Cricket fever

I have spent a lot of hours this week watching cricket.
How could I not?
India playing in the cricket world cup final against Sri Lanka on home turf--that's just huge!

So yeah, I watched the game. Nothing else happened in the entire country for those eight and a half hours.

And it really was good game, beautifully won at the end with a ball into the stands.
A billion dreams come true for India's cricket-mad citizens.
The streets around India Gate went crazy with celebration.


And I tell you, I'm so relieved that pressure is over. If they'd lost...oh I can only imagine the disappointment.
Instead, the euphoria in the air today is palpable.
As I walked out this morning there was a guy wearing the jersey of one of the cricket players. Everyone he passed stopped to shake his hand.
The Indian girl I talked with this morning had half a dozen videos she'd taken on her phone of the celebrating that she wanted to show me, she was that excited about it--just a couple weeks ago she didn't care about cricket at all (I relate :) ).

Ah cricket.
It can unite this country like nothing else.