The impact of the Twenty20 win
India's victory at the ICC World Twenty20 has prompted the country's national dailies to remark on the event in their editorials
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
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India's victory at the ICC World Twenty20 has prompted the country's national dailies to remark on the event in their editorials. Here is a collection of opinions:
The Hindu says that it is clear the future of Indian cricket belongs to cricketers with young and willing legs and arms and uncluttered minds. But it warns against the success being blown out of proportion.
There are two clear messages from South Africa for the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The first is that the time may be just right to consider easing out the old guard. The other is that the BCCI must not allow this Twenty20 triumph to lead to a slow cannibalisation of Test cricket.
The Times of India calls for a celebration of diversity that defines this young Indian side.
The Hindustan Times observes that the changing face of Indian cricket reflects a deeper social and political transformation that the country has gone through.
Most sociologists would see this as confirmation of the rise of small-town India: to the multi-storey malls in Rohtak, you can now add the residence of Joginder Sharma. This is the India for whom playing cricket is a vehicle of social mobility, of finally unshackling an oppressive system where the public school tie appeared to matter more than ability. With its uniquely meritocratic approach, cricket could do what few other fields of activity in this country provided: a chance to excel and be recognised, irrespective of one’s lineage.
But it cautions against vieweing cricketers as catalysts of social change.
Don’t forget the euphoria of the 1983 win was followed by the horrific anti-Sikh riots just a year later. 2007 may be a watershed moment in Indian cricket, but beyond the boundary life isn’t quite so smooth.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo