‘Mad Max’ fury to Afghanistan’s triumph, newspapers to TV—India in grip of World Cup

The audience and media jubilation on TV and in the newspapers of Afghanistan’s victory over Pakistan was such you thought India had beaten Pakistan.

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (Photo/ICC-Twitter)

This week, for a change, let’s not criticize. Let’s be positive and relaxed. Let’s enjoy the opportunity to immerse ourselves in our favour sport. Cricket. The media has certainly been enjoying, devoting space and time – the newspapers have up to three pages a day on it. When India plays, the news channels bring out all the old cricket heroes — a graying Kapil Dev leads the team to rate the game ahead and then celebrate the wins. NDTV 24×7’s Turning Point makes a point of covering other matches too, so you ought to watch it.

The newspapers got creative this week with headlines: Here’s The Indian Express applauding the ‘WWWW Winning habit’ of the Indian cricket team that has now won five matches on the trot at the ongoing Cricket World Cup.

A game of cricket between two teams has become our comfort zone far, far away from the noise and bluster of every day politics.

Mad Max fury

So watch ‘Mad Max’ (Hotstar) Glen Maxwell hit a century in 40 balls against the Netherlands. Or South Africa’s Henrik Klaasen bludgeon the ball in his batting against England (Star Sports, Hotstar). ‘Charge of the South African brigade,’ Hindustan Times called it.

Even better was Afghanistan’s ‘stunner’ (The Times of India) against Pakistan – its first win against its neighbor in one-day internationals. The audience and media jubilation on TV and in the newspapers of this victory was such that you thought India had beaten rivals Pakistan — which of course it had earlier in the tournament. The real joy came in watching the Afghan team bat out of their skins and the anticipation of an unexpected victory, although commentator Sanjay Manjrekar said, it was no great surprise.

And if you didn’t watch Virat Kohli’s innings against Pakistan and New Zealand, where most of his shots were along the ground, until he unleashed “the stroke of the tournament…” — a parallel six off Trent Boult in the 46th over, you will, forever wish you had.

Sports is the saviour

Sports on television or streaming channels have been the viewers’ saviour from the bad news we witness each day. Think of the recent Asian Games in China where India won more medals than ever before.

This is enjoyment TV. It’s such a stress buster to watch ‘boundaries, boundaries, boundaries’ (Anjum Chopra, Star Sports). For Indians, it’s been particularly sweet since Rohit Sharma’s team has won all its matches so far.

Forget about the commentary and commentators — most are the usual suspects and each one of them, whilst striving to be fair to both sides, allows the colour of her or his national flag to show through. Listening to Ramiz Raja insist Pakistan could “turn it around” against Afghanistan virtually till the last few overs, was, er, highly optimistic? On the other hand, there was England’s Nasir Hussain who said, “There’s Kohli, there’s daylight and then the others”. Now, that’s an Englishman’s sense of fair play.

For Indian commentators such as Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and Dinesh Kartik, it was easy to be full of praise: what’s there not to like in Sharma and Kohli’s batting, Bumrah and Shami’s bowling, K L Rahul’s wicket keeping, and spin of Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja.

But here’s a special mention for Mayanti Langer Binny, the host of the live pre-and post-game shows at the grounds. She is amiable and has a smooth delivery style, like that of a Trent Boult. Always smiling, polite, she’s a bright spark who lights up these sessions that can otherwise be quite routine.

There are other highlights too, to be enjoyed – the highlights package, the replay of an entire match, at least for one day after the game. And the ‘Dressing Room secrets’ where players pull each other’s legs.

Many games have been full of spills and thrills – just watched the Netherlands miss the easiest run out against Australia’s Steve Smith. And who watched our very own Ravindra Jadeja drop a “sitter” (Times Now) when Rachin Ravindra skied the ball to him, prompting a commentator to exclaim, “India are having a nightmare in the field”. It was one Ravindra Sr being kind to Ravindra Jr.

Nothing has given the audience greater pleasure than to watch Afghanistan and the Netherlands playing ‘upset kings’ (HT). No better sight than to watch the Afghan team take a lap of honour, dance, sing… the photograph of their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi’s roar of triumph as he bent backwards after hitting the winning shot against Pakistan, was published on Page 1 of most dailies. A real ‘wow’ moment. And it was just as good when he was called up for his post-match interview: he said with a twinkle in his eyes, “This was the first one, not the last one”. This is also what cricket is about.

Lastly, Bishen Singh Bedi who died earlier this week. There were glowing tributes in all newspapers with The Indian Express giving Page 1 lead space to ‘The Wizard of Spin and the Keeper of Indian Cricket’s Conscience’.

I enjoyed NDTV 24×7’s tribute to him with some players who had shared the dressing room with him: Farokh Engineer, EAS Prasanna, as well as Syed Kirmani.

Views are personal.

(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)