Phew, what a world cup. The gentlemen’s game got a big shot in the arm with the stupendous success of this world cup. The world’s richest market staging the competition and testing these waters means there could be more advertisements and sponsors that could hop onto the cricketing bandwagon. By now, it is a foregone conclusion that those India raised CEOs of largest US corporations are ready to bring back their childhood sport and can invest a piece of the pie to relive all over again.
T20 World Cup 2024 edition commenced in the city that I have called home for so many years, Dallas, TX on June 1st, 2024, and it was befitting that the inaugural game featured the very same North American rivals who played the first ever “international” cricket game – USA and Canada. Somewhere on the Internet, I read, this wasn’t just the first international cricket match but first ever international match of any sport and yes, this was played 180 years, back in 1844. That game was won by Canada and 180 years later, the tables had turned, the host country beat Canada in one of the highest scoring games of the 2024 edition, maybe in terms of the cumulative total, the highest.
This edition of the world cup had a number of firsts. This was the first major cricket tourney jointly hosted in the country, known primarily for its baseball and not cricket but then the burgeoning diaspora and accent of number of Indians at the pinnacle of US corporations have slowly but surely swelled the coffers of cricket and channeled the world’s largest advertisers into the gentleman’s game. The World cup featured twenty teams who were split in four groups of five teams each, with every group featuring 2-3 strong teams with some debutants and not so experienced ones. Twenty teams were higher than any prior editions. There were number of first timers, a few teams which have become somewhat regular fixtures of late and others who are veterans. Zimbabwe missed out, UAE and couple of other Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Thailand also missed but countries like Uganda, Oman debuted and some of the countries such as Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland were back in the fray.
There are a number of subplots and rivalries strengthen those subplots. India and Pakistan whose fans are waiting with bated breath for a showdown between the two were drawn in the same group. ICC wants to maximize their revenue by pitting them against each other and few world cups, the fans got a double or triple bonanza when the two warring rivals played each other multiple times. England-Australia, world’s oldest rivalry, England-Scotland with their history is always connoisseur’s delight. Mouthwatering items on the viewer’s menu. United States is known for doing thing quick and stadium in New York was a case study where a great number of games were staged and this stadium, albeit makeshift was made ready in three months, yep, you read it right and interestingly, brought down even faster once the staging was complete. The pitches on which the games were played especially in New York could have been finished better but then again, the curators in North American country are still learning.
No team had ever won the T20 world cup before without losing a game, an achievement which people may undermine but, in this day, and age, when the technology helps you analyze your opponents and number of players cross pollinating through various leagues of the world, every player able to size up his opponents, these world cups have raised the competition bar high. Cricket as a game has come out of its cocoon and is building its web in unknown territories and countries, latest example being an Estonian cricketer Sahil hitting the fastest T20 hundred. Boundaries of the game have proliferated, and this augurs well for ICC and BCCI, the biggest benefactor and contributor to ICC’s moolah and with growing eyeballs and footfalls, tough to put a ceiling on the popularity of the game.
World cup had some compelling stories to tell and couple of the earlier ones featured in the first week in Dallas – first when the Nepalese thronged the Grand Prairies stadium and made North Texas look like Kathmandu and the major moment and the first upset came days later that that, when cricket’s minnows and host nation upset the mighty and one of the perennial powerhouses Pakistan. Team USA played out of their skins to attack Pakistan, and this probably even hurt more than when navy seals embargoed control of their Osama hideout in Abbottabad but again, Osama wasn’t one of their own so this hurt more personally. Defeat at the hands of team USA which was 63% Indian origin set them back and made the game against 100% Indian origin team a must win and boy they started off well, restricted Indians to a sub-par score and then came some brain fade moments and game was lost to their favorite nemesis. That game was one of the two where the analytics pointed strongly to opponent’s wins – 91% in favor of Pakistan and only upstaged in the finals where at one point, it was 96.5% in favor of South Africa, but Indians prevailed in both, and leaving Pakistan and South Africa in the coveted battle of claiming the biggest choker title. United States buoyed by their win over Pakistan and Canada pleasantly sailed into an unfamiliar territory – Super eights which meant one of the two India or Pakistan had to make way for them. India was well prepared to let that happen so Pakistan it was and they were was slammed by their former cricketers and global cricketing pundits for their abysmal show.
Despite month of June playing hosting to the world cup in the north and central America, the heavens held up well and roared hard only for three games, thus limiting to a full washout status, one of them being inconsequential India vs Canada where Indians am sure preferred to rest their hamstrings then power over hamstrung Canadians. So much so, that the next day of T20 world cup finals had Indians staying in Barbados for couple of days as hurricane Beryl’s fury halted their victory march back home. Experience of watching games in 2023 in Airhogs stadium in Dallas had me lusting for India world cup games here as this offered one of the best real cricketing grounds in the country but the financial lure swayed the pendulum in favor of New York city and fans had to settle for subdued user experience as the imported and implanted pitch curtailed the run flows and the best players had to settle for controlled output, thus depriving the spectators of those run blazing moments. There were accusations galore that this world cup was tailormade for India and ICC had organized their games to suit the Indian audience back home. Some of them were tales of sour grapes and little did these “critics” forget that BCCI is generating more than half of the revenue for ICC and they command the viewership control. Every time India played, one could only watch the sea of blue in stands and BCCI has been one of the reasons this game continues to generate windfall profits and keep other cricketing boards afloat. One of the game’s greats and self-proclaimed Universe Boss Chris Gayle rightly said India runs cricket.
World cup even had its share of controversies especially from Pakistan and their defeat to India stuck some of them so hard, that their narrative was no longer centered around introspection and centered around downright ball tampering to boundary line adjusting to South Africa losing for IPL, little did they forget that they lost the game twenty days earlier to the same opponent from a similar vantage point. Some of their legends and soft-spoken greats like Inzamam ul Haq even resorted to downright below the belt comments but then cricketing loss in that part of the world makes you spit out words which makes you question your own intellect. South Africa and Pakistan will always get a representation on cricket’s choking Mount Rushmore as no other teams have threatened to deliver so much and, in the end, delivered so little. Was as if conspiracy theorists around the world were trying to find chinks in Indian armor and getting more aggravated by the lack of. World cup also saw some early exits from teams like Sri Lanka who had been previous winner, New Zealand who were perpetual semifinalists, Pakistan as mentioned earlier and even the all-powerful Aussies bit the dust much earlier than usual which meant game is growing and new powers are gaining strength.
Indians on the other hand, were no slouches on social media either. Armed with accesses and accounts on all platforms, they let their own hair down, times being the aggressors, other times, responders to the trolls. They went after the hapless Pakistanis, trash talked the Aussies and Poms, celebrated India’s other team Afghanistan’s victory over the mighty Aussies and their exit from super eight and in the end, reminded Springboks of their choking history. The Blue army invoked and evoked emotions and their superlative knowledge of history by invoking Nov. 10, 2022, when the English lorded over the Indians with a ten-wicket thumping in previous edition semis and Nov. 19th annihilation of the Indians in Ahmedabad by the resilient Aussies and evoked a Bollywood style “badla” or revenge formula when Indians beat Aussies in Super eight and English in the semis. When asked about South Africa and what would be the storyline, they playfully mentioned the throwing out of Mahatma Gandhi from the South African train. There were horses for courses every time and bossed over the social media thus riling up support for their men in blue who were welcomed with reverberations of dhols, tashas, visualizations of the colorful pagdis, and above all, unfurling of many tricolors at every possible venue, every possible nook and corner of stadia. Life gets easy when you have the blessings and prayers of countless individuals and am sure team India would be the first one to echo that sentiment.
India’s semifinal victory over England was a “revenge” game then the other semis turned out to be a damp squib and everyone’s favorites Afghans who qualified for the semis of an ICC event for the first time were rolled over by the first-time finalists of ICC – South Africa who were hoping to win it for the rainbow nation who has had a barren cabinet since 1991 re-entry into the cricketing rink. They promised a lot and fell short of everyone’s expectations and for the first time, had the potential bridegroom suit ready. Unfortunately, for the South Africans, they ran into a rampaging team led by Rohit Sharma, and this quelled their dreams one more time. Indians as it was evident during the game were not ready to finish as the bridesmaid yet again.
Indians rose like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes twice in games against archrivals Pakistan and in the finals against the Springboks. Both the times, the win predictor had Indians nearly out as the opposition had 90%+ probability of winning and only the final nail was to be delivered to knock men in Blue out, against South Africa, India only had win probability of 3.4% at one time. Both the games, Pakistan needed 42 runs off 42 balls and South Africa needed 30 off 30 at one time before Bumrah, Arshdeep and Hardik delivered the lethal blows. These asking rates were achievable even 25 years back and, in this era, when teams chase almost double that asking rate, this was great performance from Indian bowlers however pedestrian effort from both teams in Green. Suryakumar Yadav’s catch off the last over bowled by Hardik Pandya off of David Miller in the finals was one for the library and as Surya mentioned in post-game interview, that they do practice such catches but practicing is great but situation awareness at the stage of the match and on the largest platform of T20 world cup finals is highly commendable. Enough ink has been poured over that catch which had 1.4 billion hearts pounding and 2.8 billion eyeballs blinking profusely and many a prayers on the lips.
Indians had been shining across all formats over the last 18-24 months and reached the apex games of World Test Championship and ODI world cup, while getting beat by the Aussies, this time the Aussies didn’t make the semis and Indians were sensing this opportunity and didn’t want it to go by. Indians had a terrific team tournament and had different players who raised their hand up for different games – Kohli who was to be the main scorer had a sluggish tournament till the finale, Rohit who pretty much batted the other teams out had a failed final, Suryakumar who was brilliant earlier in the series and carved the most important moment of the game with his amazing and superlative catch and his game awareness when he made sure to not go over the boundary rope, Shivam Dube who had a rather subdued tournament but maybe the superstitious Indians played him as a lucky charm, had a cameo in finals, Axar Patel who showed multi-faceted cricketing skills with bat, ball and even plucking the ball out of thin air, Hardik “redemption” Pandya who endured a lot over the last few months personally and professionally, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav who had been India’s heroes with the ball, Arshdeep topping the wicket charts and last but not the least, Jasprit Bumrah who probably bowled as if man possessed and never let his team, captain and country down. Bumrah’s spells over the tournament were such that you may even think God would even pay to watch him bowl. Bumrah got some serious accolades from some of the best in the business who hurled a cherry once and boy, did he deserve those plaudits. If pressure bowling was a form of art, Bumrah would be its perfect model. Who’s who of cricketing folklore who once graced the game with their fast bowling had nothing but effusive praise for the bowler, an art not very often associated with an Indian, who were rather famous for their superlative batting, but an Indian bowler lauded as the best in business across all formats, now that was a first.
Though I will offer tributes to the triumvirate of Dravid, Kohli and Rohit later in the article, I would want to doff my hat now to the special captain Rohit Sharma. He was everything that you would imagine a dream leader to be, leading from the front and setting the tone upfront, putting a total on the board and hitting the likes of Mitchell Starc to show his team to bat freely, rotating his bowlers as if he was clairvoyant, leveraging four overs of Bumrah and spacing them out perfectly, making the stronger decisions, backing his players no end, being the big brother to Hardik Pandya and forgetting what transpired couple of months ago in IPL and rallying his all rounder and extracting the best, backing Virat Kohli’s slump in form, it was Rohit Sharma show and man, he took it personally when they lost in November 2023. Rahul Dravid put it the best when he said after retiring, he won’t miss Rohit Sharma the captain but human and that summed it all. Rohit Sharma was the best thing that happened to Team India last couple of years, and he has put his arm around his teammates, every player current or former has only raved about leadership skills and most importantly, human aspect of “Hitman”. Rohit may not come across as someone with linguistic skills or major articulation, on the contrary, he is the opposite – speaks from the heart, at times, he is even at loss of words, prefers Mumbai lingo over the polished flowery language but what you cannot take it away is the man leads from the front and fearlessly and is a friend for his team.
Mark Boucher who I saw on the interview looked rather sombre in post finals interview and why not. Rohit, Bumrah, Hardik, Surya – he had these four men at his disposal and what he extracted out of them was a pedestrian performance. Yes, he was sad for South Africa loss but one could also feel the wryness in his interview, where he could be wondering how he missed getting the best out of these four who were largely responsible for India’s T20 world cup success. He had Hardik and Rohit feuding while the same guys were acting like once estranged brothers whose mind was corrupted by someone. Lesson for teams like Pakistan, who have called Indian teams names and made allegations how the players need to put aside their egos for the greater good. Rohit and Hardik were classic example and so were “brothers” Rohit and Virat and one could feel genuine happiness on face of one when the other one performed and there wasn’t an iota of jealousy. Kudos for these men stepping up for the greater good.
Now time for the tributes to the triumvirate who all decided to hang their boots – Rahul on his coaching career, Rohit and Virat on T20Is for now but also subtly reminding us of every great thing comes to an end and won’t be long before we see the last of those two. First of all, Indian team head coach and quintessential boy next door of the 1990s, Mr. Wall, Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid has decided to call a career on his coaching (at least for the time being) as he wants to focus on his son’s cricketing career. Unfortunately, for the stellar career that Rahul had, he never was lucky enough to lay his hands on the trophy, the one attempt where he played the finals as the vice-captain in 2003 but the team juggernaut was stopped in its tracks by who else, but the nemesis Aussies. Someone up there was considerate enough after the heart break of Nov. 2023 that Rahul can’t ride into the sunset without this coveted hardware when much lesser mere mortals have been blessed. Rahul Dravid was the calming force and if the emotions at the win and the fist pumps and excitement was any indication, you didn’t have to guess what this trophy meant even to the monk like Rahul. He decided to continue after Nov. defeat and though he credited Rohit for asking him to continue, Indian cricket was the real benefactor.
Virat and Rohit have been the two pillars that the Indian cricket has been staying strong on since last fifteen/seventeen years and more so, since Sachin Tendulkar retired and later MS Dhoni. They have moved from being the young turks to mentors to legends and they both have been the legends, albeit they both have had their contrasting styles. Rohit has been grabbing the bull by the horn and been the aggressor type who takes it to the opposition while Virat has been the accumulator and silently compiling the runs at a fair clip, both needed. Interestingly, they both decided to even retire after winning and that too in different styles but think about the impact they have had – Rohit finished as T20I’s highest run getter and Virat, not so distant second with Babar Azam occupying the third spot. Obviously, with these two legends calling it a day, it is a matter of time when Babar will sit atop the run getters but what he may have trouble replicating is the impact these two have had on the youth globally who intend to take up the game as a career. Rohit and Virat have been major role models for the younger generation, and both are the ones who can claim to have influenced many more to pick up the willow. One measure of a sportsperson is how well did he/she leave the game than they started, and both have been supremely successful in those analytics. Interestingly, both Virat and Rohit won two world cups in their stories career – Rohit two T20 world cups and Virat, one ODI and one T20. India won a trophy after 13 years at an ICC event.
This has been a great week for Indian cricket and even the women’s team had some brilliant records against South Africa and with Indian men’s team winning the ultimate prize in T20 world cup, With whole different set of players on the way to Zimbabwe for a series, the bench in Indian cricket continues to be solid and IPL has definitely been the catalyst that has produced players who are match ready. Augurs well for Indian and World cricket. Lastly, like always, there have been bunch of legends World over who have decided to hang their spikes and one can easily form an all-star team of those retired players. One can only hope these legends continue to give back to the very game which made them who they are today.
Signing off, congratulating number of fellow Indian fans again including myself on the well-deserved and comprehensive world cup win snatched from the jaws of defeat and more than the result, it was the performance and the resilience that really stood out. Rahul, Virat and Rohit remind me of the mid 1990s when we had Rahul, Sachin and Sourav and Rahul is Rahul, Virat embodies young Sachin and Rohit is akin to Sourav who led from the front and always backed his young players, being that big brother and at times, even the father figure to the younger lads. Interestingly, some of the dates had personal connection too. Nov. 10th, 2022, when India was humiliated by the England team incidentally was on my birthday and this year’s win came on my mother’s birthday June 29th.
