The game suffers a rout

In the evolving landscape of patriotism, cricket's once-inclusive spirit seems to have been lost

When India lost the World Cup cricket final, “stunned silence” or “brooding silence” is what newspapers say had descended on the stadium. Hardly surprising! It could have happened 50 years ago or more. But what has been building itself into a process over the past 35 years is patriotism, all across, is getting uglier. In this, regrettably, some cricketers themselves are taking part.

Utterances of politically insignificant people reveal attitudes that are not insignificant. They are a power. A Union minister, once booked in a case of grabbing land that belonged to a Dalit, had remarked in 2014: “If you do