Cricket is a religion in India, no doubt.and hence it is one of the greatest binding factors I know of. I mean 2-3 people, who have never met each other, can suddenly start chatting/discussing/arguing or quarreling, when it comes to the mention of this game. It doesn’t matter if the place of disscussion is a local train, or a office cubicle.Talking to that tough looking VP the way you chat with friends doesn’t look possible, but then start talking cricket and he will talk as if he knows you from years!
I can recall this incident about 4 years back, when I was still doing graduation. I and a friend were traveling in the Mumbai local train, back from college. The second class compartment was crowded as usual but we managed to grab a place. As soon as the discussion veered away from studies and towards cricket, 2 gentlemen who were sitting besides us got involved in the discussion. One of them gave his expert analysis on why John Wright was not the right coach for India, while another was lamenting the fact that the BCCI does not keep enough day-night matches, which means the common man doesn’t get to see matches. (Day matches get over by the time the guy comes back home)
By the time we reached our station, we got enriched on a lot of aspects of Indian Cricket.