Diary of a World Cup fan - Page 1

Stumpy, the official mascot of the ICC World Cup 2011.. Oh wait.. maybe no..

Feb 12 – Nineteen years ago, God had created Mohammad Aamir and must have said to him, “Son, you have been made to do great things with the ball”. But alas, the devil won. A week ago, the Pakistani trio were suspended from international cricket for five years. Meanwhile the “Cup that counts” (wonder how good it is in Calculus) will be beginning in a week’s time. The warm up matches begin today with West Indies taking on Kenya – or as Obama would have said “Yes, WI – KEN”.

Feb 19 – Today, the world got to witness that Sehwag can not only destroy the opposition bowlers but also his own. It only took a candid statement by him saying that everyone had a good game except Sree, and suddenly his knock of 175 became the second most talked about thing of the day. Meanwhile, we realized that we would be spared from the ‘wisdom’ of Arun Lal and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan in this World Cup. The world is perhaps not such a bad place after all. Also, when it came to throwing ads in our faces, the broadcasters for a change, were as restrained as Kapil Sibal in his 2G scam figures. I think I am going to enjoy this World Cup.

Feb 21 – Sales of tickets for the World Cup finals were supposed to have started. Getting a ticket has become akin to getting an IIT seat – only the top 4000 would be lucky enough. This Cup only counts ‘defined’ fans.

Feb 24 – History was made today. For the first time in Tendulkar’s 21 years of career and BSE Sensex’s 25 years of existence, the Sensex fell below Sachin’s ODI tally of runs, albeit for a brief period.

Greats rely on their bats to do the talking for them. Ponting here seen checking his bat to see why hasn't it been talking for so long.

Feb 26 – I am still not very sure what exactly is the cup counting, but in case it is the number of close encounters, it can take the tally to 1. Pakistan and Sri Lanka fought it out well. This youngster (teenager?), Shahid Afridi looks like he has a good future as a cricketer. But he knows nothing about umpiring – whenever he takes a wicket, he signals a six.

Feb 27 – We have a tie. English batting was the cricketing equivalent of Mike Tyson getting confused whether to bite Holyfield or smooch him, and then finally settling for a handshake. You just wish the English team had more South Africans – they did not choke enough. And with our bowlers being only as reliable as the TOI ratings for a Yash Raj banner film, if Sachin really wants to win this World Cup, he might have to do it all by himself rather than depend on people who want to win it for him.

Mar 2 – I did not see any tweets from KP or Swann today. Am I missing something? England were supposed to play a team called Ireland today, wonder what happened!

Mar 2/3 midnight – Ahh, so Ireland have caused an upset. In their first two matches, two ‘Ten’s proved to be the nemesis for England (ten Doetche and Tendulkar). This time they had sorted ten of the Irish players but an eleventh by the name of Kevin O’Brein was enough.

Mar 5 – Rain spoilt a good game of cricket between Sri Lanka and Australia. This was almost as irritating as Abhishek Bachhan in those ‘get Idea’ ads. Meanwhile, a friend pointed out that if a match is to be rained out in the knock out stages, the team which enjoyed a higher rank in the league stage would advance. I think some South Africans will be looking at this absurd rule and saying to themselves, “Eureka, another unique way of exiting from World Cups”.

Mar 6 – England defeated the Proteas. Yes, just as I thought – South Africans want to ensure they have just about enough points to qualify, but still fall behind their opponents. Now, who would want to bet with me that South Africa would be eliminated from the World Cup after rain washing out their quarter finals? Meanwhile, Indians were as convincing as PJ Thomas claiming innocence in their victory against Ireland.

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