Journalism of Courage
An old man stands on a flat-heeled square-ended boat, a punt as it’s called, and pushes a long stick inside the dark-coloured waters of river Avon meandering through a lush and massive botanical garden in Christchurch. A blue wedge of sunlight falls down on the leaves, framing the trees on a (slightly) chilly afternoon. Just five minutes’ walk from this Instagram moment, inside the Hagley Park stadium, Brendon McCullum is talking about how it feels great to be leading the best New Zealand side ever to enter a World Cup. (Full Coverage| Venues | Fixtures)
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It feels a touch odd. New Zealand have always punched above their weight and to be billed as a contender this time isn’t normal. And to have a World Cup event whose silly format weakens the league stage is odd enough but it’s weirder that many teams look so uninspiring going into the biggest event. Sure, the setting of New Zealand and the proud cricket tradition of Australia can still lift this tournament but to confuse the peripherals with chief content that is cricket is a job best left to the marketing men.
And so, there were those blue eyes of McCullum twinkling in delight at this most ridiculously happy phase of his life: as a leader, as a batsman, as a son — “the old man will call me now for free tickets!”. A smile constantly twirled around his lips as he spoke about this and that. The mind, as it does, reached out for a contrasting image of him from 2009 IPL in South Africa. A broken man, the tattooed swagger a thing of the past, emotionally hurt reflected in statements about being ready to quit captaincy, and looking so disoriented in press interactions. Like a lost puppy. When I had asked him whether the announcement about captaincy was an emotional reaction to all the woeful losses, he shot out, “That’s your call, mate. Captains all over the world feel the pressure.” How things can change in life!
A sense of nervousness
McCullum’s opposing captain in the opening game of the tournament, Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka, looked like he can do with a bit of that confidence. There was a sense of nervousness about him. “We have found ways to lose in the last two months.” A misfiring late middle order, an inability to control the middle overs with his spinners in these conditions, and an injured Lasith Malinga, who, fortunately, is fit to play in the first game have all left their impact on the skipper.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent Australia, their original captain Michael Clarke features in tables in newspapers that list out the various injuries, and time-outs, he has taken in the last year or so. By now, Australia will have got used to playing without him, though. Their opponents, whose captain Eoin Morgan is in the middle of a spree of ducks — three in four innings — and their team is being mocked in funny posters around Melbourne’s Richmond train station near the famous MCG. Couple of cricket balls feature with a caption: ‘Missing: Pair of balls. If found please return to the English cricket team.#missingBalls.’ The Australian cricket board even sent out a press release saying that they had nothing to do with it.
Not that everything that comes out of them is humorous or clever, of course. In a recent book Australian Moment, the Australian author George Megalogenis lashed out that deafening mind-numbing Aussie chant of ‘Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! .
In a withering paragraph, he wrote: “The chant is a form of a national Tourette’s. This tone-deaf cry acts as a human shield to protect us, and the rest of the world, from taking Australia too seriously. Only a people that genuinely fear self-reflection would carry on like this. Perhaps that is why we continue to celebrate the military defeat at Gallipoli, an extension of our aggressive adolescence, a young nation still not ready to find an independent voice . we are better than that.”
Aggressive adolescence is something that this new Indian team wears as a proud badge. And by their branding people, perfectly captured in that immature, and revelatory, shriek of hollow aggression: ‘We won’t give it back’.
India’s first opponent Pakistan are already upto some mischief ahead of a contest that depends entirely on past glory for gravitas. Eight players have being fined for breaking a curfew and more colourful details about a possible verbal altercation with a Pakistani fan have also emerged. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni had a funny remark about what he told his teammates ahead of the break between the tri-series and World Cup. “Take rest and just don’t get arrested or killed. Rest all is okay.”
Anyway, things are churning ahead of the World Cup. A confident Kiwi, mocking posters, a broken curfew, a captain’s wisecrack. Hope the cricket is also good.
