A Whole New World is a wonderful song in Disney’s Alladin. Today, the BCCI is considered the genie of the cricketing world – who can grant any cricketer the wish of untold riches and unabashed bashing on social media. The IPL is the biggest cricket tournament of the planet – akin to the Hunger Games, except that the hunger is for TRPs. And that’s only for the post-match commentary and brand plugs. Like Harsha Bhogle asking on air: “Will that be an IDFC First DRS?” What the hell does that mean? Will IDFC First decide if the batter is out or not out? Will there be a board resolution to take a vote on LBW decisions? How far will we take the notion of branded imprints on all our sports till its pretty much Oppo vs Vivo rather than India vs Pakistan? I would love to hear your ‘DLF Maximum Opinion’ on this!
India has started out great guns, mainly by having its name appropriated by a political party which is now personally invested in ensuring we lift the World Cup. Because every chant of India in this World Cup will now be a free endorsement for them, a la Pepsi’s “Nothing official about it” campaign in the 1996 World Cup. The slogan for that World Cup was “Wills, share the magic”. So, the tobacco company was essentially asking all of us to share in a little bit of lung cancer, while also screaming ‘INDIA!’ at the top of our lungs.
This is the World Cup that has come back to India after the epic win in 2011, culminating with MS Dhoni’s swing for six at the Wankhede stadium. I had the misfortune of having my wallet and Blackberry pickpocketed when I went to join the celebrations at Marine Drive. It would have cost me less to buy the ticket for the final. But I was afraid to take the bet that India would make it to the final. So, perhaps, this was India’s way of teaching me to keep the faith.
The teams lined up to do well are India, Australia, England, Pakistan, New Zealand, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh being dark horses. Afghanistan, of course, remains a dark horse politically as well. India did well to win the recent India-Australia ODI series, with many of its apprehensions addressed. From the form of Suryakumar Yadav to the return of Shreyas Iyer and some power hitting by KL Rahul. Rahul, of course, will be the glad all the power hitting he was subject to during the epic interview with Hardik Pandya has been forgotten.
Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul on ‘Koffee with Karan’
On the bowling front, the big decision was to finally pick Ravichandran Ashwin over the injured Axar Patel. Ashwin has been moved around more than a bureaucrat who has chosen to take on the establishment. He is considered a connoisseur of chess with a passion for it even off the chess board. Perhaps, there is more than meets the checkmate on a cryptic post by Axar Patel on Instagram after the selection.
But lest you accuse me of needlessly raising faux controversies on this festive occasion, please join me along with the entire Pakistani team (including Bob Woolmer’s ghost) in wishing cricket a happy World Cup 2023.
