Cricket is India’s great unifier

The Z Factor

Later today, India will take on Australia in the final of the quadrennial cricket World Cup. The last time this happened, 20 years ago, I remember praying fervently for a miracle as the Australians mercilessly massacred the Indians. The mismatch was so utterly humiliating that one almost wished that India had never made the final.

This time around, a defeat is probably a lot less likely. In fact, given the way India has played so far, the Australians are perhaps more anxious than the Indians. But regardless of what happens in the game, you’d have to admit that cricket is India’s great unifier.

Like most things in Indian life these days, the World Cup has not been free of the bad and the ugly. There was a controversy over the Pakistan team’s wont to offer prayers after a milestone. Hindu religious chants were directed at one of their players in Ahmedabad — ironically, the city with the most ‘Muslim’ of names. Their captain was booed at the toss by the same crowd.

But much of this has been thankfully overshadowed by India’s astonishing run of 10 wins on the trot. Even the most unreasonably upbeat Indian fan must not have seen any of this coming in the run-up to the World Cup. Yet, India has utterly dominated proceedings — breaking records in every other game and swatting aside all competition with disdain.

The juggernaut has been led by Mohammed Shami (who had also been jeered with Hindu religious chants back in March -- where else but in Ahmedabad). Having missed the first half of the tournament, Shami has more than made up for it by topping the wicket-takers’ chart. He has been ably assisted by a motley crew of versatile bowlers -- pacers, spinners, even part-timers.

Around the cricket excitement, life has gone on quite normally (as per the ‘new normal’ since 2014) across India. The Chief Minister of Shami’s native state had declared earlier this year that India is a “Hindu nation” and that Pakistan will eventually be absorbed into it. The Union Home Minister has campaigned for an election by enumerating all the many Hindu temples that his government has built.

But this is where cricket is a great unifier. India may afford to become a Hindu nation, build sundry temples, perhaps even host communal riots each year. But it can’t afford to lose cricket matches. If it takes two Muslim fast bowlers to win a World Cup, then India must field two Muslim fast bowlers at all costs. The best talent shall be sourced from wherever it is, no matter which deity they worship. In that, India cannot compromise. The stakes are only higher when the final is to be played at a ground named after the Prime Minister.

Cricket can also be a panacea for many ills. If one excels at cricket, one can enjoy an almost saint-like immunity from the evils of society and politics. At the cricket ground, the blue jersey papers over all other forms of identity and takes on a religious fervour of its own.

It’s a bit like how Nelson Mandela had seen rugby as a great unifier in post-Apartheid South Africa. Hosting the rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela had rallied behind the historically white South African national team — the Springboks. The Springboks had long been seen as a symbol of Apartheid by black South Africans. But throughout the World Cup, Mandela had enthusiastically worn their jersey and championed the idea of “One Team, One Country.”

In India today, we are far from any Mandela-like rhetoric. But even if all else is lost, we’ll at least still have cricket. To parody the oft-repeated advertisement for a deodorant brand during the matches – “India mein cricket tho chalta hain na!”