The fact that other sports in India are not given the star status that cricket is, is not a new discovery.
It is a pathetic disgrace that victory in a sport that is played in a lot more countries across the globe doesn't please us as much as winning a grossly shortened version of a game that only a handful of nations play. What was also disgraceful was that news channels followed the parade right from the airport to the stadium and there were traffic jams etc. which caused great inconvenience to the general public. It was just too much!
Just for the record- I too am a cricket fan. And I am happy we won the match against Pakistan. That match was also a fantastic one. But I don't know if it is because of my general attitude to this T-20 humbug that I just don't feel all that ecstatic about it. Honestly, I felt happier when Italy won the football world cup. My mind refuses to accept the T-20 as a cricket world cup. There is only one cricket world cup. And we know what happened in that one (I got over that tragedy pretty easily as well)!
Its true that cricket is a craze in India. Players are idolised and worshipped when they win, and their houses torn down when they lose. This, of course, is behaviour that is bordering on pathology. So one might say that Hockey and other sports are actually in a better position- less pressure etc. The players aren't put on a pedestal, so there is no fear of coming crashing down.
But here, I am reminded of a couplet of by (sigh) Ghalib. It goes something like this :-
"laag ho to usko hum samjhe lagaav
jab ho na kuch bhi to dhoka khaen kya?"
Translation:
