04 April,2011 10:52 AM IST | | Hemal Ashar
It is an occasion that calls for hyperbole and history. As a nation revels in India's World Cup triumph, then, here is a cricketing twist to Jawaharlal Nehru's landmark freedom speech he gave on August 14, 1947.u00a0
"More than 20 years ago, 28 to be precise, India's cricket team made a tryst with destiny, and in 2011 the time came when they repeated that not partly but in full measure.u00a0
Before the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, Indian cricket stepped up to lift the spirit of a nation. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in sporting history, when we step out from the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the cricketing soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.
Before the stroke of the midnight, when the world sleeps, Indian cricket stepped up to lift the spirit of a nation
At the dawn of this World Cup 2011, India started on her quest, and path was filled with striving, the euphoria of her successes and the despair of failure. Through good and ill fortune alike, she never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. On Saturday, she ended a period of drought and Indian
cricket discovered itself again.
The achievement that we celebrated at the Wankhede is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
Before this win Indian cricket had witnessed the pains of coming so close to the Cup and seeing it slip away and hearts were heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is in the present that we rejoice and the future that beckons to us now.
So they have had to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to their dreams. With this win though, let us never forget all the other athletes in different sports who work as hard as they but do not get the rewards that this game gives its players.
Yet, this is no time for petty criticism, no time for ill-will or envy. The appointed day came ufffd the day appointed by destiny - and India stood on the podium again, after long struggle. The turning point is past, and history begins anew for Indian cricket. A new star rises, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialises. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed.
And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind" [Victory to India].
