India has scored another magnificent win in the ICC World Cup and as we Indians always feel, wins against Pakistan are bit extra special, extra sweet. However, there are some people who have grown uncomfortable with the new Indian team of the last few years, that has been carefully developed into a lean, mean win machine, their excuses are varied and colourful.
Team India has the love and admiration of more than a billion people, maybe more, considering overseas fans. But there are some who hate this team, no, we are not talking about the men in Green who looked particularly tomato deficient yesterday, there are certain gems on social media whose reasons for hating team India are so spectacular, even Virat Kohli would not run out of his choicest swear words in shock and awe. Sample below:
After yesterday’s rain-soaked thrashing of Pakistan, while admirer’s worldwide are busy hailing a team India for winning a match despite having injured players, last-minute replacements, losing the toss and rain halts, some people, who have clearly run out of issues to find faults, have come up with a brilliant demonstration of what Hindi Twitter knows as ‘Naraaz Fufa’.
truth. It’s the cold-hearted winning that unnerves me. #INDvPAK https://t.co/29mkspiFob pic.twitter.com/Fgizq9mkWC
— Randeep Ramesh (@tianran) June 16, 2019
Randeep Ramesh, who claims to be the “leader writer” for the Guardian quotes from a fan named Fahd Masood who has stated that he doesn’t like the ‘cold-hearted ruthlessness’ of the present Indian team. Mr Masood apparently prefers the old Indian team of Sehwag, Tendulkar and Kumble.
We don’t know which matches the quoted ‘fan’ has watched but to claim that Sehwag, Tendulkar and Kumble were ‘milder’ in their game is another concept that deserves a Virat Kohli swear word.
Sehwag was the one who has beaten Pakistan bowlers to a pulp, and he did it with an effortless style and yes, with that “big goofy grin”. Tendulkar did the same, and he did that for a much longer period of time. It might have looked ‘mild, and loving’, but to guess the number of heartbreaks and pain it had caused, the ruined careers and stunted reconds of many Pakistani bowlers will provide some clarification.
Yes, Anil Kumble looked less like an ‘aggressive’ cricket player and more like a blue collared corporate hunk, with his mild mannerism and gentle persona. But claiming his game against Pakistan was not ‘ruthless and cold-hearted’ is laughable. Proof? Firozshah Kotla stadium, February 7, 1999, the scorecard read something like Anil Kumble: 26.3 9 74 10. He was called the smiling assassin, and rightly so.
The thing is, a large number of people whose thought processes are yet to gain freedom from the British Empire, want to see an India that is subdued, mediocre and docile. Well, that is not the case anymore, the truth is, “Ye Naya India hai,” this India will not fall for the old tricks of guilt trapping and servile mediocrity. It will thrash its opponents, be it in cricket or across the LoC.
