Time For Celebration

A boisterous din of trumpets and drums, an admirable assembly of cricketers - excellent and ordinary, retired and playing, and a flurry of hopeful, diplomatic statements. The start to this year's World Cup in the West Indies has been something of a study in contrasts; while the media has been drumming up a maniacal frenzy, the crowds in the Caribbean seem somewhat bemused by all the seriousness and sensationalism being attached to the Cup. And the players themselves have been all grace and dignity, with every captain talking up his team's chances while admitting, very generously, that all the other teams have equally strong chances of lifting the Cup. The ICC officials, meanwhile, have been lurking surreptitiously in the background, ensuring that the Cup is actually referred to as 'The ICC Cricket World Cup' and hoping that if anything goes wrong, they can distance themselves from the entire thing and blame everything on the West Indians. Sounds like a fun party, doesn't it?

The tournament has been marred somewhat by a few unsavory comments flying around the cricketing world like nervous dragonflies. The Ricky Ponting-Sunil Gavaskar altercation has already involved physical brawls and whacks on heads, and it's only a matter of time before these two gentlemen start pulling each other's hair while screaming frantically, "YOU started it!" Come on now, I can allow Ponting a few mischievous quotes here and there - he's young (at any rate, a lot younger than Mr. Gavaskar), at the peak of his batting powers, and he so perfectly embodies the arrogant, sweep-everything-before-you Aussie mentality. But I would've expected Gavaskar, a senior statesman and one of the most respected cricketers in India, to show a little more maturity and level-headedness. Pakistan, on the other hand, have had the audacity, yet again, to inflict embarrassment of a fairly injurious degree on the cricketing world and especially the ICC, by allowing Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif to get away without undergoing dope tests. And we thought Akhtar's career couldn't possibly get any more controversial. All is not well within the West Indian cricket community either, with former greats Viv Richards and Michael Holding continuing their noble battles with the 'corrupt' Caribbean cricket bureaucracy. Hopefully these sordid situations won't spill over and affect the organisation of the tournament, because that would really be tragic.

Thankfully, not everything is in disgraceful disarray, with Brian Lara in particular exuding wonderful warmth and composure and playing the part of the host skipper with remarkable poise. Among his many well-chosen comments, the one that brought much happiness to legions across the world was his statement that he will continue playing Test cricket for at least around 2-3 years more. So I guess we shouldn't hang our heads in despair just yet; maybe, just maybe, we'll get to witness some more gems of indescribable glory from his masterful blade. In the first match against Pakistan though, he wasn't quite at his disdainful best, but did his part anyway, partnering Marlon Samuels (who made a brilliant 63) in a 91-run stand that ultimately proved crucial to the match. Pakistan never really recovered from the onslaught by the West Indian batsmen in the last 5 overs, and even the vastly experienced Inzamam-ul-Haq and the prolific Mohammad Yousuf couldn't stop them from sliding to a potentially damaging 54-run defeat. Ponting, meanwhile, seems to have been properly fired up by Gavaskar's lavish comments, hammering his way, as I write, to a frenetic 113 against a quite unfortunate Scotland side as Australia racked up 334 runs in the first innings. And while Australia have been guilty of being rather daft at defending huge totals in the recent past, the chances of them not winning by at least 150 runs today are pretty slim, don't you think?

So another 48 matches and a month and a half of this magnificent spectacle to go. Predictions of the probable winners have been flying thick and fast all across the globe, but I'd still put my money on Australia coming up trumps. And I'd give the West Indies a fair chance too. And while I'm predicting things, I'll also predict that Brian Lara, Michael Clarke, Kevin Pietersen, Shaun Tait, Shane Bond and Dwayne Bravo will be the stars of this tournament. And oh, one more thing - something will go wrong with the organisation of the tournament at some stage; I don't really trust the carefree Caribbean crew to go through 45 days without bungling anything. So let's hope I don't end up with egg on my face at the end of the extravaganza. And let's also hope that it'll be a rollicking World Cup!