Guwahati ODI:
Patriotism at galore

The manner in which the people of Assam extended their support to the Indian cricket team during its crucial final match against Zimbabwe in the Pepsi Cup should act as an eye-opener for those who advocate secessionism in this part of the country. With Indian national flags in their hand every single run scored by the Indian batsmen or every wicket taken by the home team bowlers were cheered. As a matter of fact, every act of the Indian players on the field was appreciated by the large gathering assembled at the Nehru Stadium. The Zimbabwe team might have found the crowd partisan, but the North-Easterners on that day proved that they were second to none in patriotism. The scenes at the Nehru Stadium reminded us another incident, which took place in Srinagar couple of years ago. During the 1983-84 series against the West Indies, the first one dayer was played in Srinagar. It was expected that the Srinagar crowd would support the Indian cricket team. But to the horror and dismay of every Indian, the stadium was full with pro-Pakistani elements. The crowd openly hailed the fall of every Indian wicket and waived Pakistani flags to celebrate Indian team’s defeat. In fact, that was the day when the proxy war actually started in Kashmir.

But the scenes were totally opposite at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati to that witnessed at the Srinagar match. In a region, which is plagued by demands of secession, leading to prevailing insurgency, the crowd behaviour in Guwahati was simply remarkable. If the Kashmir incident showed the first signs of  secessionism, the tremendous crowd support to the Indian cricket team at Guwahati has proved that the people of this part of the country have rejected secessionism.