A few years later my family moved from London to Calcutta. We had migrated from the birthplace of cricket to the game’s burgeoning new Mecca.
India’s 1983 win turned out to be a catalyst for a new enthusiasm for one-day cricket, the version of the sport in which the World Cup is contested. (The longer version, Test cricket, takes five days per game; a Test World Cup has never been feasible.)
Childhood constant
My most vivid memories of my childhood in India are of cricket.
India was crazy about it. A public holiday meant putting up makeshift stumps on the main road and starting a game. At school we would squeeze in a quick match in our 20 minute tiffin break.
No ball? No problem. Our ball was a stone with a handkerchief wrapped around it.
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No longer. Now cricket is a game — still the most important one — but just a game.
No doubt, my views are colored by my own journey, my growing up. But when you consider that 65% of all Indians were born in the 1980s or later, well after the two big wars of the 1970s, perhaps young Indians have a different relationship with ‘India versus Pakistan.’
So let the games begin, and may the best team win. By a strange quirk, while Pakistan has a better record against India in both Test and One Day cricket, India has won all five of its World Cup games against Pakistan.
If the odds finally catch up with India and the nation doesn’t engulf itself in a period of collective mourning, it will be one more small step forward for a new, confident nation.
Go India, and go Pakistan!
