Oh who’s gonna win the world cup?

Right this minute this is the question that’s creating so much of excitement and suspense in the minds of most individuals, especially the people of the two countries playing in the Finals today: Sri Lanka and India.  All of us are waiting in nail-biting anticipation for the few hours to trickle by and then the game will begin!

First off, I would like to confess I am no ardent cricket fan. Years back, I remember rolling my eyes in irritation when my sister and cousin used to argue – for hours- about who was better: Rahul Dravid or Kumar Sangakkara. They supported India and Sri Lanka respectively and please don’t ask me why my sister played the traitor role- I still don’t understand the lack of love.  But anyway, I digress.

I still don’t see the point in watching a match for hours- really, if there is no drama in it, what could possibly be interesting? But believe it or not, the matches that determine the team that’s selected for the semi-finals and finals can be quite thrilling, especially the last set round of overs. And it would be of even a greater intensity if your country is playing. So you can conclude from my observations that I have indeed watched the last few matches and found myself enjoying it and the high it gave me [Yep, psychological viewpoint] . Sri Lanka played fairly well…honestly speaking, they could improve in some areas but all round they are,  in cricket speak, good form! I am sure they will prove to be a tough team to compete against…Insha Allah.

For your amusement I would like to jot down some interesting stuff that happened:

1. Even though this is a  sports game I love to see even a faint display of emotion. During the semifinals [New Zealand Versus Sri Lanka] Mahela scored a duck when he got out for the first ball and the camera panned in on his wife. She was holding her cheeks and her mouth was open in disbelief. I hope she comforted him because he looked like he badly needed it:  he is a terrific batsman and he dashed all our expectations and so must have had it on his conscience! These things happen…

2. There is a cricketer in our team who flaunts quite a bit. .. overall, I find him quite a bit of a show-off; but what the heck, who cares about mundane stuff as this when he plays excellent cricket?!

3. Since some of the matches were played here, people flocked over to buy tickets. I come across numerous pictures on facebook of people [even people I know] waving flags and donning t-shirts/wigs/facepaint as a support to our team. There was even someone who was spotted on camera and had statuses and pictures plastered all over facebook announcing his 15 seconds of fame! That reminds me, Indians will have the upper hand today because the Mumbai stadium will be crammed with 99.9% of fans supporting India and there will be no one to cheer our lions when they score a six or four. Hmmph hopefully they’ll block out the negative emotions and will not be discouraged; we are cheering in front of our TV. You would think with economy being so low, people would think twice about buying these tickets but then again, everyone needs a break!

4. There was a guy in the audience sleeping. Sleeping in all that din! Note that I didn’t say amidst the excitement because he could very well be like me and could have found the match boring [50 overs is a long, long  stretch of time to watch]. He was sleeping quite deeply and I wonder what his reaction was when he later saw himself going ‘ZZZ’ in the middle of a cricket game. Haha!

5. I felt a tug of sympathy when Afridi apologized to his country at the presentation for letting them down and that too with a smile on his face. It must have required a lot of willpower because who wants to go back home, defeated? But I guess failures make them more of a man and will come back and play better [Am I the only one who can see the irony in the seriousness of losing just a game where...men...are playing?]

However trivial it feels to me , I love watching it with the family and voicing our disappointment and happiness along with the rest of the Sri Lankans and you realise that in all this, what makes this game so special comes down to an emotion too…UNITY!