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| ARSENAL!!! (Photo credit: rohan-04) |
Two teams disturbingly similar. Two teams that you cheer for and fear for. At exactly the same time. Sometimes I wonder what life is like for fans of 'winningest' teams like the Australian cricket team or Manchester United. I pity those fools.
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Being a sports fan is all about being completely emotionally invested in the fortunes of a team or player, yet having absolutely zero control over it. Ups and downs, high-fives and stabbings which one needs to put up with for no reason at all. Emotionally investing in Australia or Manchester United is as exciting as watching paint peel. Yes, every 10 years, a flake or two will fall off but do you really want to keep your life so short of drama?
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For drama, triumph and tragedy, we must turn to Messrs. Indian cricket team and a little football club in North London called the Arsenal Football Club. A common criticism amongst their detractors of whom there are many is that they lack 'guts' (in foreign conditions/in high stakes matches). For them, sports is all about the numbers, wins v/s losses; a cold, dry mathematical anything-goes-to-get-a-win way of life. For the second time within the same blog post, I pity them.
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Sport is more than just mathematics. Mathematics tells us what happened in the end, not how we got there. It's like watching only the final scene of "The Matrix" where Neo flies off into the sky and claiming that was the only part worth watching. There is beauty in the passes, there is magic in the flowing drives, there is sweet redemption for the mercurially talented - all lost to the numbers obsessed "Winning is all we care for" mafia.
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India, as always, steps into a World Cup tentatively, its fans unsure of what to expect, if anything at all. Arsenal play Chelsea tomorrow with the Stamford Bridge boys likely to put their all behind staying on top for the final few games.
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In India's case, my favourite Indian captain of all time has a lot of pressure piling onto his overworked back both on field and off. Despite everything MSD has done for India, to his less-than-sharp critics, he will always be 'lucky'. I only wish him more 'luck'.
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In Arsenal's case, the future of a brilliant man hangs in balance, a man committed to the strangely idealistic notion of nurturing his own talent. Arsene Wenger is the reason behind Arsenal's 'beautiful' football, not gutsy enough for some, not realistic enough for others. But his brand of football is what makes Arsenal Arsenal as we have known for the past 20 years.
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Will it be glory? Or will it be gory? I should have been used to this feeling of hopeful despair by now. But I guess I never will be. It's not like I haven't been here before.
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