Cricket from a curious onlooker's eyes

New Delhi: Many visiting Europeans were bowled over by the mood as India went wild with celebrations. A Belgian tourist tried to understand what the hullabaloo was all about. A special report by a curious onlooker:

Almost every television set in the country last night was turned on cricket. Work stopped early in offices. For three hours, a vast majority of Indians gave up everything else to watch 11 men in blue pyjamas wait for the ball to come their way at the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup. And I was told this keeps happening through the year in this country.

So what is it about cricket in India?

For a European, it's difficult to understand the attraction for the game. First of all, the game is long and complicated.

Let's forget about rules and try play it. And that's not too difficult. Give Indian children from any background a ball and a bit of space. They'll be playing cricket.

But in the 20 minutes I was there, only a bowler and a batsman got to play. the other 20 children were pretty much left out. It's quite slow and there's absolutely no team game. So I can't say I'm that attracted by the sport."

"India is a country with so many religions, so many things, but cricket is one thing which is getting everyone on the same platform, same emotions. So that's what makes it special," explained a cricket enthusiast.

I'm not sure I've understood exactly what the rules of cricket were, I'm not sure I'll get into a team tomorrow and start playing it, but what's sure is that, with an evening like this, with an atmosphere like this, anyone would get converted to cricket.

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