Dear Editor,
The Australia-India semi-final World Cup match was a blockbuster not dissimilar, say, from a thriller movie shown in North America or Europe, or a Bollywood movie in India. The match is still talked about down under more than a week after it was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Australia-New Zealand final was not talked about as much as the semi-final; in fact, hardly anyone speaks about the final. Revenues generated from the Aussie-Indian semi-final were a lot more than those from the final. It was an epic clash between the defending champions and the four-time champions in the semi. The two cricketing giants are known for their rivalry and the match was sold out. Some 70% of the stands (of almost 44,000 seats) were inundated by Indians, dwarfing the Aussie fans of about 15,000. At a one-day match between the two teams at the same ground in January, that was rained out, two thirds of the fans were Indian. The semi-final was a spectacle to behold. Indians stormed Sydney, and a week later, many were still there enjoying its spectacular tourist sites. The SCG was a staggering sea of blue because of the patriotic Indian fans who flew in from India, Singapore, Fiji, UK, US, Canada, and West Indies to watch the match. In addition, over one billion Indians were glued to TV sets to watch the game, not to mention hundreds of millions more viewers around the globe, including Guyanese in the diaspora. The prices for tickets and hotel rooms shot through roof. Some tickets were resold at ten times the price, and rooms were rented at 50% above the norm.
Fans expected India to make it to the semi-final and they feared an Aussie-India semi-final hoping the two teams would instead clash in the final as they did in 2003 in South Africa.
In the end, the better team won. Australia started as favourites and played as favourites as well. They batted well, piling on the runs setting up a challenging total similar to the score India faced in the Durban final between the two teams some eight years ago. There were many heartbroken fans as India went down to defeat without even putting up much of a fight. During the last ten overs of the match, there was still hope for India as many thought captain Dhoni could pull off a sensational come-from-behind victory as he had done so many times in his career. Only Dhoni has the power to change a game at that late stage. But it was not to be as he was run out and Indians’ last hope ended. Every Indian fan in Sydney was disappointed and I can’t imagine what it must have been like within India. Fans missed Sachin Tendulkar, perhaps the greatest batsman who has played the game in modern times.
The match was exciting in the sense that there was a lot of entertainment – Bollywood type singing, drumming, and dancing. And there was also a lot of cheering. Indian fans went nuts.
Although they went down to defeat, the Indian team was splendid throughout the tournament. They did not disappoint in any of the matches save the semi, unlike when they played in the West Indies in 2007 and were defeated by two minnows. The Indian team spent almost four months in Australia going through a lot of ups and downs in the Test series and the tri-nation one day series (England added). After being humiliated in the tri-series, they picked up the pace in the World Cup blazing into the semi-final with 7 consecutive wins and 15 World Cup victories (inclusive of 2011victories).
At the end of the semi-final, there was no violence in India or Australia. There were no unruly fans. The game was played in a spirit of true sportsmanship and the outcome accepted in the spirit of the game. The fans were dejected but the result was accepted with the fans exiting the stands saying “well played.”
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi twitted, Victory & defeat are a part of life. Team India played great cricket throughout the tournament. We are proud of them”.
Tendulkar twitted: Well played in the ICC World Cup Team India. A tough game today and a loss is always difficult to handle”.
Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan twitted: “We win some, we lose some.But the ones we love always make us proud. Head held high by your performance Team India in CWC”.
When I was briefly in Guyana, Trinidad and Grenada in February and March, the view was the same. West Indians were disappointed with their team’s performance. But wherever I went hardly anyone thought Windies had much of a chance against the other top contenders.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
