Behind the Scenes: World Cup 2023

Take away cricket, and India won't be India

It was late night on the gloomiest Monday India had faced in many a day, the 20th of November 2023, when the Indian cricket team was assembled in the Ahmedabad airport, waiting to fly to Delhi for a felicitation.

They didn't want the felicitation. Not one single one of them. But people had decided they deserved it, deserved a final pat on the back for their brilliant performance in the World Cup, even if the final result hadn't gone their way.

There was an air of stillness around them, very unusual for a place packed with these guys. Even in ordinary grief, they'd be loud. 

Presently, though, the grief was extraordinary, so nobody felt like raising their voices. Most of their tears had tried out, except Siraj, who would still choke up once in a while now. All the drink-the-pain-away-into-oblivion had been accomplished the previous night by the younger ones and the bachelors: Ishan and Shreyas, who had pulled in Shubman and of all people, Kuldeep.

They hadn't received the scolding they deserved today morning from their coaches, either. Perhaps because Dravid sir and Dilip sir knew the pain hadn't been washed away, and now the poor kids had the additional pain of a hangover to deal with.

It was not like Virat didn't have enough to deal with at the airport.

His heart was sliced into tiny pieces, and the pieces were probably swimming all around inside his body, grazing all the other organs, too. There could be no other explanation as to how everything hurt, including breathing.

Then, Shubman was curled up at his side, holding his head, still sniffling softly.

"There will be other World Cups, Shubi," Virat tried telling him.

"But maybe not with you and Rohit bhai!" Shubman said, so fiercely Virat felt like he'd done something sinful.

Then, there was Jaddu and Rohit sitting opposite him. Both had plagued Virat constantly since yesterday's loss. 

Jaddu because of how often he'd been bursting into silent fits of laughter. When Ash told him, tiredly, "Will you please stop? We know you don't find it funny," Jaddu laughed harder and said, "Don't you honestly find it funny, Ashley? Our luck, year in, year out?"

Virat let him be. It wasn't much good trying to comfort Jaddu, not for any of them. He never opened up to anyone but Rohit on a regular basis, and Ash and Virat would have to go to extreme lengths to get him to stop laughing, and neither of them had the energy to. 

But Rohit plagued Virat worst because he had been glassy-eyed far worse than after the 2019 semi final and hadn't spoken a word since the press conference. It would have been alright it he had been crying, but he was not. And there was no sign of life in his eyes.

Plus, Virat knew for a fact he hadn't slept for two nights straight.

He wouldn't say any of them had slept very well the past two nights--in nerves and in grief respectively--but Rohit had actually refused to sleep.

Rahul sat on Rohit's other side. Both Rahul and Jaddu (when he wasn't laughing) occasionally looked at Rohit and then across at Virat, which meant they were worried too.

Rahul was the only one who had given not a single indication of grief all this time. When Virat had gone to his room with the intention of offering comfort, he'd ended up seeking it instead. 

Virat had always known it, but was a whole lot more convinced now: his Rahuliya was a brick.

"Look," said Ash, sounding distasteful. "Just look at this guy using the Cup to prop his feet. Aussie DNA can never change, I guess."