There will be cultural programs by Bollywood music director Pritam and singer Jonita Gandhi.
Ahmedabad:
When Kapil’s Devils won the World Cup in 1983, cricket was still one of the sports in India and a champion team needed true blue cricket fan Lata Mangeshkar to hold a concert so that each member could earn Rs 1 lakh.
In 2011, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team won, the BCCI was already a billion-dollar entity. And in the 28 years between 1983 and 2011, cricket had become an ‘industry’.
A decade has passed and with Rohit Sharma and his men going all out to win the cup for the third time on Sunday, cricket as a sport is now a medium of ‘Soft Power’ for the country.
‘Soft Power’ is a term that defines countries that use sports and culture to increase their geopolitical influence. Cricket gives India an opportunity to flex its muscles, not just in the sporting community, but also in the socio-political sphere, in the broader context.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence at the final on Sunday, a grand air show by the Indian Air Force, two former cup-winning captains Kapil and Dhoni watching from the stands with a bevy of who’s who from the world of entertainment and politics present, the grandeur will be unparalleled.
There will be cultural programs from Bollywood music director Pritam, singer Jonita Gandhi and Coke Studio’s current Gujarati singing sensation Aditya Gadhavi of ‘Gotilo’ fame.
Programs have been drawn up before the toss and during the innings break, with 500 dancers from Mumbai expected to gyrate to popular Bollywood numbers.
Possibly for the visiting Australian team and also for the larger TV audience around the world, it would be a taste of India’s soft power, with cricket being a tool.
There will also be an audience, at least 1.30 lakh, that will settle for nothing less than a global crown and another 1.39 billion people in their homes.
Like every India match at this World Cup, it will be an ‘Ocean of Blue’ in the stands and on the streets.
The counterfeiting industry has boomed and all numbers 18 and 45 – shirt numbers of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma respectively – will be wiped off the street corner in no time.
The little ones, their fathers, mothers, grandfathers and the annoying neighbor, everyone comes to ‘Bleed Blue’ on Sunday.
This will certainly be an ‘Evening to Remember’, but only time will tell if Rohit and his men can make it an ‘Evening to Enjoy’.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
