Of course we are all disappointed. We backed our boys to the hilt. We forced ourselves to hope that they would
win it all. We all wanted a perfect
farewell to our ‘grand old men’ (relatively speaking of course). We wanted Sanga, Mahela, Dilly and Malinga to
have a ‘Tendulkar Moment’ on March 29, 2015. Correspondents to sports pages
wanted to write about the win and suggest tweaks that would get us into the
Final. Didn’t happen the way we liked it
to happen.
On the plus side, no one’s had a heart attack. No houses have been stoned or torched. When our boys return no one will say ‘hoo
hoo’. On the contrary, the vast majority
of fans will cheer them, pat them on the back and thank them for doing their
best. This is Sri Lanka. It is not Pakistan or India. In fact we are more like Bangladesh in this
respect, except for the fact that had Sri Lanka progressed there would be less
surprise than if Bangladesh had bested India.
So we lost. So
what? Should we weep? For those who shed a tear or think we should
as a nation mourn, let me recount a conversation with Hindustan Times
correspondent in Sri Lanka PK Balachandran which took place eight years ago
when it was clear that Sri Lanka was going to lose to Australian in the World
Cup final.
Sri Lanka had to bat out the last overs virtually in
darkness. It was a darker night back in
Colombo and that’s not because of the time of day only. On that very day Velupillai Prabhakaran sent
a couple of toy planes to target who knows what in Colombo. There was a blackout so that searchlights
could locate these rogue planes. I was
listening to the commentary over a car radio.
I could see the searchlights crisscrossing the night sky. Then I got a call from ‘Bala’.
After the usual exchange of greetings, he put a question to me: ‘What does this mean to Sri Lanka?’ And he provided context: ‘There’s an LTTE air attack and you are about to lose the World Cup Final’.
‘Bala, we don’t mix things up. The LTTE is one thing, the World Cup is
another. Australia is a very good
team. Now had we lost to New Zealand in
the Semi Final, it would have been pretty hard to take it. Australia, we have to admit, is the better
team. They are not unbeatable
though. If we played them 10 times, we
probably would win two games. We hoped
it would be one of those two games, but it wasn’t.’
Then we went on to talk about Buddhism and the notion of
equanimity.
This year is not too different except of course there’s no
imminent LTTE threat. We made it to the
quarter final stage. We lost to the two
teams ahead of us in our group and defeated the four teams that ended below us. South Africa was placed second in their
group. The odds were on them
winning. They did. We might have made a match out of it, gone
down fighting etc., but we didn’t.
Either way, it is not an unexpected result. This is how good or bad we are and this is
the distance that ability could take us.
Mahela, Sanga, Dilshan and Malinga did not lose stature. Not in the eyes of Sri Lankans. Their place in history is secure. They will be missed no doubt but that’s not
something we need to dwell on. World Cup
2015 is not yet done. Some Sri Lankans
might switch to another channel.
Cricket fans will watch some if not all of the remaining games.
It is not the end of the world. There was cricket before Mahela, Sanga,
Dilshan and Malinga. There will be
cricket after them. Better cricket
perhaps, who can tell? It’s time to say
‘goodbye’. Time to say ‘Thanks’. Time for a lump to make its presence felt in
our collective throats. The moment will
pass, however.
Let’s turn eyes, hearts and minds to the future.
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