*March Madness of A *Desi Kind

Not all countries and people in the world are trying to overthrow oppressive regimes. Some are playing a sport called *Cricket. The 10th edition of The *World Cup of Cricket, a quadrennial event, is currently underway. Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are the joint hosts of this year's championship tournament. There are 14 teams participating in the tournament, and almost of them belong to the Commonwealth of Nations i.e. the countries that were British Colonies at some time or the other in the past. There are 49 games to be played over 43 days. The hoopla surrounding everything Cricket in the host nations is mind numbing. What is ironic though is that Bangladesh, Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lanka put together don't break top 50 in the list of countries by their per capita income [Ref. 1] but, the sub-continent is the biggest generator of revenue for the sport of cricket and for everyone who is associated with it (a.k.a corporate sponsors).

Anyway, let me put my cynical self aside for a moment and share my real beef with Cricket World Cups. This year's Cricket World Cup will take all of March and then some to culminate. My heart goes out to school going kids in these countries. You see, the final exams for respective classes/grades are held in the month of March in this part of the world. These kids are going to be torn between studying for their exams and watching their favorite teams and players play, and their grades are going to suffer. Yes, i am speaking from experience. Lets not get into any details alright - lets just say that i lost somewhere between seven to ten percentage points in my tenth standard due to that stupid Cricket World Cup of 1996, and India didn't even reach the final of the tournament.

BTW, do you remember that India vs. Pakistan match of 1996 World Cup where Ajay Jadeja hit Waqar Younis' yorkers to the boundary, and Prasad bowled Aamir Sohail right after he had been hit for a couple of fours. What fun. Yeah, yeah, ... there was also that embarrassing performance by India against Sri Lanka in the semifinal match at Calcutta - i remember, there is no need to rub it in.

Anyways, Go India.

[1] CIA's 'The World Factbook': https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html. These guys would definitely have gotten it right since intelligence is their middle name! :-D

*Some tips to understanding the lingo used in the post:
1. March Madness: In the US it refers to a College Basketball Championship organized by NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) that ends in March.
2. Desi: A word usually used by someone who belongs to a country from the Indian subcontinent to refer to someone who belongs to a country from the Indian subcontinent.
3. World Cup: An event where teams from many different nations around the world compete for the championship title.
4. Cricket: A team sport played with a flat bat and a ball with a raised seam. And yeah, in one of the formats of this sport a game can last for five days and still end up in a tie.