As I switched off my television my set on Friday night, a terrible sense of disgust and anger gripped me. I woke up on Saturday morning to find out that the emotions have changed.It was no longer the disgust that persisted, but there was a discomforting grief - the grief of realisation of the shattering of dreams which were never to be transformed to reality, the grief of an inexplicably disconsolate loss, the grief of shame and the grief of the of the fear of the anticipation of the worst coming true.
March 23, 2007 will be a day that will haunt the mind of Indian cricket lovers for ever. Four years ago, it was on this day that "we" meekly surrendered to the might of the Aussies in the finals of the World Cup. And four years later, "we" succumb even more pathetically to the Lankans.
Now the ostriches will raise their heads, only to find themselves at a point of no return (an ostrich buries its head in the ground when he sees the enemy. He thinks that because he cannot see the predator, he is safe, but the fact is that the predator comes and makes merry over his prey).The damage to Indian cricket has been irrepairable. But the realisation of this inevitability should have been there right from the day when we lost to England in a test match on the best of spin pitches in Mumbai.
Note: The word "we" here signifies not only the 11 representing us in the field but the 1 billion eyes that followed them on television, the crores of people who prayed for Team India, the lakhs of students who gave up their studies to watch the match and the person who sold his kidneys to follow the team to West Indies.
And all that the Indian coach, had to say about us - the "we" of Indian cricket in the post match conference, and I quote - "I am least bothered about the reactions and emotions of the billion fans back in India. The BCCI is my employer and they pay me for the job I am doing." A remark which at best (even trying to be the gentlest of a gentleman) can be termed...