Cricket is more than a game. It’s ingrained into the lives of many people and forms part of the culture and national character of those countries where it is played.
Passions run deepest in the subcontinent, where conflicting reactions to recent results illustrate the point. These extracts are from tvnz.co.nz:
Firstly, Pakistan’s shock loss to Ireland:
Angry Pakistani cricket fans took to the streets in protest and burned effigies of players on Sunday, hours after the side’s shock defeat to Ireland in the Caribbean put the 1992 champions out of the World Cup. Protesters held a mock burial of the team and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in Hyderabad city, while posters and effigies of captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and coach Bob Woolmer were burnt in the central city of Multan.
And Bangladesh’s surprise victory over India:
Thousands of elated fans poured onto the streets of the capital on Monday morning to celebrate Bangladesh’s shock five-wicket victory over India in their opening World Cup Group B match at Port of Spain in Trinidad. Flag-waving students from the sprawling campus of the Dhaka University danced and sang in jubilation as others chanted “Bangladesh Bangladesh.”
In the fall-out from Pakistan’s defeat the captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has quit and the coach Bob Woolmer is dead. It would be trite to say the game should be kept in perspective because for people like Inzamam and Woolmer the game was their life.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
That’s a bombshell, as far as I’m concerned.
The India Times raises some serious issues, which I won’t repeat here until they’re substantiated elsewhere.
I hear Woolmer’s death is now being treated as suspicious. Why did it take them so long to work out it was a just a tad coincidental?
I heard ABC radio’s cricket commentator Jim Maxwell say on ABC news tonight that everyone was “taken aback” by this latest announcement. But I wasn’t. Suspicion was the first thing that entered my mind as soon as I heard about it.