Someday, today will be nostalgia

On August 18th, the whole of India reached home, switched on their televisions and realised a semi-final was on. At the centre court was an athlete who probably most of the country hadn’t even heard of. She doesn’t appear on television commercials, doesn’t have a social life that tabloids can make money from. At approximately 8.30 pm, August 18 th , all of that changed. First set, 21-19. Second set, 10-10. She then took off like Usian Bolt does when he reaches the half way mark and suddenly proceeds to seemingly glide across the finish line. 21-10. Whatsapp was orgasming, hashtags were being birthed by the second and channels combusted with the breaking news. People will leave from work early today. Hopefully, crowds will stand around television shops and watch. Pizza delivery boys will work over time. Beers will be ordered. Cheers will be emanate from homes at regular intervals. Crackers, which were presumably stored for an Indian cricket team victory wil...

The BCCI should be handed an award for double acting. In a pugnacious bid to deflect attention from all the evils it commits, a onetime bonus payment was made to past cricketers. That India’s first world cup winning hero Kapil Dev wasn’t invited for the proceeding reeks of double standards. Now that the circus has left our television screens, it would be a good time for some introspection. For all the fun and nearly two months of evenings that figured how to spend themselves, the league is increasingly flirting with fantasy. Coming at a time when Indian cricket is at its lowest nadir, it served as the perfect smokescreen. The acrimonious series losses in Australia and England have seemingly been forgotten. As the past few years have shown, IPL stars remain just that, IPL stars, with very few having made the transition to the ultimate arena. Real cricket isn’t played with cheerleaders cheering you on and it lasts much longer than 3 hours. Moral conduct seems to have do...