Let the madness begin

The ICC Cricket World Cup kicked off last night in the Caribbean with the hosts playing Pakistan in the opening game (which they convincingly won).

This marks the beginning of the usual cricket fever that sweeps across India every four years. Not that there is not enough madness to go around. But Indians have a special gear for madness when it comes to cricket. It's probably the only sport which in India is considered more a religion than a game.

And for people like me who are not too inclined towards cricket, it's a wee bit concerning. Not to mention annoying to see cricket on every single sports channel available at almost all the time. If India is not playing against anyone, their earlier triumphs (rarely their losses) are being rerun on the tele.

Thankfully, this time, my being in Singapore is somewhat of a boon. I don't have to tolerate the cricket madness and the finging of statistics across every conversation. While the crazed state continues back home, I will be still enjoying the basic sport pleasures of the English Premier League, The F1 season and all the golf tournaments without once having to endure the sight of a cricket pitch.

I know this will sound strange to a lot of Indians ("What? You don't like cricket? Are you insane?"), but I think I would have liked cricket a lot more if it wasn't the only sport that people followed (most of the country, anyways). Had the country paid more attention to the likes of Hockey, Tennis, Football and other sports, I would not be as biased against cricket as I am now.

But even then, I would not be much of a cricket fan (though I still like to watch and India Vs Pakistan match...then it's not cricket, it's WAR). Personally, I think the game is too slow for my taste. It takes a whole day for the game to be played. And that's just the One Day format. Don't even get me started on the Test Matches.

It's not like Football where, in two hours, you're done. Or F1, where it's even lesser. You might argue that golf is slower. But if you look closely, the agerage PGA Tour professional gets his round in within 3 hours. So in the same time that my collegue would spend his entire night watching a single match, I could watch two Football matches (during the World Cup last year) and be fast asleep before he even gets a result in.

All in all, I am glad to not be in India when all the madness is on.

But I still want India to win. That's got nothing to do with cricket. I want India to win all the time.