If you pass the House of Dosas on Kingsway early Thursday (March 24) and you spot a serious commotion inside, you probably won’t need to phone 911.
It could just be passionate cricket fans taking advantage of the South Indian establishment’s wall-to-wall television screenings of the 2011 ICC World Cup cricket tournament in India.
And tomorrow (at the unholy hour of 2 a.m. Pacific time), India, as host nation, takes on defending three-times-in-succession champions Australia in the much-anticipatedquarterfinal showdown.
It has been called a battle of the “flawed” heavyweights, but that is damning both nations with faint praise. In truth, anyone with even a remote interest in the bat-and-ball contest should realize this is about as big as it gets.
The retirement of Steve and Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, and Matthew Hayden means that Australia’s star has never been more on the wane. India will hope they can exploit that and squeeze a victory the way Pakistan did to the Aussies in the group stages. Pakistan is already in the semifinals, after thrashing the West Indies.
Now their subcontinental neighbours will hope to end the Australian dominance in this 50-over one-day format.
The Indians will feel this is their last chance with star batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the squad. The Little Master, as he is known worldwide, may well be in his last World Cup. He’s 37 years old now, and even though his eyes and reflexes are still holding firm, the man is only human.
The Australians will hope their captain Ricky Ponting, himself 36, still has something left in the tank. As captain he has come under some pressure and has behaved in petulant fashion, including against Canada, out on the field.
Ponting (or “Punter” as he’s affectionately called) can’t do that in this quarterfinal, or else Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will make sure it’s Punter's last as skipper.
Stay tuned tomorrow morning, and watch out for flying chairs—or maybe the odd rubber kangaroo?
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