Cricket fever

REPUBLICA

While the excitement surrounding the Bryan Adams concert is over with the legendary Canadian artiste through with enthralling the Nepali audience with his live performance in Kathmandu on Saturday, the cricket world cup fever is just starting to get a grip on the Nepali fans. Though there is still a long way to go before our national team can make it to the cricket world cup, the game is passionately followed in the country and the 10th edition of the cup that kicked off on Saturday in Bangladesh is certain to keep many fans glued to their TV sets over the next 45 days while some of them may even travel to the nearby Indian cities to watch it live in the stadiums.

Fourteen teams from around the world are vying to become the world champion but we will have to wait until April 2 when the final will be played at the revamped Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India, which is co-hosting the mega event along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, to see whether or not the 13 other participating teams have it in them to force Australia, the winner of the last three editions of the world cup, to part with the title of world beaters. What we can predict now is that the four non-test playing teams – Canada and Kenya from Group A and Ireland and The Netherlands from Group B – will find it almost impossible to make it to the quarters. In addition, Zimbabwe from Group A and Bangladesh from Group B will, most likely, be the other teams to be eliminated from the group stage. From the quarterfinals, it is all about how a team plays on a particular day; hence we refrain from making any predictions.

Having said that, it would not be off the mark to put one’s money on India simply because Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men are playing under conditions that they like and enjoy, and, on most instances, have the home advantage. Though Australia’s run in the recent times has been far from impressive, it can never be ruled out as potential champion considering that it has won four world cups so far, the last three on a trot as mentioned before, and has missed out on playing a final only once since 1987. England is another serious contender for the title as the English have the momentum on their side having just convincingly defeated Australia in the Ashes series. Though South Africa has always been one of the most consistent teams in the international circuit, it is always difficult to bet on the Proteas as they have the tendency to choke at crucial moments. Sri Lanka has been doing fairly well recently and the Lankans, like India, are playing on familiar conditions, hence they too cannot be ruled out.

As Nepalis do not have their own team to cheer for, many of them support India but there is an equally big fan following for the Pakistani team as well, not because they really like them but because they are our southern neighbor’s arch rival. It is interesting to see how human sentiments work. We at Republica, however, just want the team that gives scintillating performances over the next six weeks to lift the cup. Let us sit back, enjoy and savor the amazing fun that cricket brings along with it.