Football World Cup Diaries - Argentina and India

 World Cup Football Diaries – 1 of 4

As the World’s greatest sports festival draws to an end, I can’t help but reflect on a few random observations. 

It starts with a question- What is common to Team Argentina,  Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Lagaan? 

While defeating England, relentlessness might sound obvious, the answer is a fairly simple one – an year. 

When I noticed that Messi’s Jersey had 1893 embossed on it, my cricket-first sports knowledge made me guess he was the 1893rd player to play for Argentina (much like 269 on Kohli’s Test flannels marking his place in the Indian chronology). But, it seemed way off and I had to resort to the omniscient google.

The Argentina Football Association (AFA) was started in 1893 in what I got to know and the number is embossed in honour of that. 

Being a history and a movie buff, my mind sprang several connections. 

This was the year in which the Mahatma was thrown off a train  in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa for daring to sit in a “whites-only” first-class coach. This painful event created a spark that transformed him and altered the course of Indian history. 

Thousands of miles away, Americans warmly welcomed and were spellbound by  Swami Vivekananda when he made the famous “Brothers and Sisters of America” speech in the World’s Parliament of Religions congress in Chicago, introducing Hindu Philosophy- a seminal moment that changed West’s perception of India. 

Either inspired or by accidentally, Lagaan one of India’s modern cinematic triumphs is set in 1893.

I have always wondered why millions of Indians passionately bleed blue and white for Argentina during the World Cup. After discovering this, I’m convinced it’s not just fandom. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a 130-year-old karmic connection.

Interesting, will share another one tomorrow!

#FootballDiaries #WorldCup #HistoryBuff #Storytelling #Messi #Lagaan

Cricket's wake up moment!

Cricket during the time of FWC?  Am I kidding? 

Well, that is exactly the point. It is about cricket at the time of Football.

The Football World Cup started on 11th June, 2026. In the month since its start,  the Indian fans have marvelled at the capacity of the small nations (Curacao) to make a mark, the incredible resilience of Cabo Verde, the rise of the African nations, the fall of some European giants (Germany, Netherlands), Ronaldo’s un-noteworthy exit, Brazil’s predictable exit (in the last 6 world cups, they have lost to the first European team they played in the knockouts), England’s glimmer of hope, the radiance of Messi, the continued dominance of Mbappe and the rise of a new giant Haaland.

In the same period, in Cricket, this happened. Indian women got knocked out in the league stages in the T20 World Cup despite Harmanpreet, Smriti, Shefali in the ranks. The men’s team lost to Ireland 2-0 ( our first series loss to them ever) and lost two successive matches to England – the second one rather embarrassingly – making it the 4th straight loss in T20s for the world champion. 

We also blooded Prince Yadav and a media hyped Prince Vaibhav Suryavanshi into the Indian team.

Outside of dedicated websites like Cricbuzz and Cricinfo, no one seemed to notice or no one bothered. There was no palpable buzz about the youngest Indian ever representing us.

If WhatsApp groups were a barometer of the public mood, the FWC showed what caught India’s imagination and what is rapidly slipping out. 

A decade back – a dismal show of four back to back losses, being knocked out in the group stages would have guaranteed a media trial – Arnab would have screamed for Gambhir’s exit. But nothing happened.

The greatest risk any sport, politician or event faces is ignorance. If a win is ignored it is sad news, if a loss does not cause any hurt and gets ignored, it is ignominy. 

Beneath the glitz and glamour of a billion dollar IPL is a lurking danger Indian cricket is facing. Too much availability and exposure. The game has lost its mystique and lure. If the debut of a 15 year old does cricketer creates lesser hype than that of a 18 year old footballer (Yamal), many have to stand up and take notice.

There are lessons for everyone- a marketer, an aspiring non-cricket player and a Cricket administrator.

For the marketer, while cricket still has mass appeal– the discerning fan is moving away, especially the youngster. Ask a 15-20 year old kid what they watch and you know the answer. 

For a kid choosing non-cricket sports, this a golden opportunity to make a mark. India is opening its hearts and wallets to new sports. Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh get more much media mileage than most cricketers.

For a cricket administrator? Cricket in a multi dollar industry, it gives jobs and livelihood to millions of Indians. It is the goose that is laying golden eggs. But, it is staring at a risk – the risk of reaching peak consumption?

Too much exposure, too much control (what Trump did to Balogun is what India is regularly doing in Cricket – think Champions trophy where India played all its matches in Dubai), too much pandering to the batsmen with impact player rule, preparing flat pitches( where hitting sixes is as easy as going for a stroll) taking the contest out of the game- is killing the sport. 

 With T 20 world cups happening ever two years, cricketers on a treadmill playing almost every other day, there is ALMOST nothing to look forward to in Cricket.

If a wakeup call is needed, there cannot be a more stark one. 

We have seen how star obsessed and over exposed Bollywood has lost its pole position in Indian entertainment.

 If no corrective action is taken, Cricket might be headed the same way.

The white flannels have lost their rainbow.

 It is about a week since King Kohli announced his test retirement, almost an eon (yuga) in today’s micro attention spans. While the news might die down, Kohli’s legacy will last for a very long time. 

The white color has always been associated with peace, sobriety, calmness, but those who remember our 8^thstandard physics will know that if you make a disk comprising the 7 colors of the VIBGYOR (or the rainbow in simple terms), when spun at high speed, it looks white.  It takes a personality and an effort (refraction) to showcase the dazzling colors that make up white. This personality was Virat Kohli.

This tribute is for a man who made the mundane mysterious, the staid sexy, the static dynamic, the classical contemporary. It is for a man who showed that test cricket is alive, kicking and lit. 

For almost a century since India has been playing tests, it was always about its batsmen. Merchant, Mankad, Sardesai, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, with a smattering of bowlers thrown in, mostly spinners (Kapil being the exception, but even he is remembered for his 175 not out and not for 9 for 83). Much like the Indian movies where the female cast (sadly) always played a secondary role,  the bowlers have always occupied lesser mind share and importance. 

While this batting obsession gave us multitudes of records – highest runs, highest centuries, first to 10000, best batting averages, Fab Four, we did not have what mattered. Test series wins in SENA countries.  

Credit to Kohli he realized very early that test matches (unlike white ball matches) are won only when you take 20 wickets. In a small step on the pitch but a giant leap for Indian cricket, he morphed the Fab Four into a Fast Four – four pacers who could consistently clock 140 clicks per hour. Instead of stray bullets, Kohli developed a fusillade. While this was abroad, at home – he brought in total cricket. Bat, bowl, field well – dominate every hour, every session, every day, every match, every series. He made the India the team to beat and an Indian tour, the most demanding one for other nations. 

This is the legacy he leaves behind – that of sculpting a good team into an invincible one at home, that of transforming poor travelers into formidable ones abroad. 

Despite being a demigod of the white ball game, he shone focus on the red ball. Through his constant presence, he gave a format that was struggling for survival, a fresh lease of life. 

As a batter, Kohli’s test statistics do not do justice to his caliber. As an Indian test captain, he  was the best, by a margin. And, he compares well with the best captains of the last few decades – Ponting, Waugh, Lloyd – that is a statement by itself.

His exit will be a void very difficult to fill. Much like Federer at the Wimbledon, Nadal at the French open, Usain Bolt at the Olympics – the test match arena will be much poorer without Kohli. The white flannels have indeed lost their rainbow.

The world of test cricket will seem less colorful. 

 

 

 

Kohli – the agony of resisting evolution.

It is a fall that many Indian cricket fans are not able to digest. The steep drop in Kohli’s form over the last 12 months has left the King’s fans anguished. 

He had been having a poor run during Covid, but we fans believed in the adage “this too shall pass” and when he came out of the rut with a T20 century against Afghanistan, the massive Kohli fan base heaved a sigh of relief. 

Each new peak he scaled – highest score in T20 world cup, that innings against Pakistan at the MCG, top scoring in the ODI world cup proved that the covid induced blip was spoken in the past tense. Sadly, this phase seemed to be ephemeral. His 2024 T20 world cup batting proved that he was no longer the same. The swings and misses, the desperate slogs were indicating all is not well.

The problem was that the world noticed it, not him. He seemed oblivious to the decline that had set in, the inescapable cruelty that comes in the form of age. 

Cricket is a funny game. At the outset it looks easy, not very physically demanding. While it is somewhat true, it misses how fatal and final a single ball call be. In any sport – tennis, badminton, football, volleyball- a false stroke, a mishit, a wrong pass might not prove fatal. It would not determine the result of the match. But, in cricket – one false stroke can mean curtains for an innings. Ten false strokes early in the ten innings means your career is on the edge. 

Why is cricket so difficult? Let us go into the physics of it. The distance between the two creases is about 18 meters, a ball bowled at 140 Kmph takes about 0.44 seconds to traverse this distance. That is the time available for a better to judge line, length, swing, seam and plan a stroke or defense. When the muscles, reflexes are young, this looks like child’s play – when the hand eye co-ordination, body, the reflexes slow down – this looks labored and prone to susceptibility. 

The errors creep in when the mind says it is possible, the body reacts and in that millisecond of milliseconds, the gap between thought and execution happens. Kohli’s repeat failures outside the off stump are the result of this. The practiced mind having seen the ball outside the off stump being gloriously driven to the covers compels the body to react. The practiced body reacts but the milliseconds of inefficiency convert a middle of the bat stroke to an edge. 

The glory becomes an ignominy. 

This is the unyielding impact of age. It happened to the greatest. What separates an SRT who played well till 40, a Gavaskar whose best test innings was his last one was that they trained the mind to accept its fallibilities. They conditioned the mind to accept that the what the body could once do, it cannot do now. They changed their game. 

Kumar Sangakkara is a modern great- one of the few batsmen whose average in the latter part of his career was significantly higher than the earlier part. He was at his prolific best in 2014 (his penultimate year in tests) scoring 1400 runs. When asked how he became better with time, he cited evolution - changing his grip, his stance, his strokes almost everything to stay relevant. He added guile to his skill. Else, he said – he would have been easily sorted out by the bowlers. This evolution would not have been possible with an inflated ego and overconfidence. 

Is Kohli suffering because he did not evolve? Looks like that, sadly. Today all a captain must do is to get a left arm spinner in sub continental tracks or a pacer to bowl outside the off stump in SENA countries to get him out. 

For such a storied career to come to such an inglorious end purely because of the unwillingness to change – it is such an unfortunate price to pay. 

The land of the rising sun – Part 6 – Conclusion

It has been a month since our Japan holiday ended but the aftertaste lingers. Sharing the concluding part of the travelogue. 

As we exited Japan via Kuala Lumpur, our first act was to switch off our phone’s silent mode, it was a relief being able to listen to our ring tones. In our Nippon sojourn, we never heard a phone ring – whether in a metro or bullet train. In most public spaces, you are advised to not use your phone for talking lest it disturbs someone.

Most Japanese houses are unimaginably small, but there is miniaturized mastery. Every house has every facility- it is almost like a bonsai plant.

If we Indians are obsessed about our toilet habits and condemned our left hand as an outcast till the cleaning jet happened, the Japanese are leagues ahead. Right from the opening of the commode to the flush and closure it is automated – this is a real case of “Toilet Ek Prem Katha”. Please check YouTube videos, they will enlighten you. 

Apparently, all Japanese study English – but the knowledge is very poor. Google Translate had to be extensively used by us to wade through shopping, for directions, etc. I marvel at those guys who went to Japan decades, centuries back – they were language legends.

For vegetarians like us – food was a major problem (to explain vegetarianism even with Google translate was very difficult) – we survived because of my wife’s impeccable day-by-day planning – with ready-to-cook food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Shinsaibashi is a major shopping haven in Osaka- a must visit. Here we found the Onitsuka Tiger and Uniglo (both Japanese brands and the Tigers, the forefather of Nike) shops more crowded than Nike, Adidas, New Balance etc. Does it portend future trends? 

For opulence, nothing comes close to Tokyo’s Ginza district shopping. Wealth, more wealth, and even more wealth screamed at us from every shop. The best, most expensive brands jostled for attention here. 

Japan is amongst the safest countries in the world. I could not find one article on robbery, vandalism, or rape in Asahi Shimbun– Japan’s leading English newspaper. it was such a stark contrast to anywhere else. Some things caught our eye though – after Shinzo Abe’s assassination, politicians are no longer mingling with the Aam aadmi – common man. The current PM even apologized to his audience that he was speaking from 30 meters. Tokyo had also suffered a knife attack a few years back – the Japanese solution – an umbrella that can withstand knife attacks!

Most companies we know about have been named after surnames – P&G, Lever Brothers, Tata, Godrej or concepts – Infosys, Apple, Microsoft etc. The Japanese – apart from the above, do something very conventional. They name their companies after places – Yokohama (Tyres), Fuji (Film), Kobe (Steel), Daiichi (Sankyo), Komatsu are all names of towns- a glowing example of how rooted and global Japanese are. A marriage few nations have been able to emulate or outdo.