That is a strange question to ask an Indian. Ever asked a Brazilian why they like football? Cricket is a way of life in India. It transcends a mere sport. It is a passion, a desire and a rare sport at which we are as good as anybody in the world.
My love for cricket began very early on. There are photographs of me as a 3-year old holding a tiny bat with my father bowling at me. For most Indian boys, playing cricket is integral to the growing up process, just as in the United States kids grow up playing baseball with their parents.
I still remember those days when all I had in mind was for the school bell to start ringing, so that I could rush back to home, get rid of the uniform, wear something more suitable and get to the ground close by on my bicycle, hoping to play as much cricket as possible till it got very dark in the evening. In fact, as kids, we even used to play in after 8 PM, under the street lights, or at least till our mothers came to fetch us.
Those were innocent times when cricket actually meant something. We didn’t have IPL back then, and India wasn’t as prosperous as it is today. Cable TV had just been introduced and Sachin Tendulkar was still in his early 20’s and looked no older than 15. Those were the days when Mohammad Azharuddin was the captain of the Indian cricket team and was universally loved – not a hated non-entity with his reputation permanently damaged by the match fixing scandal as he is today.
No, we were not as innocent or naïve back then as perhaps my father’s generation. But we were certainly not as cynical or easily bored as today’s generation of kids. We didn’t have an Xbox or PlayStation 4 back then, and our only exposure to football was during the World Cup, which happened only once in four years. In fact, the only time we forgot about cricket was when the football World Cup was on. It’s hard for kids in India today who are fed on a daily diet of EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League to understand how much the World Cup meant to us.
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But as much as we liked football, and had our favorite teams – it was mostly Argentina or Brazil for most of us – it was always at a distance as India obviously did not feature in them. Cricket was different, because India was involved. Cricket was not about money back then, it was about patriotism.
I remember missing most of the quarter-final match between India and Pakistan in the 1996, World Cup because I was in the prayer room, worshipping fervently to God, hoping for India to win. Well, we won that match, so my prayers worked – but not enough, as we lost the next match against Sri Lanka and were kicked out of the World Cup, amid much hand wringing all over the country!
Now, the very idea of praying to God to help India win a cricket match would make me cringe. Who really cares whether the present bunch of spoiled multimillionaires wins or loses? Cricket is no longer about India any more… it’s about who got the biggest IPL contracts, who dates the hottest starlet in Bollywood right now and who has the coolest haircut.
Cricket is nothing more than entertainment and it faces a serious completion from the EPL and UEFA Champions League, as well as from Xbox, Facebook, Twitter and Angry Birds. Cricket is no longer the only game in town.
Do I still love cricket? I guess not. But I can’t stop myself from watching a match when it’s on TV or checking out the latest scores. The love affair I had with cricket is over. The passion I had for the game is no longer there. But I still cannot imagine my life without it. There still isn’t an India match I miss, even though I may not care about the result as I used to as a kid. Does that make sense?
