World Cup final

The World Cup Final did not evoke much interest in me. Maybe, because of the hype and hoopla generated for the semis with Pakistan. Having won that, most of us just thought that we had achieved our goal and it does not matter much if we win the Cup or not.

Never-the-less, U.Sekhar (547) had a bright idea; the final would be watched on giant screens at Waltair Club.

Some 12 of us reached the club at 2PM to reserve the best seats. The arrangements made there were fantastic, with 3 huge screens in a huge AC Hall with a capacity to hold around 500 people. And each was given a whistle to make merry. The atmosphere was electric as often said by Ravi Sastri. Naturally, when you are in that atmosphere, one would automatically get electrified himself.

Sri Lanka chose to bat after the faux pas of the toss, which would have been blown out of proportion had we lost.

Drinks were served with a special offer of 1+1, we take one of any brand, and one more is free. So, it being afternoon we started with chilled beer.

The first 10 overs were very impressive. Only 31 runs on the board. In our excitement, we downed 12 bottles and claimed the free ones.

Every dot ball or a good save was cheered, with ear blowing whistles. Then the Lankans started to consolidate, we were getting a little bored. We tried all stunts possible, like changing places, going to the loo for a pee and forcing it out in order to get a wicket.

Nothing worked, Jayawardna kept scoring and we kept downing Mallaya’s concoction. We even lost count of the number of bottles of beer we consumed.

The last 5 overs, the Lankans added 63 runs and in our tension, we added 12 more bottles among us.

We waited in anticipation for our Veeru and Sachin to start a fitting reply. We sat with fresh stock of chilled beers. Veeru was out the second ball. Silence all round.

We gulped more beer.

 Then Sachin also fell shortly. There was gloom all round.

So, after almost five hours of continuous ‘beering’ and having lost two of our best batsmen, what will any Saikorian do?

Sekhar suggested that it was all because of the beer. So? We shifted to RUM.

But actually, that ploy worked. Gambhir and Virat played steady. And the flow of Rum was proportional to the flow of runs. And at last we WON. WE WON.

I involuntarily stood up and started to dance with so many others dancing. Imagine a Saikorian with alcohol filled veins dancing. My dance was a mixture of Bhangra, Rock & Roll and African version of what not. I was dancing away to glory, when, suddenly every thing fell silent.

“Is it because of my dance?” I wondered.

No, we were going to be presented the World Cup.

That was the time I realized that my system was disagreeing with me. Every thing around me was revolving like asteroids around Saturn. I had to leave, I excused myself and I don’t really remember how I reached home. I remember cars and bikes buzzing past in high speed carrying huge flags and shouts like Red-Indians calling for rain.

I woke up this morning late with a feeling that my head was under a hydraulic wrench.

Thinking of it, we won the World Cup because our players were quite motivated and played like a team. Some decisions were taken, collectively or individually, which affected some players, but no one complained. Each one of the players gave their best. They set a goal and worked hard for it.

That is what made around 17.5% of the world’s population to celebrate last night.

Great feeling. Great.

Now, we as Saikorians have to knit ourselves like that to achieve our Golden Jubilee goal.

We CAN and we SHALL.

I hope.

Ravi.T(813)