In the annals of Indian sport, cricket has always had a special place. It is more than a sporting spectacle because the sgnificance of India?s performance at the sport has often transcended the boun dary and also because cricket triumphs have, for more than a century, given the Indian masses a much coveted sense of national pride. This book is a celebration of such emotions, which are sometimes bright, sometimes dark, sometimes muted and sometimes hysterical. It is as if a collective national will is expressed through the sport every time the men in blue step on to the cricket field.
The achievements of our players, analysed for hours on television, turn them into national celebrities overnight. If the media catharsis that follows each victory is any indication, there is little doubt that cricket was, and is, at the centrestage of what could be termed as an Indian national consciousness. This is more because cricket, over the years, has helped satisfy a national yearning and in the process made a statement about the significance of sport in eras of considerable political turmoil. International cricketing success, the victories demonstrated, held the promise of uniting Indians across the country.
For me as a child growing up in an India that was gradually falling prey to turmoil and secessionist movements in the early 1980s, cricket evoked a sense of calm. The 1983 World Cup victory for example helped craft a national imaginary that looked solid and resolute. It was a sign of India?s resurgence, a comforting balm that things, if not alright, were certain to get better in the months to come. It gave millions of Indians growing up in the early 1980s a sense of confidence that the nation?s increasing politicisation was causing to erode.
When we are laid low in this sport, it pains millions. It infuriates them, it drives them to madness and it renders them speechless. Hope initially turns into disbelief and subsequently into anger, as was recently witnessed in the T-20 World Cup in the UK. This mourning too is one of affection, even if the outbursts have at times been irrational and also violent.
In fact, given cricket?s potential in contemporary India it wouldn?t be a far cry to assert that the models for shaping individuals, societies and even the nation are to be found on the pitch rather than in temples and mosques. For example, Tendulkar with hands aloft after his spectacular century against England last December or hundreds taking over Lord?s after Kapil?s team had made history in 1983 are images that are capable of transforming a nation from mourning to ecstasy.
Indians have played cricket since at least the mid nineteenth century. The Indian Cricket Board was formed in 1928, and India played its first Test match at Lords, in London, on 25 June 1932, following which Punch published the cartoon reproduced here.
Fifty one years later on the same day and at the same venue, the game was transformed into a viable path to fame and income for middle- andlower-middle-class Indians. All it took was the excitement and energy following one victory: India?s World Cup win onJune 25 1983. That evening, what used to be a mere sport was converted into a lucrative career option, and cricketers into default national icons. And from then on Indians – and along with them, the rest of the region – began to look to cricket as both a relaxant and something into which to channel their energies, patriotic and otherwise. Soon enough, the corporate world would take note – and the rest of the world would follow. That one victory paved the way for corporate sponsors to invest in cricket, in anticipation of rich dividends. It also gave the media events for it to build hype around, and cricket proved a salve for a troubled nation.
This book has sought to capture this story with all its nuances and documents what has truly been a remarkable journey.