It’s that time of a world cricket tourney. When India looks like they can’t lose. Not because of their premier batters but their complete bowling attack, at their intellectual and incisive best. You could feel it during the World Cups in 2003, 2007, 2011 and especially in 2023. In two of those the “job was finished”, for those who speak Kobe. The two others we watched through our angry tears. In the final games of 2003 and 2023, India were dismantled by the (grudgingly) greatest finals team ever, across generations in cricketland – the damn Aussies.
The hatred that we Indian cricket fans have for the Aussies is different from that reserved for England (colonizers), Bangladesh (arrogant disdain), Pakistan (misplaced nationalism) and Sri Lanka (sheer volume of matches). We love the other cricket playing nations to varying degrees. With Australia, the hatred is tinged with fear. Fear born out of chastening experiences, repeatedly. Australia doesn’t crack like other teams. The more high profile the match, the more they turn up. They are fallible but their mental toughness and ruthlessness make them very annoying.
But I digress. India has just played two clinical back to back games against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, winning both by a stately 50 runs. Even the Roh-li opening debate seems to have been assuaged with a couple of nifty scores but such is the expectation of India’s batters that anything less than 50 is considered an unforgivable failure.
There was a distinct shift in my watching experience since we last met, post the Pakistan match.
No more among aunties and munchies, uncles and ready stats, I watched these two games from the non air conditioned confines of my bedroom in Brooklyn. Muggy temperatures of over 90 degrees meant that I got the full 4-D experience, the fourth dimension being the sweat of course. My flatmates know as much about cricket as I do about the irregularities of the cadmium market, so this has been a markedly solitary affair.
While Afghanistan had their moments, the Bangladesh game felt like a foregone conclusion. It always feels like Bangladesh are desperately earnest, much like the commentary of their veteran Ather Ali, while never really believing they have a chance. Cricket games are often lost in the mind long before the body can react.
As the games blur on with a little post IPL fatigue setting in, it helps to find relief in some off the field content. Most IPL teams have a robust social media strategy, showing us plenty of behind the scenes (BTS) action and having their players do a bunch of cute things for the camera. For ancient cricket fans like myself who grew up in the 80s-00s, dressing rooms and any sort of BTS was non-existent. What players did when they weren’t in the field of play was a giant mystery and we waited hungrily for any shots of the dressing room or the private lives of the cricketers. Maybe as a way to ascertain that they were indeed human like the rest of us.
Now, even the notoriously opaque BCCI has jumped on the content bandwagon, with such entertainment delights like Chahal TV and my favorite, the post match presentation of the best fielder medal, beamed from within the confines of the Indian dressing room. As India dominated their way through the 2023 World Cup, the presentations ranged from innovative (spider cam dropping a medal) to legendary as greats of the game appeared to inspire the team.
To see Rahul Dravid and all the players gathered around kit bags, guffawing and beaming, being themselves, has been a rare gift to the Indian cricket fan. I’m savoring every moment before my favorite cricketer calls it quits as the coach, a job to which he brought his characteristic self deprecatory wit, honesty, and unrelenting grit.
Remember those infallible Aussies? Well, a resurgent Afghanistan defeated them deliciously in a match for the ages. Most of us hope to see them recover from decades of being in the forefront of a proxy cold war, and move towards a more gender-inclusive society. But in this moment, we could be forgiven for celebrating the rise of Afghan cricket.
This defeat also raises the stakes for the India – Australia match that will be underway by the time this piece goes live. The Aussies are on the brink of elimination and it would be so diabetically sweet (think Jalebi with vanilla ice cream at a wedding) if India were the ones to put a final nail in that coffin. But it won’t be easy. If we know anything about the Aussies they rarely fail back to back in white ball cricket. By giving them this much attention in this week’s column this writer hopes he has activated some ancient fan power that allows him to jinx a team by offering praise.