Nerve Endings Firing Away

Just when I was bemoaning the predictability of a lackluster tournament, the Cricket World Cup kicked into high gear with two monumental upsets. India went down to Bangladesh and Pakistan was knocked out of the World Cup by ‘lowly’ Ireland. It was a dark night on the subcontinent dotted probably with only flickering television screens inside dark homes. At least the west side.

The east side of the subcontinent must have erupted with joy after defeating their strong neighbors. And although everyone has said this but Bangladesh deserved this victory. The Indian team was a perfect personification of complacency and shoddy cricket. Players that are clearly lacking in form have been picked in favor of those who are raring to go. Otherwise dependable batsmen like Dhoni, Dravid, Robin, and even Agarkar failed miserably against a weak attack. India now must win both its games against Sri Lanka and Bermuda to avoid joining their other neighbors on a flight home.

The recently concluded series victory against Sri Lanka shouldn’t be indicative of an always-unpredictable Indian team. Now, I even doubt a reasonable performance against Bermuda that Sri Lanka recently whipped is possible. But then again by the unpredictable scale, India might just pull up its socks and deliver the goods. Remember the previous World Cup when Holland gave us a scare after our loss to Australia? Vitriolic reactions across India almost scared the players into performing and landing us in the finals where we eventually caved in easily. Do we always need a kick in the rear to get our act together?

On the other side, Pakistan finally plunged to its lowest depths after being knocked out of the World Cup – by Ireland. It was probably the sweetest St.Patrix Patrick’s Day for the also-greens. I didn’t watch that game but the scoreboard was good enough to tell the woeful tale of Pakistani batting. And I thought they would miss the bowling abilities of junkie Shoaib.

The consequences of these results are far-reaching. There isn’t going to be a India-Pakistan match for the public (and advertisers) to get excited about. And in the likely scenario of India not making it, interest in the World Cup on the subcontinent will nosedive. Poor broadcasters who have spent millions for telecast rights and apparel/drinks/any-conceivable-product-used-by-players sponsors must be sweating hard now. They might just be tempted to fix the remaining matches for India to ensure that at least they make it to the next round. Frankly, I cannot imagine a World Cup without either India or Pakistan in the semis. I guess by the way these teams are playing, we better get used to it, eh?

Other well-informed match analyses: Amit Varma’s India Uncut, Prashant’s Kyun, Rezwan’s Live Blogging the Match, Vivek’s three scenarios for India’s hopes, Idols defeated by Fans, and Chetan’s Review.

Cool Rants: Great Bong’s India Blue It, Confused’s St. Patrick’s Massacre, and BongoPondit’s mandatory (and late) rant.

Update#1: Confused has collated some of the above posts on DesiPundit and almost all of them are well reasoned and give due credit to Bangladesh for their victory. Now all we need are some effigy burning bloggers to complete the picture of reactions the way traditional media tends to highlight. IndiCast mentioned (in passing) stripping the cricketers naked and whipping them but that was at the end of a very frustrating night.

Update#2: Bob Woolmer, renowned cricket coach and the current coach of the now-ousted Pakistani team died unexpectedly in his hotel room earlier today. I hate to sound alarmist but I’d like to know more details about his death [update: Bob Woolmer *was* murdered.] Shortly after his team’s defeat to Ireland he said, “Doing it internationally, it takes a toll on you … the endless travelling and the non-stop living out of hotels.” Probably that’s all that is. Indeed a great loss to cricket.

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