And We All Say "INDIA.....INDIA!!!!!!"

Before a match!!!!!

One of my finest and cleanest memory I have of my childhood is that of getting a cricket
bat on my birthday. And I will be perfectly honest with you when I say that though I remember
the gift but I definitely don’t remember how old I was back then. And then the journey of dreams
started, dreams that every child in India dreams while growing up, to become a “Cricketer”. I
vaguely remember hitting a lot of shots with that bat. You hit every ball thinking that you are
next “Sachin”. If you didn’t play cricket back then, you would surely be branded a ‘loser’. But
who can blame us. On the contrary we are not the ones to blame.

Just one of the examples of the craze of cricket
in India!!!!

Cricket is a religion here. We eat, sleep and breath cricket throughout our lives. We speak
the names of our cricketers more than any other word in our lives perhaps. And this craziness
doesn’t limit itself to India only. Indians all over the world are the same. They share the same
passion, same love for the game. One of the finest example to highlight this fact was given by
one of the England captains when he said at the toss that on arrival to the ground he felt as if his
team were the away side although the match was being played in England itself. A typical match
in India is marked by people standing outside TV selling stores. And if the match is between
India and Pakistan then you can be rest assured that it will be a public holiday. A recent Shah
Rukh Khan ad rightly projected the love for the game. A person will stop and ask a complete
stranger “score kya hua”? The stadiums will be jam packed and one look at the crowd will be
enough to make you believe that there are more people than seats. Long queues will greet your
eyes outside the stadium. And if you happen to have the match bickets then you are well advised
to leave your home a good two hours before the match in order not to miss a single ball.

The moment when a billion hearts are broken!!!!!

We have all grown up hearing the words “Time Never Stops”. There is only one

exception to this phrase. The moment when there is an appeal against Sachin Tendulkar. Time
does stop for the Indian fans. Their heart does skip a beat. Everything seems to come to a
standstill. And if the dreaded finger goes up then a billion hearts are broken. I feel pity for the
umpire who has to face the curses of a billion people for no mistake of his icon. An Indian loss is
equivalent to a personal loss. It hurts. I used to cry whenever India lost a match when I was
small. I used to request my mom to change the result of the game somehow.

We Indians pride ourselves to be the best analyst of the game. Every adda will have

cricketing topics to be discussed whenever a series is going on. And let me assure you each and
every aspect of the game is discussed over a cutting. Each player is scrutinized over and over
again. There is nothing as a perfect shot in our dictionary. Each one will have a different view on
what should have been done to the ball bowled. If we had our way then each ball would have
been a boundary. Cricketers are more than God to us till the time India is winning.

On the eve of the match each and every person, rich or poor, will be glued to heir TV sets

and ratio’s and when the Indian team takes to the field a billion hearts just say one
word “INDIA….INDIA!!!”

They made us proud!!!!!