May 01, 2007

Sad, Sad World Cup

Everything went wrong with the script this World Cup. From the abnormal length and boredom to the empty stands to Bob Woolmer’s murder to a 74-over final game, partially played in pitch dark.
I’ve seen atleast four editions of the competition (that is after discounting the ’92 edition, because I was five then and the matches were usually at wee hours of the morning). Here's why this World Cup will go down as my saddest Cup:
1. March 17, 2007: The brisk anticlimax to the hoo-ha (or Ooh-ah!) being that India getting knocked out in the preliminary stage precipitately primarily because of losing to Bangladesh, and their close friends losing to Ireland on the same day.

Virender Sehwag's feelings in this image pretty much sum up the disappointment of seeing India losing to Bangladesh.


2. March 18, 2007: As if the previous day wasn’t saddening enough, the depressing demise of Bob Woolmer in mysterious circumstances.
3. Australia’s brash, obtrusive, monotonous, unadulterated, uninterrupted, unblinking and unblushing victory. Add to that so many one-sided and unexciting games.
4. But most of all, for the mass exit of so many great players, that it almost seems there’s no one left to admire in world cricket. Both my personal favourite batsman (Brian Lara, who incidentally turns 38 tomorrow) and bowler (Glenn McGrath) retiring, apart from so many others (Anil Kumble, Inzamam-ul-Haq and starlets like Russel Arnold and Ian Bradshaw) leaves this World Cup fit for cursing. It might also have been the last World Cup in all probability for Hayden, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Jayasuriya, Atapattu, Muralitharan, Vaas, Mohd. Yousuf, Fleming, Shaun Pollock, Craig McMillan and the list seems to be endless.
5. I wasn’t at home, didn’t have the luxury of a TV set to follow every game, which I would have, in spite of the terribly boring matches as well.

Goodbye, Prince!