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The better 11
 India won against Pakistan! "The feeling is so special. India beating Pakistan is definitely different from India beating any other country. And that beating Pakistan in Pakistan...wow...it was great!" would have been the reaction of many fans.
The series can be affixed with many adjectives: pulsating, soul-lifting, nerve-cracking, heart-stopping. What caused all these adjectives? The cricket that both the teams played. As simple as that. Only because good and sporting cricket was played between the teams the series was nail-biting.
For two nations with cricket teams having immense talent, cricket played in the last few weeks in Pakistan were the piece de resistance. They featured a good, young crop of thinking cricketers, and the result of the series - that great cricket was dished out - was hardly surprising.
It's really unnerving, this - when you have more and more of something, you tend to get less excited about it, less emotional about it. When India won the ODIs, it sparked off celebrations in many parts of India. But then, looking at the win from a larger perspective, the celebrations weren't that much, compared those on March 1. And this is the result of a good number of encounters that India and Pakistan have had in the other four matches.
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with jealousy, hatred, disregard for all rules. In short, sport is war minus the shooting,” were the words of George Orwell. This Indo-Pak series disproved him to a very large extent. The crowds were sportive, they took defeat in their stride, and appreciated cricket when well played, whoever the player was. It is at these times we actually begin to wonder why George Orwell said so - when sport can forge ties between two eternally hostile nations.
Just think - What does India's win over Pak prove? Intellectual superiority? Cultural greatness?
Essentially, sport is trivial pursuit. We invest more time and energy in it than it actually deserves, and we read more into the results than we really should.
So, what does an Indian win over Pakistan mean?
It means that 11 people out there played better cricket than the other 11.
That's as far as sport should go.
Srinivasa
Ramanujam
Published on 26th March, 2004
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