We all agree that politics has no place in our sports but maybe that’s just a truism. Interestingly, cricket isn’t only the most revered and played sport in our country, use of it’s terminology is pretty widespread and of late, figures in most discussions e.g. ‘veteran leader’s ‘googly’ outwitted his opponents’ !
After the hugely significant meeting of the alliance of Opposition Parties that took place and was widely covered by the media, one anchor described the event somewhat like this ‘The team is formed but the captain is yet to be announced. Batting order isn’t yet finalized, though many of the superstars (batters) would like play up the order, it mayn’t be easy to work out. What’s certain is that this team looks quite charged up and ready for the contest. Setting a game-plan to fight present Cup-holders will be a real challenge’ !
As sports-lovers we find all this talk exciting but surfeit of cricket of late has become a tad boring (despite the ongoing Ashes) and ‘tennis’ is the game in fashion specially after Carlos Alcaraz became the new poster boy, superbly trouncing the reigning Wimbledon champion & legend, Novak Djokovic ! The young Spaniard’s dazzling display showed that upsets can be caused by new entrants to bring down those considered invincible, sure-shot winners.
Taking the tennis analogy further and just to illustrate, Alcaraz was down first set (akin to setback in Maharastra for the MVA) but rallied around to fight back in the sets that followed, showing retrieving power and resilience against a great past master who’d thwarted many such challenges earlier, yet didn’t quite judge the determination of his young opponent, which grew stronger as the crowd support became louder for the ‘new’ title contender !
As the media has reported, the alliances on both sides are readying for the huge contest ahead in 2024 but this is no T-20 game or even a 5 day Test, it’s has many grueling sets to be played out. But the contest now appears to have become more exciting !
Working on Living 