Border Gavaskar Trophy: Where Whining Gets More attention than Winning ( Not a Preview)

The year is 2023 and we have already entered the 2nd month of the year. In India, we have 6 types of seasons (the rest of the world have 4, as far as my little mind knows). We kinda celebrated this as the arrival of the Spring Season, which is my favorite season, because here I find the transparent interaction between the natural resources in the form of a balanced amount of air and sunlight and us Humans who inhaled both the sources without thinking the sting and bite that we have to face due to overheating in summer and trapping cold air which makes it difficult for us to breath freely in winter.

But this February the possibility of feeling both heat and coldness in this beautiful month is greater than ever. The fight between the two cricketing giants is about to take place and one thing that I can say with surety is that it won't be only on the cricketing field between the two nations. Every single person in these two great countries will feel the heat as the chances are high that the tension and hostility, between the two teams, won't keep them inside the mere concrete structure, they will surely break all kinds of natural barriers and make sure that humans of both sides feel it too, no matter how far they are from each other.

I have been an adherent follower of matches that team India plays in SENA countries because FUKREYSSS like me who have never gotten a chance to witness the natural beauty of a foreign country, can see it for free without even spending a single buck.

Matches in Australia give a special kind of nostalgic feeling as in India we had to wake up around 5 am to watch the heavyweight clash between the two giants despite knowing the fact that most of us had school after a couple of hours. I learned a lot while listening to the talk among the commentators. The terms like MIND-GAMES ( which is still relevant courtesy of Ian Healy) I understand the meaning of it only after watching the BGT. So basically it's not only about learning about the game, it's also about making oneself aware of the cricketing terms that we can use in our day-to-day life.

As far as the Border Gavaskar trophy is concerned, it was never the biggest thing in the cricketing world, our condition in the past in BGT is somehow similar English team's condition in Ashes in present. But as we see in an Indian movie, life has this uncanny habit of giving a chance to the hero, when he/she lost everything until that stage of life, to turn the tide in favor and become a big shot.

TEAM INDIA GOT A SIMILAR CHANCE IN 2001

The period between 1999 to 2001 wasn't the best time for our country in general. We were out of the cricket world cup, once again, though we beat Pakistan. Atal Vajpayee's government fall within 13 days of its formation . 13 DAYS. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS ??? Even my resolution of not touching my mobile phone until I passed my board exam with first division lasted longer than that. We hadn't fully recovered from the above distraught that out of nowhere we got the news about the involvement of a few Indian cricketers in MATCH FIXING along with an RSA cricketer who at that time developed a habit of keeping Master blaster inside his pocket ( And I can say with surety now that the first thing that always came out of his pocket at that time wouldn't be his purse or watch).

In cricketing terms, conditions were getting gloomy and overcast, and Indian cricket was left on its own, from here on we could either wait for the sun to rise or surrender and accept to dance to the tunes of destiny. We choose the third option and decided to write our story through our sweat and blood.

What happened next was just out of the world and at that time we thought we won't ever going to be witnessed the same miracle again but then came

THE BORDER GAVASKAR TROPHY OF 2020-2021

Even now whenever I get a chance in my free time to watch the highlights of that dreamy series, I feel sad for those who though experienced the same kind of joyous feeling in 2001 but have to rely on articles and clips available here there on youtube but in the end go to bed still feeling empty somewhere from inside and feeling envious that they won't get another shot of witnessing and reliving those historic moments again which according to them was the turning point in Indian cricket, just like we feel that gabba test was the turning point in our time.

( So much use of FEEL and FEELING in every fucking line)

The tussle is something that our parents always told us from the beginning to avoid ( though they sometimes forget to follow the same and end up doing what according to them we shouldn't do). It's like telling the sun to rise from the west ( i seriously hope it rises from the east as I have this habit of getting confused when it comes to universal facts). Watching cricket is not only about enjoying the game, it's also about getting a taste of verbal combat because people like me can't eat a boiled egg without having a black pepper over it. Can't comprise with taste, you know.

The aim of writing this article was never about unlocking the old chapters that are already kept safely inside the locker of every human's mind. It was about reliving the same moments by connecting them with our memories, about how we felt at that time, and discovering something new with the joint venture of both. A philosopher in me who has a thing for both history and cricket is not a fan of excel sheets and stats. Cricket is something that demands only connection from us and for that, we don't need to depend on maths to develop a feeling for a game because our heart is enough to cherish the game for what it truly is.

A fan should always remain a fan because when he/she tries to become a critic or a judge, it's from that moment we start forgetting the reason why we fell in love with a game for the first time, it's from that moment we start losing all the fun, entertainment and positive thinking and start indulging in the useless debate. We should always remember that it's possible to love something or someone without looking for a flaw inside them.

Trust me, It's a WHIN-WIN situation. You will never lose if you start thinking like that.