Cricket World Cup Diary

1999

It is raining heavily in Ooty. We are rushing inside the hotel we are staying in. I catch sight of a Sportstar Cricket World Cup Special edition in the newsstand and pester my mother to get me a copy. I read every page of it with the help of a LIFCO dictionary. I memorise statistics like Saeed Anwar’s 194. Later, when we get back to Salem, we collect Britannia and Pepsi booklets about the World Cup. Even in 2023, when I dream about the 1999 World Cup in my sleep, it is not about cricket. Where did all those Britannia booklets go ?

2003

We are in eighth standard now. India is performing poorly till Tendulkar, the balm of the nation, applies himself on the wounds. In the final, Australia scores 359/2 but our locality in Salem brims with hope because Tendulkar is yet to bat. He gets out in the first over, the entire boys (and few girls) of Raja Nagar come out to the streets and crib about what-ifs. The next day, a rumor somehow spreads across the entire nation (long before Whatsapp or Instagram or Facebook was in vogue) that there will be a rematch of the final because Ponting used a spring in his bat.

It is an exam day but we all forget question papers and keep giggling at each other in the exam hall enamoured of the possibility of a rematch. We pedal our cycles home slowly fantasising about the new final to be played. We wait for Sun News to confirm the news that night, The Hindu and Dinamani to confirm the same next morning, some more days and years have passed, we wrote many more exams but the rematch is yet to happen.

2007

We have just finished the 12th Standard exams. I am ready with a notebook full of statistics and scorecards. There is an India - Pakistan match in the cards if things go well but of course, they do not. It becomes an Ireland - Bangladesh match instead. India and Pakistan crash out in the first round and with that, the interest wanes. Australia are so good that this tournament becomes a bore. It is the only World Cup which fully happens during my summer holidays and hence, I am fully free to soak in the ebbs and flows of cricket. I just wish the Indian team had known the same.

2011

We are in the final year of our College life. In PSG College of Technology, conducting Kriya (an inter-college fest) is the pinnacle of being Students’ Union Chairman and hence, the first few matches of the World Cup are a blur. We organise screening of the India- England match in the first floor of the E-club block on the night after Kriya is over. India tries to win but since England also tries hard, the match is a tie.We see one match each in every day-scholar’s home. India is cruising but we are unable to decide where to watch the quarters, semi and finals.

We request the hostel warden for permission to screen the Second innings alone in the Hostel ground. Nearly 4000 guys watch the match in the night.There is a block of Girls hostel in the near distance and since girls are watching us from the first floor and above, we are more excited. Whenever Yuvraj hits fours, we guys are cheering looking at the girls. Yuvraj has to work double hard to win our attention. The semi-final is all chaos as India’s victory leads to guys going berserk breaking chairs . Some guys start throwing water dispensers from the third floor.

Our warden decides not to give permission to screen the final.  I go to plead with the warden and promise that we will post volunteers to tackle the crowd chaos. It is a tense chase, Kaushik is holding my hands throughout , Jeyavel is preparing for an arrears exam but cannot control the excitement and runs rushing to the ground, Dhoni and Yuvraj calm a billion people. When Dhoni finishes off in style, the volunteers disappear , some staff are beaten up and like any Indian festival, joy and chaos coexist.

I have to write an apology letter but it is worth it because we are a special batch in college which watches India lift two World Cups ( In the air…Sreesanth takes it and Dhoni finishes off in style). At one point, Ajay and I climb up the stairs behind the screen for him to take a good picture with his DSLR camera. The .jpeg image must still be there tucked away in a folder in my hard disk and it can be opened with a click but that moment of standing there at the top to see 4000 odd disheveled, unbathed boys sweating and hugging together cheering a Dhoni boundary comes only once in a life and it has passed.

2015

I finish college in 2011 and four years have passed in search of the IAS dream. The dream is a few steps away and meanwhile some plan B dreams fructify and I get jobs in a bank and the state Education department. I choose State Education Department because it allows me to join the job after the World Cup is over.

There is a Wahab Riaz spell vying for competition but the abiding memory is that of the semi final. How things have changed from 2003. India has almost lost the semi-final but the entire country is still in front of their TV sets (and smartphones) even when the equation is 100 runs off 40 odd deliveries. It is because Dhoni is still out there. The perfect ending is not to be but hope is as good a tale as victory.

2019

Now I am posted as Sub Collector, Wayanad. Shaheen Afridi forgets am in an area with poor network coverage  for a site visit and starts bowling a fiery spell versus New Zealand. I have to come down from the hillock to see the entire spell on my smartphone and then the site visit continues. Dhoni delivers a heartbreak by running himself out without finishing off in style. He cries and I believe this will be the most painful moment of the year for me. Two weeks later, I am standing in a landslide spot in Meppadi searching for corpses even as the rain refuses to stop.

2023

It is raining heavily in Ernakulam. Now, I am the Collector of this district. I am in the car listening to a classic Ilayaraja song  “Un kuthama en kuthama yaara naanum kutham solla?” before it is interrupted by a call from the local MLA who desires to know when the land acquisition for a project will be completed. On a Whatsapp group, the Chief Electoral Officer is appealing to us to finish election related house-to-house visits soon. OSD to CM calls to check if the arrangements for CM’s Regional Review meeting are going fine. Immediately, I check with a clerk where he is and rush to the hotel to check arrangements. The rains are not letting up and our Whatsapp group on Waterlogging issues is overflowing with messages. I dial the dynamic Corporation Secretary to take care of things but today, he is unwell. He ensures all the staff are on the field taking care of things.

As my mind processes other such things, my car is stuck in a traffic signal. I sight a newsstand which has a 2023 Cricket World Cup Bumper Edition of Sportstar on display.  I have forgotten that a home World Cup is starting soon. I imagine a boy pestering his mom to buy a copy and since it is mere imagination, I also see the boy buying a Britannia biscuit pack getting a booklet full of colorful images and statistics from the past editions of the World Cup for free. The traffic signal turns green and the car races ahead.