The most compelling cricketing conversation I had in 2023 was with 9 year old Vikrant. I was meeting a friend – Prashant – and his family for breakfast in Chennai before going to the Pakistan v Afghanistan game in the World Cup, and his son was telling us about his exploits of how he was learning to bowl the googly. It was riveting to listen to, and to watch his eyes light up, a young mind clearly discovering the many joys the game had to offer. I reveled in losing myself in the childlike perspective he brought and imagining what it would be like to discover all this all over again for the first time. His dad tells me a story of how at 4 years old, Vikrant went for his first cricket match, and watched Washington Sundar, who he was told is an all-rounder – a memory so imprinted that years later when Prashant mentioned Sir Garfield Sobers, Vikrant immediately queried if he also was an allrounder like Washington Sundar.
2023 was a rich year for me in terms of being fortunate enough to follow a lot of sport in person, but my greatest learning was that sometimes what is happening on the field is a sideshow, the real connections that are imprinted forever happen off the field. I was there for India’s historic win at the SAFF football tournament in Bangalore, and while it was as dramatic as a final could get – India went down a goal before mounting a comeback, and winning a nailbiter in a penalty shootout – my abiding memory is a friend of a friend who was attending his first ever international match (of any kind) at a stadium. He took some time to warm up to the Kanteerava West Block’s raucous cheering, and the three dimensional vibe that hits you differently than if you were watching on a two dimensional screen, but by the end of the night was letting the atmosphere wash over him, like you do with crashing sea waves at the beach after initial hesitation.
I was also there for the Asian Champions Trophy hockey in Chennai, and while it was great to watch the Indian team under a new coach mounting another amazing comeback in the final, me and my colleague, Yashodhan, planning complete cultural immersion by deciding to watch the latest Rajini movie at a single screen theater during the break of game during the semifinals is what I am likely to remember for longer, or even the moment when the stadium staff – from the cleaning crew to the security – cheered for every post tournament award that was handed out. The year had in fact begun with hockey, in Bhubaneswar at the Men’s World Cup, where persuaded by ace foodie and even more ace sports fan Vipul, I had decided to spend 5 days to watch the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. And treated as we were to some incredible hockey by eventual champions Germany (alas, both of us reached Odisha after India were heartbreakingly eliminated in the crossovers) Vipul’s food exploration, and us talking to a die hard hockey fan family traveling from Rourkela to watch the final, were the highlights. Because, again, what it allowed me to do was look at the same thing we see on screen but through another perspective. I found that out further when I featured bright young Radha on my football podcast to talk about the Women’s Football World Cup, and she provided a masterclass on how to introduce a subject to an audience for whom it may be new.
The same thing, but sort of in reverse, happened with me at the World Test Championship final in London about five months down the line, as I interacted with the staff in the hospitality suite who wanted to be introduced to cricket – something I have written more extensively about. During the cricket world cup, I got to watch two India games, and despite my abysmal track record earlier of never having seen the Indian cricket team – men’s or women’s – win a ICC tournament game I watched in person, India won both, and comfortably. During the India v South Africa match in Kolkata, watching the team dismantle South Africa felt like a surreal dream, a sight of heavenly abundance at the garden of Eden, if you will. I was privileged enough to indulge in saying I will eat biryani at Arsalan if Shami took wickets, and be able to follow up on that indulgence carefree and delighted. That walk from the stadium to the nearest Arsalan branch will remain with me possibly longer than the exact memory of how the wickets fell that day.
There were shenanigans and madness in an incredibly lopsided England v South Africa world cup game in Mumbai, where friends who I met through an appearance on a podcast (that very much lives up to its ‘friendliest’ tag) were there to make every minute memorable, whether it was Tony with his puns and wisecracks, or Srinath with his ‘Go watch the rugby!’ chant at England fans, or Nitin with his SRK pose after every Protea boundary. In fact I had gone to the Asia Cup (as part of work), but it was way more fun to discuss the games on this very pod! I am fortunate to work in an industry where the need to be at the sports action often blurs the line between work and fun, and this was a year of embracing that unique fortune – often in the form of things like the amusing poster Yashodhan and I carried to the Australia v Pakistan game…
…or having a blast with Tejas (extreme right in the pic below) at Comic Con, a cricket tragic like me, who decided to put a unique cricketing twist to Pavitra Prabhakar, the Indian Spider-Man.
And I certainly did not expect to cap the year off at the sport by attending a Volleyball tournament, and being featured in a selfie taken by a World Cup winner from Brazil post the game, because we had becomes fans of him during the match and called out at the end as the team (the Brazilian club Itambe Minas, who finished runners up in the Volleyball Club World Championships that I had gone to see) walked off the court how much we enjoyed watching him play. It felt surreal.
This was a year that was packed with a lot of travel for both work and personal reasons, and its surrealism is probably captured for me in the fact that I got two mid-air news updates from the pilot – one, when the Vikram Lander touched down on the moon, and the other one about the India v New Zealand world cup group game before we touched down at Chennai. Moments like those serve as a good reminder of sport’s pull as a community thing, and a cue to reflect on what really hooks us to sport? Sure, the action on field is what appears to be the primary thing, but as time goes on, the on-field action becomes a subconscious sideshow, and your memory becomes dominated by those friends-we-made-along-the-way moments.
Because after 2023, I find myself looking at sport on the field as the excuse that brings us together in unique ways, and more than watching the actual action (I still love it, of course!), I will be looking forward to who will be the Vikrant equivalent in 2024.
Cheers, and a Happy and Sporty New Year to all of you. Whether you are watching, playing, analysing, or just idly discussing, may sport always bring out the best angels of our nature.
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