Three Cheers for Cricket
Neither side, as one T.V commentator observed during Sunday's epic runfest at the Dhaka Stadium, deserved to lose. Yet one had to. That is the rule of the game in a competition. By that token, India prevailed over Pakistan in the final of the Independence Cup cricket tournament. Our congratulations to India and man of the match Saurav Ganguly. Commiseration to Pakistan who despite amassing a massive total of 314 starred by two fine hundreds by Saeed Anwar and Ijaz Ahmed could not have the last laugh. At the end of the day there was nothing left for them. Winners took it all.
Leave aside the matter of mementos and few thousand dollars that were up for grabs, the real winner in Sunday's record breaking run feast was cricket - the game itself. A fullest expression of its spirit would not be found easily. Indian batsmen inspired by Tendulkar and guided by the redoubtable Saurav showed how commitment and patience can help a side achieve a target that is usually beyond the realm of probability, something that - should go down both as a lesson and inspiration for all students of the game. The sportsmanship of the Pakistani cricketers evident in their ready response to umpire's call to continue the match in conditions that were certainly not acceptable for day time cricket proved there are, even in this age of fierce competition, many things between victory and loss of truly exemplary kind.
But the party who has or who ought to benefit most from this great spectacle is Bangladesh. The packed galleries and people's passion for the game barring few embarrassing instances of over enthusiasm have put Bangladesh on the world cricket map. Now it is our cricketers' turn to match this huge public enthusiasm with a degree of consistency in their performance. There should be acceleration, only acceleration from now on and no retardation.
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