Reflecting on these thoughts from Nov last year. It cannot be a better than day 29.06.24, as the country celebrates the T20 World cup win.
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22 - Nov - 2023
It has been about 72 hours now and the mind and heart refuses to accept that this Indian cricket team did not win on Sunday night - This will take a bit of time to get over .
Born into a family of cricket crazies , barely 2 when we won the World Cup in 1983. my first introduction to ODI cricket ( my family will not agree but I do recall flashes ) of the 1985 world championship of cricket . The cricket World Cup in 1987 remains a fleeting memory, but I had just started following the game.
1992 in Australia is when things started getting serious:) (I remember waking up at 2:30 AM for the games in NZ and about 3 hours later for games in AUS) - Hold the thought on the 1985 and 1992 -
Over the years - the ODI World Cup has been the pinnacle of cricket for me . I am happy now that the ICC is trying to create more relevance for Test cricket with the World Test Championship - Hopefully with some modification ( maybe a final series than just one game ) it brings the same excitement eventually .
While I have always cheered for team India , there was varied levels of optimism on if we would be real contenders for the biggest prize in cricket, the ODI Cricket World Cup (Sorry T20 fans, you can stay away from this)
1996 - it was going to be ONLY because of the boy who was well and truly on the way to become a GOD. I do not think we were the best ODI side then - SA choked, Australia was OK, but it was the vindication for Aravinda and Ranatunga for all their services to Sri Lanka .
2003 (South Africa ) our team was unbeaten (except we lost twice to Australia convincingly) - also we did not play SA, NZ so on. The reality is even if we had to compete against the peak Aussie team of 2003 , we would need Sachin / someone to repeat the magic against Pakistan to have a chance.
2007, was a shock, but I dare say, we would still have found it difficult to surpass peak SL or peak Australia at the time. The Aussies from 1999 through 2007/8 were absolutely BEASTS (in all sense of the word!).
2011 - I think lot of things worked for us - Sachin summoned his magical powers, Gambhir , Sehwag , Dhoni happened, team got together well and against the waning Aussies (not taking credit away), we still had the inspirational Yuvraj and Raina pull us through and one of the greatest cricketing memories for me happened! - April 2 - what a night in the Wankhede!. Note:- we tied England and lost to SA.
2015- I think this is the period that we started to believe that India can really win as a team - Although, in both these editions it would have been the batting being the main reason (on the sheer runs that Virat and Rohit (and Dhawan in 2015) had scored) - but you always knew that the bowling was functional, without being the best (respectfully Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav - we were definitely aiming too high.) and that would hurt us . Expectedly we were caught out against the Aussies (a team which was not even a shade of the 99-07 era) and Steve smith who has done precious little after in the yellow , chose to play the game of his life and we had the bad day that we hoped we would not.
2019 - Brought back the format of 1992 - which I think should be the format to play the World Cup - Everyone plays everyone. Sadly - by this time, while our bowling was much better (Bumrah just starting off, Shami doing well) , we were bang in the middle of our knock out choke and we lost on the big day. Not before beating the Aussies deservingly so. I suspect even if we had won the semis - we probably would have lost to England (the clear favourites (their white ball revolution at its peak) .
2023 - - Even the most realistic Indian cricket fan had probably factored in one bad day (against NZ maybe) in the league stages (using the 1992 format - hope it stays!)- We saw arguably the greatest performance by an Indian ODI team and walloped everyone to finish UNBEATEN (ode to 1985). Rohit Sharma showed the attitude of Baz in 2015, galvanising the team into hyperdrive - the bowling that we witnessed was perhaps the best EVER by an Indian team (drawing parallels to 1985). Everything worked out well - the scheduling , where we played whom etc and ensuring that as a seasoned cricket follower (35+ years) - for the first time you were convinced that we are The BEST ODI team that currently plays! . Semi finals - I could feel the entire country shared my nervousness (not a single WhatsApp message on any of my groups till the moment Virat shook hands with God) - while NZ put up a real fight, you knew that you had won and you believed that we had bust the knockout cliche and we could take on ANYONE.
But then come this Aussie team - easily one of their weakest teams in the last 10 or so year and on the day, the strategy (I thought they had done an India of 2003, when they chose to bowl!), the tactics that followed , the fielding (gosh!) and some nerveless batting by Head (second time in 5 months) and their winning culture . I think we froze a little - The only one or two things that could go wrong for us ( Having our bottom four batting for a long time and having to rely on SKY (not the person, but the batting order) to make runs in a crucial stage ), went wrong !
The bowling was electric (we can argue we gave too much at the start), Rohit played it like a 40 over match (and the conditions) and threw everything at the Aussies - maybe 40 runs more, maybe one more wicket and we may still have won it. But it was not to be - 9/10 out of the 11 players made telling contributions and impact through the tournament. For once the cricket fan looked forward to the BOWLING innings more than the batting (and that says a LOT) and yet - we fell short. I hate it that we lost the chance to beat the Aussies and to be able to draw parallels with the 99/07 Aussie or the 75/84 West Indian golden era, because I think we are a country mile ahead of the rest.
This statistic is also telling - The Last 4 world cups (2011 included)- We have played 38 matches, lost 5 which includes 3 semis and 1 final and yet we have only the 2011 World Cup to show. I thought 2023 would be our crowning glory - for countless fans like me - I truly believe it is , sadly we do not have the cup to show for it . It hurts bad, when someone like a Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli , Bumrah or a Shami may not have a cricket World Cup winner medal. (T20 wins may still happen, but I think the T20 World Cup or a win can only be a fleeting moment, because of the format not allowing one to be a dominating team for long).
As a cricket fan - I am delighted that I got the opportunity to witness two games this World Cup - may well have landed for the final as well, but for an important family commitment . The stadiums were fantastic (barring Dharamshala, we all saw the outfields!) - the crowds in general were good for most of the BIG neutral games as well (specially in the cricket knowledgeable venues). The ticketing was a an absolute disservice to the cricket fan.
I will fondly remember these 45 days and hopefully the wonderful memories of those help me tide over this loss. The Rohit Sharma assaults, The Shami spell in Lucknow, Virat Kohli looking like his assured self and creating his own Everests, India’s record score in Bangalore, Bumrah flattening the stumps (that bowl to Rizwan…oh gosh!) , Shreyas Iyer’s monstrous six hitting , KL Rahul’s wonderful wicket keeping (and assured batting) , the fielding was brilliant , the crowd going berserk every time our Fab 5 (bowlers for a change) delivered!.
The crowds were partisan generally, but that seems generational to me - (Surprisingly folks around me were very knowledgeable, which made me feel good!) - I had to - a few times quell the silly “RCB RCB” cheering in Chinnaswamy, whenever the crowd wanted to try and get Kohli’s attention (which am glad they got only when my “India India” cheering helped overcome that!).
I got a custom shirt (for the first time) - I wore it to the games, on the days I was home it would be on my sofa - heck I even carried it to Kolkata and Chennai (during my personal trips). Oh man, as I recall , it hurts more…but..I will heal.
Thank you to the India ODI Cricket team for these wonderful memories, which I will hold on to for life - will continue to cheer and I hope in my life time I get to celebrate another ODI World Cup win ( the format I hope will exist - clearly showed up in this World Cup that it marries the skills of Test match cricket and T20 cricket in right proportions).
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