfairly pulled up. Cynicism and snide comments peaked when politicians and pseudo-liberals spotted a liberal dose of saffron colour in the Indian team’s outfit. But India’s lowest point came when Dhoni and Jadhav abandoned the run chase against England with full five overs to go. The legendary Sunil Gavaskar still fumbles for words when asked about his infamous slow crawl of 36 runs in 174 deliveries during a world cup match against

 England in 1975. He has used words like mental block and lack of experience to explain the phenomena. Dhoni is yet to come out with a logical explanation. However, it was Kedar Jadhav who was dropped subsequently for displaying a ‘lack of intent’ in the run chase. Why only one ‘junior’ player was pulled up and why was the other ‘legendary player’ let scot free will always be brushed under the carpet by the team management and the pundits who run the game. Ex- Pakistani cricketers were quick to point out that this was done intentionally as the loss prevented them from reaching the semi-final stage. This is no doubt a very serious charge but then this is what cricket has reduced itself to.

But the worst was yet to come. And it came in the finals.  England and New Zealand were tied on scores after fifty overs - despite the ‘Bat of God’ and four additional runs granted to England and Stokes. Displaying  grit, determination and nerves of steel they were once again tied after the super over. However, it was Englad that was declared the winner on the ground that they had scored more boundaries. Somebody clearly had a brain freeze while enacting this rule!! The rule is not just bereft of logic and commonsense but outright dumb. This was a classic case for declaring them joint winners instead of following this rule. Not just neutral spectators and lovers of the game felt shortchanged but even the player in question, Ben Stokes, feels that he will have to say sorry to New Zealand cricketers everytime he meets them for the rest of his life. Clearly a classic case for invoking the old Shakespearean phrase, “ Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”

On that fateful day, in another corner of London, God  decided not to smile on Roger Federer and his fans. Imagine the 37 year old legend, arguably the greatest player of the modern era, blowing away two set points in the haloed arena of Lawn Tennis – Wimbeldon. It was indeed a sad day for sport lovers. Can’t help the feeling that sports and indeed the world itself needs a better God.