Beyond Cricket: Today is About Tomorrow. And Tomorrow is Another Day.

Posted on March 30, 2011
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Foreign Relations, Sports
45 Comments
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Adil Najam

I know today is the day. I have already confessed that I can think of nothing except about what may happen today. But today – and what happens today – is really about tomorrow. It always is. And tomorrow is another day!

Apologies for being unnecessarily philosophical. But today (there I go again!) calls for it. Maybe its my impatience for the great match to begin. Or maybe it is my anxiety about what will happen after the match ends.

I know exactly how I want this match to end. And I can only imagine what my own reaction would be if it does end the way I want it to end. What I can no longer even imagine (or want to imagine) is what my reaction will be if it ends differently!

And, maybe, that is what this post is really about. A reminder to myself that no matter how important this match may be, it is, after all, just a match! Pakistan playing India in India, in the Semi-Finals of the 2011 Cricket World Cup is clearly serious affair. Both countries are at a standstill. A holiday has been declared in most of Pakistan and India is, if anything, even more transfixed on this, the “mother of all cricket matches.

Yes, I realize that this game is different and evokes the passions it does because it is between India and Pakistan. I want Pakistan to win against India today. Desperately. But let me be clear: I will not become more Pakistani than I already am if we win. Nor will I become a lesser Pakistani if we lose.

So, even as we prepare to engross ourselves over the next many hours in a tense haze of frenzy mixed with anxiety and sprinklings of passionate bouts of hope, despair, angst, anger, joy, and rage, glee, and all the other magical ingredients of cricket at its best, let us please never forget that this today may be the match to erase the memories of all other matches, but at the end of the day it remains just another match.

This is not war. This is not the validation or negation of who we are. This is not the full measure of our identity or even our reality. This is not the panacea to our problems. This is not the pinnacle of our worth.

It is, at least for today, the culmination of all our aspirations. But tomorrow it will be just another memory. Let us hope it is a good memory. Let us, in fact, ensure that it is a good one. And whether it is or not will depend not only on what the 11 men in green will do on the field today, but also on all the rest of us will do. Today, as well as tomorrow.

Here, then, is a prayer for tomorrow. A better tomorrow, that we must invent today.

Here, then, is a prayer for today. A today that may or may not bring us victory, but which must be dealt with dignity and grace. If we win today, let us show gratitude and graciousness. If we do not, then let us face defeat with resolute resolve.

Tomorrow, of course, will be another day. Tomorrow we will return to load-shedding, shouting TV anchors, angry puritans on all sides of all arguments, embarrassing politicians, a conniving establishment, corruption galore, maybe even bombs and blasts.

But let us return to that tomorrow with dignity and grace – a head held high in pride but not arrogance; a spirit that can take a severe blow but not shatter. Dealing with every today with such dignity and grace is the surest recipe of inventing a better tomorrow. And that – a better tomorrow – is the purpose of this today; indeed, the purpose of every day!

(Apologies, again, for this rambling stream of consciousness. Now, let us get back to cricket!)

45 responses to “Beyond Cricket: Today is About Tomorrow. And Tomorrow is Another Day.”

  1. Saman says:

    for the hidden knowledge of Pakistan flag …read this article

    http://pakistanall.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-is-me aning-of-pakistani-flag.html

  2. Liaquat says:

    Very nice piece. Lets always keep an eye on tomorrow.

  3. Waseem says:

    Dear lida, Aren’t you going a little far while giving your lungs out.. lol

    Whether taliban actually exist or not, I am not sure; but I do know one thing that people like who just read the newspapers, write on easy to reach columns as this one are the actual cause of instability of our country. Ever thought to understand the feelings of a father who lost all his four sons at the hands of your homelands security.

    And India is not a peaceful place as you are not living there. I have been living with Indians for the past 10 years, I got the true picture infront of me. No, they are not from the some particular place. Muslims have serious issues there. So lets get facts right before crying out on a forum by just buying a cheap DSL connection!

    Cheerio!

    Best Regards,
    Waseem
    Electronics & Communications Engineer (UET)
    Nokia Siemens Networks

  4. Baseer says:

    Nice post.
    And, now, today has become tomorrow. Lets think of tomorrow.

  5. lida says:

    Terrorism and Taliban cost Pakistan the World cup.!!!!
    Think about it??

    If no Taliban then Pakistan would have had a chance to play the semifinal in the home ground. Maybe we would have won , that could have calmed Umar Gul and Mishbah.

    Thanks Taliban for ruining Pakistan in every way!!!
    And Thanks Pakistani qaum for sitting idly when Mullahs are taking over.

    It was pathetic to see the whole Pakistani Public making Dua’s for a cricket game which has no meaning.

    But staying quite while these corrupt Mullah and Politicians
    ransack the whole country.

    Wake up Pakistan and get your priorities right.

    Look at India they have done everything right. And we have done everything wrong.

    A Salute to India!!!! for making a a good example of what a country should be. Peaceful , prosperous and Shining!!!!

    And yes I am from Pakistan for those conspiracy minded idiots (who I don’t give a damn about… Go rot in your conspiracy theories ).

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