I am one of the few people in the country who have zero interest in cricket or football. When I was talking to Utpal Shuvro of Prothom Alo a few years back for a cross promotion we were setting up for ETV, he made a surprise commentary which stayed with me, "How empty your life must be". Luckily, I do get to fill my time with other pursuits.For example, just yesterday, I was reading the notes of Howard Carter about discovery of King Tut's tomb. It's fascinating, and I can't wait till December to roll in so i can go visit the actual sites, and breathe in the curse that killed Lord Carnavon and others.
After all that stimulating reading, I went to bed around 9pm, courtesy of my four day long on-and-off fever. And I was hoping to wake up refreshed and energized about another week of cubicle-samba. At 2.30am in the morning, or so, I heard this loud roar. And soon after there were people in my neighborhood on a procession yelling and screaming in joy.
I thought in my sleepwalking mode: oh my god, finally, the emergency status has been withdrawn, perhaps. Or maybe the US just stopped pretending to care about our democracy, and finally took over the country as their newest military base to monitor India and China.
Luckily, it wasn't exactly that. Bangladesh beat India by five wickets. In their opening game at the World Cup. And India apparently is one of the past champions.
I don't understand cricket. Why would 22 people run after one tiny ball in such a big field? It's the 21st century, we don't have that big spaces for everyone, and all of us can afford our own balls, any size we want.
The only country (other than my own) I'd root for among the big ten would be Australia. This country, on one hand, taught me how to do macho posturing and gave us Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana, Erroll Flynn, Heath Ledger, Julian McMahon, Dominic Purcell, Anthony LaPaglia and Ian Roberts. On the other hand consider that IMHO the classiest ladies of the planet (after Sweden) come from Australia: Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rachel Grifffiths, Naomi Watts, Radha Mitchell, Portia de Rossi and Nicole Kidman.
But right now I'm hoping, Bangladesh crushes their team. Like they did back in 2005. And could they please play the games at a decent time? So I could get my beauty sleep?
