I have to confess that I’m not at all a sports-mad person. Wimbledon, World Cup cricket matches or Super Bowl — nothing would drive me to spend hours before a TV screen, screaming my lungs out or sobbing my eyes dry. Perhaps this is to do with the traditional girl-boy divide: few girls of my generation were as mad about sporty events as the boys were. In my own home, later, my father-in-law, husband, our three sons and the male kitchen staff became a team as they cheered every cricket match. I grumbled about how many cold drinks, snacks and popcorns had to be provided and how the kitchen smelt of burnt food while our cook and helper sat transfixed with the men in the sitting room. Jubilation (if India won) and deep gloom (if we lost) were a predictable aftermath too.
If even a person like me sat in front of all the recent matches and prayed that India wins the final, I cannot understand why the Congress party chose to stay away from the final match in Ahmedabad. Was it because the stadium is named after you-know-who or because the chief of the BCCI is the son of you-know-who? Whatever the reason, it was another example of how absurd it is to drag sports into the political arena. I can recall another classic cricket match (was it an India-Pakistan one?) where Rahul, Priyanka and Robert Vadra were present and leapt from their seats at every boundary hit by our players and the victorious arms they raised in keeping with the rest of the spectators that day. They effortlessly became one of the cheering masses and everyone commented on how easily they blended with the rest of the janta. If that image has remained etched in my memory, where were they when India played a memorable match, with so many boundaries that one has lost count?
It is a fact that cricket in the subcontinent is nothing short of a cult. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka — what binds us is just a deep love for this British game that we have made our own. Look next door if you need convincing: what is the passionate support for Imran Khan’s political party but an extension of the huge love Pakistan has for this legendary cricketer? His political naivete is subsumed by the passionate patriotism he evokes in every Pakistani heart. One day, when he is finally released, the tide of anger against the petty reasons for keeping him imprisoned for so long, will smash his rivals like a sixer shot clean over their heads.
That said, let us now turn our attention to our present champions. Unlike so many other teams that participated, this is one that has players from every part of India. North, South, East or West, there is something infectious about their total dedication to each other as a team. From a humble fisherman’s village to a suave good-looking dude from Punjab, from the boondocks of Bihar to that blonde cockerel from Gujarat — you tell me, what’s not to love? And it seems that there is an endless supply of these smashers and leapers just waiting to be given a chance. Contrast this with the stodgy, ageing gora teams, and you will understand what I’m trying to point out.
No son of a Gavaskar or Tendulkar is picked because his father has clout. No dynasties are important when sons of politicians and famous past players are considered. This is a lesson that we need to apply in our choice of political leaders. The selectors may occasionally err but their commitment to giving each hopeful applicant a fair chance is now an established law. How one wishes our political parties would have the courage to do so too.
And now to the elephant in the room: the fast-developing events in the Middle East. Here again, politicians who are out of step with the deep cultural history of the region will have to eventually concede that this is an unknown territory. The resilience and courage of a tiny isolated Iran may well be the hole that sinks the might of a high-handed US-Israeli action. Europe, Canada, Australia and the rest of the white world is doomed to re-live the medieval history lessons it was taught by the tribal kingdoms of the Middle East. In just over a week, this tiny state has paralysed the vital consignments of oil and blocked the sea lanes that keep the rest of the world afloat. And while the aggressors saw just the unpopularity of its political government, they had badly under-estimated its deep cultural pride in its Shia religious identity.
From my own limited exposure to the Shia temperament in Awadh and its memories of Karbala, who on earth gave the go-ahead for killing their Ayatollah in the holy month of Ramzan? Or the consequences of martyrdom that will haunt them for a long, long time? In these deracinated times, the deep cultural beliefs of every major religion — Hinduism, Islam or Christianity — cannot be forgotten. For, those who cannot understand these deep memories embedded in the rituals of fasting and expiation (Ramzan, Lent or Chaitra Navratri) across the world will continue to be puzzled by their resilience and commitment to fight for their faiths.
Mark my words, this is as much a religious war as a war for oil and gas.
— The writer is a social commentator