It Is Cricket
Nepali Times ईspecial 20 - 26 December 2024 #1240
Hi Team,
Given the craze about the Nepal Premier League that ended in Kathmandu on Saturday, I will probably be trolled mercilessly for saying it, but here it is anyway: I just don’t get cricket.
The rules are too complicated, and I needed simultaneous translations while watching the Sudurpaschim Royals vs the Kathmandu Republicans. Since Nepal was never colonised by British leg-breakers, we got to know the game much later than our Subcontinental neighbours. But going by the criciket fever in Nepal these past weeks, we have taken to the game like born again evangelicals.
There are three sorts of countries in the Indo-Pacific region: those that play cricket (India, Pakistan, Australia), those that play with them by betting on them racing (Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia), and those that eat them (Philippines, Thailand, Burma).
The spheres of influence between these eco-biological domains is a zigzag at approximately 120° East meridian. Roughly speaking, west of this line, cricket is a sport. East of it, cricket is a snack.
Nepal did not inherit this colonial sport, and we were never into it much. Till now. Brushing up on my cricket vocab this week, I suddenly discovered that there are quite a lot of similarities between the game of cricket and the political games being played in Nepal. For example:
Chinaman: A wrist-spinner from left-wing Prime Minister K P Oli who just got back from Beijing after the Captain of the Indian team refused to deliver a yorker.
Match Fixing: A method of breaking and making a coalition government which involves bribing teams with chief ministerships, ambassadorships, or ocean-going ships.
One Day International: A junket in which the President insists on flying to Baku instead of the Prime Minister for COP29.
Bouncer: Skipper KPO is on a sticky wicket with his batting partner SBD who is in his fifth inning, but PKD is trying to bowl a bouncer.
Century: The time it will take to queer the pitch for a quickie on the Tarai Fast Track due to extended poor delivery leading to a batting collapse.
No Balls: A leadership handicap in which a wicked keeper suffers from chronic lack of scrotal fortitude.
Overthrow: A googly in which a governing coalition not wearing a jock-strap suddenly has to deal with a leg break.
Drinks Break: Always glad to have one with a full toss.
Get debriefed by Vishad Raj Onta on page 1 with the highlights of the NPL, although Nepali Times went to press before the finals on Saturday. Online here.
Now, getting to brass tacks, this week’s pre-Christmas edition is a Yearend Books Special. Read reviews of Cuckooland by Tom Burgis, Caring for the Annapurna by Chandra P Gurung, Human Nature by Thomas Bell, Coronation Day in Kathmandu and Other Essays by Laxmi Prasad Devkota, 10 People’s Stories by Prashant Shrestha and Gérard Toffin, and Kanchhi by Weena Pun. All the reviews will be posted online here over the coming week.
On page 10-11, Anne Feenstra and Varun S Bapu look back at four internationally renowned ‘starchitects’ (Shigeru Ban, Louis I Kahn, Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas who have designed structures in Nepal which struggled to gain traction. (‘Forgotten International Starchitects in Nepal’). A sidebar on Kenzō Tange is also included in the package.
The Guest Editorial on page 2 this week is by former education minister from the RSP Sumana Shrestha, in which she analyses the cultural factors (acceptance, silence and dependency) that prevents Nepali politics from moving ahead. Online here: Why Nepal Is Stuck.
Wherever you are, have a happy holiday season.
Kunda Dixit