ABSTRACT
The most famous misconception about India is not that a snake charmer lives down the lane, but that India is a cricket-crazy country. Truth, as always, makes such a sentence a trifle longer. India is not a cricket-crazy nation; India is an international cricket-crazy nation. That’s why to an Indian who will gape at any congregation of the world’s well-fed nations in which he is respected and feared, the Cricket World Cup is a rare windfall. Rare not because it comes once in four years but because there are not too many of such grand spectacles where there is applause as India walks out: ‘Cricket is not a sport any more in India. It is war. Every Indian wants to see his nation beat the hell out of another on the cricket field because such a happy occurrence does not happen often outside it.’1 In many ways, though, the much advertised Indian love for cricket brings with it uniquely vibrant festivities; is more than anything a grim reminder of an inherited deficiency of something called national pride.
