How India won the Cup--a behind the scenes story Post 4.

How India won the cup --a behind the scenes story

A guest post by Satish Shenoy



What a cricket match it turned out to be! India are undoubtedly the deserving world champions and the whole team deserves all the credit and glory that they are getting (barring Sreesant who seemed to be playing for Sri Lanka – probably forgot it was the World cup and thought it was IPL and that all teams were mixed up).  But anyway, all is well that ends well. The cup is ours and like the saying goes “Ek baar Lakshmi ghar aa gayi toh she will never go back again” – the cup is here to stay forever.

In the midst of all the celebrations, does anyone realize what it actually took to win this cup – aside from the skill and the wonderful cricket played by the team? Behind the scenes, in every Indian house, something or the other was happening to ensure India won. We are all so superstitious by nature and the urge to win makes us do things that seem so silly later on but at that time are oh-so-valid! Here are some of the things that happened at our place during the semi finals and the finals.

1.       I was on chat with my friends throughout the match. One of my colleagues mentioned that every time he went down from his room on the second floor to the smoking area on the ground floor a wicket fell for the opposition. Had to plead with him, a number of times, to leave his work and go down so that wickets fell regularly and we won the match. To do the poor guy credit, he came to office even on Saturday and humored me by going down every time I asked him to and guess what, we WON and wickets fell. Must also add that he wanted India to win as much as I did, so the arrangement worked just fine.

2.       Every time Preeti went to the bedroom upstairs and then came down a Pakistani or Sri Lankan wicket fell. No surprises, I kept asked her to go up and down through out, the opposition innings. And it worked like clockwork. It also had the added effect of extra calories being burned out for her, so she too complied. My passion for India to win, I guess prompted her to ask me in the middle a couple of times, when the opponents were flourishing, whether I wanted her to go upstairs and then come back down.

3.       Another friend of ours was bitten by a dog on the morning we played Pakistan. When the match was won the first reaction of mine (and I am told his other friends too) was that the dog biting him was the lucky omen. He received multiple requests to get bitten again on the day of the final. If not for himself, at least for the sake of his country. The alternative posed to him was that if he did not agree and we lost, then every guy would take turns biting him. Whilst he finally agreed to do so for the country’s sake that bit of extra luck, finally was not required. He raised a valid question – if I die of rabies, even if India wins the cup what will be in it for me. I assured him that I would try to get him a Padma Shri award by starting a campaign, if such an eventuality did occur. Thankfully the DOG is safe and happy at not needing to bite the friend again (once bitten twice shy you see), the FRIEND has taken his injections and the World cup is OURS, nor did WE have to bite him. Truly a win-win situation.

4.       Then there was this other friend, who every time he praised an Indian batsman or bowler for the way he was batting or bowling would end up getting out the next ball or being clobbered. We Indians are good at turning every adversity thrown at us, to our advantage. My strict instruction to him was that he should praise only the opposition batting and bowling and not open his mouth about India or else….. Preeti initially scoffed at all of this until he sent a message saying one of the Sri Lankan bowlers was bowling very well and the next ball got clobbered by Dhoni for 6. In addition 3 Sri Lankan batsmen owe their wickets to  the text messages praising their batting, by this good friend of ours.

5.       I have always believed that a match that I did not watch fully would be won by India. I did not see quite a bit of the match – we went to buy a cake for my son's school party  to Nilgiris (during which Pakistan lost 2 wickets) and then kept doing some work or the other, in the kitchen and other room for most of the match, whilst the TV was on in the background. In addition, there was this particular spot on the floor that I would sit in, when India was batting which seemed to be a lucky spot. Every time I moved from there to answer the door bell or make tea, we would lose a wicket. Finally I just stopped moving no matter who rang the bell and additionally all of us ate food only at 11.30 PM when we had won, since if we had moved during that time even to eat food, we may not have won the final. During the match when the normal stuff was not working I also tried something different too like standing in one place till we won and also not answering messages from friends for fear that the spell would break and we would lose a wicket.      

I am sure every household in India must have had done similar things. To the foolish, all of the above would sound really silly, but to the wise and learned this was very important and helped India win the Cup. So before all the credit is given solely to Dhoni and his boys, BCCI and Dhoni please note the kind of effort and pain we went through to ensure India won the Cup. Sachin seems to be aware of it since he did mention that the cup was for the 1.2 billion Indians who were praying that the team won it. We are also a very tolerant nation and in spite of the team giving us a few minor heart attacks when Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kohli and Gambhir got out, we forgive and forget all of that, since India has won. And last but not the least I think Hero Honda got their slogan wrong. It should have been “Come Cup Come” instead of “Go India Go”. The opponent’s slogan for us undoubtedly was the latter so that we would exit the world cup early, but we picked that up early enough and spoiled their party.
   

Comments

  1. Satish has hijacked MY friends!!The friends he refers to in Point number 3 and 4 used to be MY friends, but they are now HIS friends..Unfair, unfair.He always does this--he steals my friends! :) :)

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  2. ROFL! I hence forth rename the Shenoy family as the Crickitstitious family. For addln info on the term check the link
    http://phoenixritu.com/2011/04/there-are-fans-and-then-there-are-fans2/

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  3. HAHA..That was a fantastic post.
    Could relate soo well to what all we did :)

    Sitting at one spot in a particular position, not letting a friend scream everytime the ball seemed to hit the boundary and so on...it was fantastic fun.....fun shared by 1.2 billions :)

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  4. What a great post. We did similar sort of things at home while watching the match. Well said, Satish credit goes to all of us :D

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  5. Anonymous6:11 PM

    Very true. We are very superstitious nation. I think not only us, many of the people in the whole world are superstitious, when it comes to sport.Even the players are.

    Anyways I don't think that credit goes to all of us. may be a minute credit to us as a supporters which played a big role.

    The most lovely superstition was to get bitten by a dog. I loved it :)

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  6. Ha Ha Ha. Brilliant Satish. Now you have no choice but to become a full time blogger.

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  7. ROFL I loved this post Satish, and can relate to it so well. I became superstitious too. I realized the country whose anthem I listened to before the match invariably won !Infact I am in the midst of writing a similar post !
    Before the Indo- England match I listened to both the Indian and England Anthem and the match was a draw ! I listened to the South Africa anthem and not the Indian one and we lost that match ! I don’t have to tell you what I did during the Pak, Australia and the Sri Lanka match !
    After all match jeeta nahi jeetaya jaata hai !
    Err – Satish – ever thought about becoming a full time blogger :)

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  8. LOL.
    Ya, we have a girls' common room (GCR) in the hostel where about 150 people saw the matches together. The seats were all fixed, people wore the same clothes for all 3 "finals" and followed crazy rituals.

    Personally, I'm not a cricket fan and certainly not "wise" enough to follow the rituals that make our team perform well, but they do make for amazing entertainment!-Including this post :)
    We just need a reason to celebrate!

    And I agree with Ramesh and Ruchira here, Satish should blog more often!

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  9. As far as Cricket is concerned there are no friends. Only Indian cricket lovers working for a common cause of making India win. So Preeti there was no hijacking of friends involved. :)
    All - thank you for your comments and positive feedback. Much appreciated.
    Ramesh, Ruchira, Sucheta - one day maybe will start a blog. Not right now. But if and when I do, need a solumn promise from you that unlike some of the matches where we have been thrashed badly in the past and thereafter lost complete support, the three of you at least will visit that blog and post a one odd comment so that it is not one where I am clean bowled for a duck on the first ball. :)

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  10. Dear Satish-Preeti or Preeti-Satish,

    I don't want her o feel Bad.....well I just couldn't stop myself frm writing here.....though I read her Posts daily as & when a new link is highlighted on her Gtalk status msg....& a very few times I have even written long mails to her.....for which I got her sincere reply...:-) Thanks....

    well coming to d above post....I just wanna say that exactly the same happened wd me...as me n my 3 frnz were watching The match .....I found one place on the floor which was lucky & i had to stick to it, my friend (a boy) had to tie a cute small poneytail which turned out to be lucky & above all their was a specific area b/w the hall n kitchen where if some1 stays .....we take a wicket ....OH...it was amaizing....wonderful post ...thanks....tc....

    Regards
    Ruchika

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  11. Hi...
    First and foremost..I want to say that all of us are ecstatic on the World Cup....Lovely post from Satish... You should def start blogging regularly.....
    I am a die hard cricket fan and completely understand the behind the scenes happening during the matches.. I had to miss the entire T20 world cup matches bcos when i wud watch the match..we wud lose :)) so i didnt see the finals of 2007 wc cup T20 and India won..so there...my little contribution to Indian victory :)))

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  12. I was quite surprised myself to find out that it was working.
    Another "totka" (Punjabi word for such 'wise' acts) that a group of friends here were doing was that every time one particular guy went to the loo, a Lankan wicket fell. So they drowned the poor chap in beer so that he would go more often to the loo :D :)

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  13. Very true, its billion hearts desperate willingness and positve vibes which pushed the team members to lift the cup. The positive feel among the people and media was imense then earlier world cups.

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  14. LOL !!! True true .. but to overall Irony when we win a game we share the glory to 1.2 Billion ppl...err when we loose it only 11 ppl blamed over all...Not quite fair I think ... :(

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  15. Had a good laugh! And yes, i guess almost every household would have had some such 'tricks' up their sleeve...and thats what makes India what it is!!!
    Loved the dig at hero honda slogan - good that we won the WC..otherwise they ought to have been sued!!! :)

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  16. LOL :)

    Yes, everyone in india would have had such tricks to follow.Best part is everyone's trick worked :)

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  17. Anonymous10:54 PM

    ROFL, loved loved loved this post..We all did something crazy and superstitious I am sure thats how India WON :)

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  18. LOL....man, isn't he funny....and it's not just him, but the whole of India which turns superstitious when India plays...we take our cricket very very seriously...:)

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  19. ROTFL!! this post is truly hilarious! and yes im sure the whole 1.2b population of india was doing such things throughout the match!

    we were all watching the match in a pub with friends. one of my friends; friend, a white girl had joined us to see the cricket hoopla. i swear the minute she entered the room, we got 2 wickets! when she went out, we got hit for 3 fours! after that we made sure she was allowed to leave the room only during the drinks & innings break!!

    yaaay india! :D

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  20. Simply hilarious and outright TRUE...happens in all the indian houses..loved the post

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