India – World Champs

It felt great to watch Team India win the ICC World Cup 2011 under Capt.M.S. Dhoni.

Then I started thinking about the last time we did so in 1983 under Kapil Dev.So many things have changed…..

In 1983,I was 5 years old and my family didn’t have a T.V.Our downstairs neighbour had just bought one of the newly launched colour TVs and my mom and I watched the game at her house.It was one of those boxy old-time TVs not a flat screen.Today TVs are cheap and are found even  in huts and political parties are giving away free TVs to woo voters to vote for them.Black and white TVs have vanished and going to a neighbour’s house to watch TV is no longer the norm.Times have changed in the last 28 years and how!But perhaps all’s not changed that much.Tvs are still being pushed on the back of cricket.Only this time its LCDs and LEDs.

A few other things have changed too.The ball then was red and the men wore  impeccable white and the umpires too wore white.Now the ball is white and the teams wear their colours and the umpires are in red!Cricket has become more colourful over the years!

Last but not least,cricket is now centered in the subcontinent.India,Pakistan and Sri Lanka made it to the semis this time.The natives have truly mastered the gentleman’s game and made it their own!

I felt good for Harbajan Singh.I remember him fighting so hard in former World Cups only to lose.I am also so glad Sachin Tendulkar managed to win a World Cup before retirement.