Like Shri Sharad Pawar ever had the intention of losing the ICC Cricket World Cup from his grasp. Like the sponsors who preyed on the success of the Indian cricketing team ever thought of sinking their millions while touting the blue billions. Alas!
India, or rather
Team India, has had only one proud defining moment in its entire history of sports and games. The all too memorable moment of winning the 1983 World Cup Cricket Tournament.
Team India, eh? Is there a separate team which represents the country in the world of cricket?
Where the entire nation of a billion plus people can only think of one discipline in sports, wherein we can dream of being world-beaters, a label of such sort as "Team India" seems a little awkward. Why not only India?
PepsiCo seems to have donned the tag of being the official sponsors of the Indian cricket team. But why else do they have to promote an advertisement which uses the catchline (or the catchphrase) of "....hooo haaa India, haaay haaay India...."?
Almost every Indian can, and more often than not, do associate the words "haaay haaay" in the derogatory sense. Shouldn't have this been, in the slightest bit, obvious to the makers of this particular Pepsi advertisement which rolled on our television sets every possible minute.
Not sounding too supertitious, it does appear that PepsiCo seemed to have invoked the dark powers in order to cramp the progress of our beloved cricket team in this edition of the Cricket World Cup. In fact the very advertisement conveys the sense that every Indian is up against the members of our very own cricket team!
Nothing official about it, though.
Like Shri Sharad Pawar ever had the power of the teeming
blue billions of Pepsi. Like he could ever say "Boost is the secret of our energy". Like even could he pointedly state that "...advice toh sabhi detey hain, the point is who you take it from...."
It is, but certain, that Shri Pawar's energy levels would certainly need a boost if he were to turn the tide of fortunes. It is also quite obvious that he is not likely to take advice from the sponsors who dared think of co-branding their financial success this assessment year, with that of Team India.
What is inevitable, however, that heads are bound to roll as is being reported by the press and the CNN-aping 24x7 TV news channels. Sadly, had heads of certain unnamed individuals rolled earlier, Team India could have rolled onto the Super Eight at the very least.
The entire cricket-happy nation of ours have fallen silent.
Prior to 3/13 (short for 13th March, 2007 in the line of 9/11 standardization), all of us had been caught up in the vortex of a much ill-hyped frenzy conjoured from absolute nothingness, by our press and soft media.
Statistics of the bizarre kind flew via chain mails, sms, etc. Many of us followed the flawed analysis of an Indian team capturing the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007 following the success of the Italians in the 2006 edition of the FIFA Football World Cup. But it was a dream worth dreaming.
1982, Dino Zoff led the Italians to a triumphant victory over the West Germans to capture the FIFA World Cup. 1983, Kapil Dev raised the toast to celebrate a momentous occasion of raising the Cricket World Cup after wresting it from the West Indies.
Twenty four years on, 2006, the Italians capture the FIFA World Cup for the fourth time in history in Germany. A year later, the Indians made a first round exit in the 2007 edition of the ICC World Cup Cricket held in West Indies.
Cricket is a game of thorough uncertainties, or so we are oft told by experts and cricketers alike. But a defeat to Bangladesh, minnows compared to our legendary batting line-up which boasts three batsmen with over 30,000 runs between them, was totally unacceptable. The Lankans, inevitably and invariably, nailed the proverbial last nail in the coffin which was to bear the tattered dreams of all Indians.
No amount of preparation and public propaganda could ever prepare even the most pessimistic Indian fan to accept such humiliation, all in the name of "uncertainty".
What is now certain is that Shri Sharad Pawar is unlikely to keep in abeyance the powers vested in him in the interests of Indian cricket. The results of his efforts may need time to be evident to garner support and sympathy from our citizens and denizens.
For the interests of MNCs such as Pepsi and other major sponsors, the entire system needs to be overhauled and revamped to produce not just performance at the highest levels of the game, but to also ensure that such remains consistent throughout time.
Like Shri Sharad Pawar had a choice to do otherwise. A billion souls represent a phenomenal growth rate in terms of profit to Pepsi and such like. He shall surely be powered by the driving force of global economics on a national passion. Lest he say nothing official about it.
Labels: Blue Billion, ICC World Cup, Pepsi, Sharad Pawar, Team India
