What the World Cup Means.

The Team: For Team India, touted by experts worldwide as probably the best team in the world, this is the best opportunity to win the Cup. This team, with its own set of imperfections, as a unit has played some of the most spectacular cricket we have seen. It’s India’s most talented team till date, and has the best chances of winning the Cup. Time and again, it has been criticized (not without sufficient proof) of not performing in the biggest and the toughest of situations. This World Cup is a great opportunity for them to prove their mettle, and show what they are capable of. It is a title that will remove all the unnecessary criticism off their backs.

For the Captain: It’s the moment to actually introspect into where he has drawn flak from the experts. People would argue that it’s too late to do that now, as nothing gets bigger than the World Cup. I, on the other hand, feel that the World Cup, though the most important tournament in the game, is far from being the end of the world. The Captain needs to realize what the team lacks while playing at such an international platform and work on that immediately.

For the youth in the team: This is probably India’s youngest team ever. It is also the first opportunity for many of them to play international cricket at the highest level. What better experience can a 22-year old get than playing in the World Cup, that too on home soil? It’s the best opportunity for their potential to be fully tapped as nothing can be less intimidating than playing at home.

For Sachin Tendulkar: Ted Corbett said, “To represent the stature and the greatness of a man like Sachin Tendulkar, even the biggest statue, made in the most precious metals won’t be enough. Because only Sachin Tendulkar is Sachin Tendulkar.” This is most probably his last World Cup, (unless he plays till he is 42, which is far from impossible!!) and also his best prospect to be a part of an Indian World Cup-winning team. Easily the best batsman in the world, he deserves this honour and desperately wants it this time. Despite the fact that his valiant efforts went in vain in the 2003 World Cup, he is determined to prove a point this time. And, it might also give him his hundredth international hundred.

For the people of India: I don’t even want to start out on what cricket means to this nation. In a country where people forgo medicines to buy TV sets to watch matches, where people demand national holidays on days of important matches, where people are more bothered about celebrating a victory than their own birthday, where absolute strangers can talk like best friends about cricket, where Tendulkar’s injury is more important than their own dying of cancer, where every child stands up atleast once in his lifetime to announce, “I want to grow up and be a cricketer”!  Cricket isn’t a religion. It’s water. Absolutely imperative for their survival. If India wins the World Cup, lives of people will be changed forever. People will forget their miseries, and stand up as brothers celebrating the moment. Of course, the fact that it is being played in our own country is just the cherry on the cake!

For the Poor in India: This event, as contrasted with the CWG (*hint hint*) has a majority of its ownership with the private sector and has certified poverty upliftment initiatives, like the ‘Reliance Rs50,000 per Six per School Programme’. This is an event which can rightfully claim to be an international event with effective implications for the poor in our country. This competition is also going to contribute lakhs of rupees to the Rural Sports Development Fund of India, which according to me, comes under a Ministry under the dynamic leadership of Mr Ajay Maken.

I write this on the eve of the most awaited match, between India and Pakistan. The outcome of this match can’t be predicted and India’s fate in unknown. Yet, we stand here, with our fingers crossed, faith in Dhoni and his men and hearts praying that India wins and the glory comes home.