Meaning of winning cricket World Cup

The triumph of the Indian team in winning the cricket World Cup in Mumbai on 2 April 2011, after convincingly defeating Sri Lanka in the finals, is historic and exceptional in every sense of the term. It was truly momentous and out of the world experience to see the team register an emphatic win against heavy odds.

The team India had to wait for twenty eight long years to be crowned as the world champions after Kapil Dev and his men achieved that unexpected and improbable win against mighty West Indies in 1983 in the Lords, considered as the Mecca of the cricket. None had expected that in 1983 the team India would reach even semi finals.

The way strong cricketing nations were humbled by India in match after match could not be easily believed by anybody. A British newspaper very aptly stated that Indian mystiques did the impossible. The whole nation was overwhelmed when India became the winner of the world cup.

Imran Khan the then Captain of the Pakistan team recently drew parallels between final match involving  India and West Windies  with fight between David and Goliath. Shrimati Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister hailed India’s victory by saying that “India can do it”. 

The India of 1983 under her leadership was haltingly initiating economic reforms which were undertaken in a full fledged manner by Dr. Manmohan Singh in 1990s. We can surely say that India won the world cup for the first time in 1983 after the  advent of economic reforms in early 1980s. While economic reforms unleashed the spirit of India from many controls, the winning of the World Cup from the invincible West Indies signified the buoyancy of new pride and sporting spirit infecting the whole nation.

The “India can do” spirit invoked by Indira Gandhi is in ascendance and irreversibly gaining momentum and capturing and shaping the minds of Indians in a measure and substantial way.

In 2011 the Indian team’s win over Sri Lanka can never be described as unexpected and fluke. It was a win which the team India scripted with incredible confidence and determination. India entered the tournaments as hot favourites. Its rise from the league matches to the finals went as per the arduous strategy to show its mettle in face of the daunting challenges from previous world champions. While India of 1983 was struggling to find its place at the world stage, India of 2011 is being hailed as one of formidable  engines of economic growth of the world.

President Barack Obama in his address to the Parliament of our country had rightly said, “For in Asia and round the world, India is not simply emerging; India has already emerged”. Like   India’s arrival at the  global  stage compellingly commanding  attention of the    international community, the victory of our cricket team has symbolically and substantially drawn attention to our capability to achieve in the face of insurmountable hardships.

It has  boosted our  nationalistic spirit in an unprecedented manner. We must be mindful of the fact our youth is in the forefront in making us feel proud and raising the bar of distinction. Their contributions are constructive, unifying and forward looking.

The uplifting mood across the nation has for the time being taken us beyond the  depressing and gloomy scenarios  involving  rising levels of corruption and ethical deficit. The winning spirit displayed by the team India and its remarkable culmination in  lifting the world cup has electrified the nation.

The manner in which  Sachin Tendulkar was picked by his team mates on their shoulders and taken around the Wankhade stadium and the way in which so enthusiastically and spontaneously they announced that they won the world cup for him, testify to their ability to acknowledge his unparalleled excellence in playing cricket. It was truly glorious for the game of cricket.

The winning of the world cup title by the Indian team  in 2011 testify to the spirit of rising India. Even prior to it  our relatively impressive success in the Beijing Olympics and Commonwealth Games contributed in its own way to the spirit of rising India. It is this rising India which witnessed in the recent past the visit of the heads of the Government of all the five permanent Members of the Security Council. The call of rising India is truly irresistible.

The country wide celebrations following the victory of the Indian team testifies to our unbreakable bond as Indians. The nationalism manifested in this victory is inclusive. It teaches us that patriotism is not the monopoly of any particular community or faith. Zaheer Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel   and Harbhajan Singh of our indomitable  team invest so much strength and vitality to our nationalistic and all embracing outlook. It is this inclusive spirit which defeat the narrow and parochial approach to nation building.

The success of Indian team inspired our national leadership to extend the hand of friendship to our neighbours. The rising spirit of India so brilliantly symbolised by the onward march of team India has opened many avenues for persuading our neighbours to shun violence and bloodshed and accept the peaceful method of resolving bilateral disputes. Our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh took the initiative and reached out to his counterpart in Pakistan who preferred to skip his son’s surgery in London and arrive in Mohali to watch the semi final match between India and Pakistan.

The sporting spirit unites hearts and rekindles enthusiasm even among those who are visually impaired. I received a phone call from a friend who is blind and who had a brilliant track record in academics. He told me that even as he displayed  passion to follow cricket since his childhood, he never could go to a stadium where important matches were played. I was wondering as to how a blind person could see  a match even though he had matchless interest in cricket. He emphatically told me that he went all the way to Ahmadabad and saw the quarter finals between India and Australia.

He did it as part of his effort to  undo the mistake he has been committing year after year for not having seen a cricketing event in a stadium.  He asked me to organise a ticket for the Mohali match between India and Pakistan. I tried my level best to get a high contact who can organise a ticket for my blind friend. But as luck would have it, I failed. But my friend’s phone call to manage a ticket was itself a victory for the cause of human spirit to overcome all odds.

The India of  twenty first century is pulsating with the spirit to break all shackles and occupy its rightful place in the world. The Team India entered the World Cup arena as the favourites and proved its credentials as the number one team. The India of twenty first century is also looked upon as a favourite country for achieving excellence in politics, economics, innovation and above all in spirituality.

This year our country is celebrating the hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. He was one of the foremost scholar saints of the world. As early as 1897 he had seen the rise of India. When one of his disciples despaired about the future of India he asked him to look at the eastern sky and told him that a new dawn had taken place and India had started rising. He had described the masses of India as sleeping leviathan.

The masses have truly been awakened. The enhanced level of literacy which stand, as per the provisional data of the census 1911, at 74% is indicative of the way our country is heading forward. Along with the excellence in cricket and other sporting activities we need excellence of character and ability to accomplish the cherished goal of building a spiritually and materially prosperous India.

As early as the second decade of twentieth century Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi has said that a nation cannot be built by merely achieving excellence in the field of cricket and football but by comprehensively cultivating values and qualities which sadly are now declining. Let the spirit of rising India and triumphant march of our cricket team turn the search light inwards and guide us to make our life more simple, enriching and fulfilling and our nation a happy country.

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# The author was OSD and Press Secretary to the late President of India Shri K.R.Narayanan and served as Director in the Prime Minister's Office. He is currently Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The views expressed by the author are his personal views.