What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
Listen, I was born in India to an Indian family as an Indian. I’m so Indian even my passport is Indian. So this question can have only one answer.
Cricket.
Indians like to boast about beauty in diversity—different cultures, languages, cuisines, what not. The truth is, we have zero diversity. All Indians speak one language: cricket. We follow one religion: cricket. Cricket is our culture.
Cricket not being your favorite sport in India is both anti-national and hurtful to Indian religious sentiments. I’m genuinely surprised there are no laws regarding this yet.
Anyway, I didn’t choose cricket as my favorite sport—God chose me for cricket (I mean the actual God, not Sachin or Dhoni).
We cricketians have a caste system. The two castes of cricket constantly fight about who the real God of cricket is—Sachin Tendulkar or MSD. (We all know it’s MSD, but we respect everybody’s religious beliefs.)
In my country, cricket just shows up in your life one day and never leaves. Family gatherings, festivals, random Sundays, exam seasons—there’s always a match on. Even if you’re not watching, you somehow still know the score.
Now, to be completely honest and culturally transparent, cricket is actually my second favorite sport to watch. The first? Baby Olympics. Because I am a woman of culture. Watching tiny humans crawl, wobble, and fall dramatically for absolutely no reason is peak entertainment.
But I want to stay alive, so cricket is a very close second—mostly because it offers me a peaceful life.
Watching cricket is an emotional workout. One moment you’re calm, the next you’re questioning every life decision of a cricketer (and his wife) you don’t even know, because a wicket fell. There’s shouting at the TV, intense analysis like you’re part of the coaching staff, and that one relative who suddenly becomes an expert commentator.
And with women’s cricket now gaining popularity in India, I can’t look back. All my propagandas are satisfied.
So yes, while baby Olympics holds the top spot in my heart, when it comes to adult sports, I’m an Indian. It has to be cricket. It’s not just a sport; it’s an emotion, a lifestyle, and sometimes, a national mood.
And oh—I don’t play cricket. The only thing I play is pretend murder. Hehe.
Leave a Reply