As a love and hate relationship goes, so does India's and Pakistan's. We can't live with or without each other. And I guess that "symbiotic" relationship carries on to the World Cup of Cricket.
With the departure of Pakistan from the World Cup last Saturday due to Ireland, I'm sure a lot of the Indian supporters were happy to see their next door foe go home with ease. But on the same day, the Indian team lost miserably to an upstart Bangladeshi team.
So while the Pakistanis had booked their tickets to go back home, India was in the process of inquiring with the agent about the next flight after theirs. Today it was the do or die match up with Sri Lanka. For India, a win and they were in to the next round. A loss and you had to call that agent to confirm and make your final bookings to go back home.
Well the over-hyped Indians did what they weren't supposed to do. They lost, and lost badly. The ill-fated team was, for the lack of a better word, SMACKED. The billions of people back home were decimated. The ones who had bet on India to be winners or finalists lost a good chunk of money.
In the meantime, Pakistan have a huge mess on their hands, with the murder of their coach. Suspicion is rampant, and Pakistani cricket is in trouble. The mystery of Bob Woolmer's death is grabbing more headlines than the matches itself. Actually the news was even headline news on CNN, Yahoo! and other American news outlets, outlets where a report on cricket might be about the insect, not the sport.
And now, since both South Asian giants are virtually out of the World Cup (virtually cause India is technically still in it; read on), I'm sure the neighbors can chummy up and share watching others take the spoils of this tournament. It could bring the peace process along quite well, especially figuring out what went wrong with both of the teams' performances. At least for now, we can support each other's grief.
Now as I said before, India virtually is out of the Cup. The reason why I say that is because on Sunday the Bangladeshis play the lowly Bermudans. So far, Bermuda has been thrashed by both India and Sri Lanka. For the Bangladeshis, they need to win or draw to go to the next round. However, a loss would put India through. But the chances of the Bermudans beating Bangladesh is like asking for pigs to fly (although they do in Cincinnati).
Well I'll be superstitious, and wear my Bermuda shorts this coming Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment