I have faint memories of my childhood, watching those cricket matches where India would find itself slogging it out in the penultimate overs of the match. We may have seen many one side losses, but when it came to winning, we almost invariably tried to ensure we took the fight to the last over!! With Commonwealth games around the corner, I am having flash frames of those moments all over again!
We are still trying to fire all our cylinders in the last over of the match trying to come out victorious. With less than a week for the games to kick start, the OC for CWG, the CWG federation and the Indian Govt, all have collectively woken up to the fact that we need to deliver almost a boundary off every ball to pull this off… Not getting into the merits of charges and counter charges over corruption, lack of preparation and quality of the deliverables, we must try and cover the last mile now. As PM Manmohan Singh has stated, we need to ACT now to get things right and ensure a successful games. But its interesting to note this from another perspective. Yes, it is true that last minute glitches do prevail at times, yes it is unfortunate that the media seems to be going overboard at times to make an overkill of the underlying situation harming national pride but then the fact of the matter remains we have waited for the last week of Sep 2010 to act when the games where awarded to India some seven years back.
Whether it is a cricket match, a global event like CWG or any other plans we undertake, the basic psychology of waking up in the end remains a constant feather on our caps. It would be unjustified to just blame the authorities for such advent; it seems this habit has become a way of our everyday lives. Even if we peep into our routine daily activities, we would realize that whether it is sending our children to school, attending the classes in college, reaching office on time or turning up for a marriage function; the last minute adrenaline rush gives us that high which we has become a part of our blood. This rush gives us a sense of security that we are on track and a satisfaction that yes: “All is Well”…
We have made it a habit of redefining IST as Indian Stretchable Time, and then stretching it to the extent of needing a six off the last ball as maybe the case with CWG! Whether we win such adventure games or concede loss as in the case of the famous (or the Infamous) last ball hit from Miandad off Chetan Sharma, we consider any match competitive only when we are present on the field till the very last! On the contrary, our immediate neighbor China has become a Superpower in its own right with sheer hard-work, detailed futuristic planning and flawless execution of the laid plans. It seems they wish to finish the matches right in the middle overs to ensure no uncertain moments are seen on their way to Victory.
I wish either our neighbor learn something from us or unlearn to us some of its abilities to plan the wins well in advance! Till then, we will continue with our endeavors to witness more CWG’s and live life King size with the “Last over Syndrome”:) Jai Hind!
