The Hero

December 16th 2008

0149hrs, straight from the couch.

To give a definition for ‘hero’ is not easy. The definition of heroism changes with the context and time. Heroes of the past are not necessarily heroes of present time and vice versa. But one thing i can tell for sure is the ‘opposite’ or ‘antonym’ of hero – -> George Bush. I don’t want to discuss this in length as this post is not about him, but i could’nt resist raising this point on the day when a common man hurled a shoe at the American President. Watch it for yourself and enjoy.

I woke up at around 2:25pm today and when i realized what the time was my first thought was the final day of first test played between India and England at Chennai. Due to heroics from Sehwag yesterday the final day was set up perfectly for a great test match and possibly a historic Indian win.

I had put 6 alarms to wake up on time to watch every ball played but as it turned out I heard none of them and missed around a session of play ( start time was 12 noon). The next thing I saw was a message from Pooja saying that we might after all NOT witness history in the making! The message made me nervous and I haphazardly turned on my computer to check score on cricbuzz.com. I could have gone to the living room and checked out the score on TV, but that would be a waste of effort to walk all the way from my bed to just watch India losing. I saw on the scorecard that Dravid and Gambhir had departed ,and Sachin and Laxman were playing in the middle. I thought it was a pretty decent situation with India needing around 180 more runs to win with 7 wickets in hand and I thought the game was pretty evenly balanced.

What happened in the next few hours is history. I don’t have words to express the emotions that were running through every Indian on and off the field, in or outside the country…. I think pictures speak better, so have a look…

Over 30,000 people witnessed India’s historic win over England on a minefield of a pitch on the final day at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram stadium. There were a lot of factors that made it a great test match and I guess Indians deserved this win. When I say Indians I dont only mean the players but also the one billion plus people of India.

“Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what happened in Mumbai and we are with those who lost their dear ones”, was what Sachin said after his match winning 103*. Its a statement which is true and false. It is true that cricket cannot solve the problems of terrorism, it cannot bring back the dead, it cannot undo what the terrorists have done to Mumbai. But cricket in India is a terrific healer, more so when India wins.  As Sachin said in the post match conference, 26/11 was not an attack on Mumbai, it was an attack on India. The attacks have left the entire country in mourning and tragedy.  The people of India needed something to put a smile back on to their face, they needed something to unite them. And we all had a feeling before the start of the 5th day of the match that an Indian victory was what the country needed. But as they say the Gods had a much better script in mind.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the Mumbai boy was the hero the Gods had chosen for this script. Dileep Premachandran of Cricinfo summed Sachin’s role appropriately, “ Those that aren’t Indian struggle to fathom exactly what Tendulkar means to so many millions, and it’s doubtful whether even those that live here really comprehend just how much a part of the national consciousness he has become. He is such a unifying force, a personality capable of stirring the emotions in every nook and corner of a vast land. And in these times of distress and anger, it was so very appropriate that it would be Tendulkar who put the smiles back on at least a few faces.”  His emotions have become the nation’s emotions, his achievements the nation’s pride and his happiness meant India’s happiness.

My dear friend Naweed fails to understand how people can watch Test Cricket for five days when alternatively their is a sport like Football available to be watched. I would have to write an entire new post on why people love and watch test cricket but for now I can only say that if a sport can bring smiles to a billion people it must be a bloody good sport. It also makes Cricket a Hero.

As I mentioned before there were a lot of reasons that made this an epic test match. Firstly the circumstances in which this match started ( mumbai incident etc) , secondly how the match has brought joy to an entire nation and how poetic it was for Sachin – India’s Son to do it for them.  But Sachin was not the only hero here. The match is great because it had multiple heroes. The entire English team for being strong and brave to come to India to play a match, even after the terrible proceedings in Mumbai. Not only did they play, they played extremely well, special mention to Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, Graeme Swann and Andrew Flintoff.  All was well for England till the 4th day of the test match with victory in sight, but alas their was a twist in the tale.

4th day of a Test match, in walks Virender Sehwag. 68 balls and 102 minutes later Sehwag walked off the field having score 83 runs with India sitting prettily at 122-1 in 22 overs. He had set up  the match for India. He had turned the game around, he had ignited the torch of hope of a victory, a torch which his idol Sachin Tendulkar made sure reached its destination. Sehwag started it, Sachin ended it. Sehwag is a Hero, a deserved one.  When asked about this victory he said very matter of factly, ” I always knew we were going to win. We had almost  chased around 250 against Australia, this is England, so we can chase anything. I don’t care if it is a good ball or bad ball, if I see it- I HIT IT! ” He is my hero just for saying that in the face of the English!

I can go on and on about this match but i guess i dont have enough words to do so right now. I think David Lloyd sums it up perfectly in the following audio piece.

It has truly been a privilege to watch the match and I would leave you today with a quote by the Little Master himself:

” “What happened in Mumbai was extremely unfortunate and I don’t think by India winning or my scoring hundreds, people who have lost their dear and loved ones would feel better. It’s a terrible loss and our hearts are with them. All I can say is that in whatever way we can contribute to make them feel better, we’ll make that effort.”

End

0336hrs, still on the couch.