Sportsmanship Redefined !

Promising start

Me writing about cricket would come somewhere between the dogs arranging peace talks with cats and my mom not having an opinion about my new dress. But I felt like talking about a sentiment that touched me deep. 

The heat is on....

The umpteenth wicket falling with bails in the air

subdued crowd looking on for a miracle

The T 20 Cricket World Cup finals could have not been passed as just another match once the Sri Lanka got qualified to battle the West Indies. The heat kept on rising till the last moment reaching a delirious height letting the fans go numb with the spirit of the game. There were so many clad in striking blue and gold with the national flag afloat on vehicles, houses and even trees. 

Everyone including shamefully uninterested cricket fans like myself couldn’t avoid catching the fever. It happened to be highly contagious and apparently airborne. That’s how I ended up in the pavilion with bellowing cricket fans cheering for the lions.

The fans were behaving like single organism showing the most heartwarming unity that would bring tears to a war hero. With each run blocked and each wicket that fell the people were cheering even the opposing team thinking that they were just being kind.

The anticlimax happened without a warning, a sure win was turned to an imminent doom…..the lions were turning in to kitties in front of the fans. The strike rate kept on dwindling and the heroes were being sent back to the pavilion before they could see the two digits in their score cards.

The single organism started disintegrating, and the atmosphere turned gloomy. The flags that coloured the air went down on the seats and the cheers died to whimpers and cries. When the loss was getting inevitable the fans were slowly drifting out of the pavilion while their heroes batted on….. only a few remained to finish the game that everyone started. That few kept on cheering till the last ball while many “fans” looked at them as if they were out of their mind.

It made me think….isn’t this something that keeps on repeating in our lives? We fight the game with valor and spirit till things take the wrong turn or the unexpected twist. Then we slowly drift away from it, leaving a battle half fought, sometimes not even knowing who would win. Do we ever ask ourselves who will care for the wounded soldiers who fought for us? Where and how will we pass on the qualities of persistence, loyalty and sticking together for worse as well as for better. 

Nevertheless we will revere the lines repeated so many times in our lives….

United we stand, devided we fall