The calculus of hype
India's chances of making to the semis somewhat depend on Pakistan beating Australia
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
India's chances of making to the semis somewhat depend on Pakistan beating Australia. But do Pakistan really want India to make it further in the Champions Trophy? Prem Panicker rubbishes the Indian media's hysteria whipping about their subcontinental neighbours' motivations on his blog Smoke Signals.
Shashi Tharoor, the Twitter-minister, posted about this last evening; Partho and his mates have peppered the print media with riffs on this theme; the TV channels are getting nicely warmed up as I write this… and yet, have we done full justice to the tremendous potential [Excuse the emphatic itals in this post, please -- too much Dan Brown lately] of this story? And then there’s the conspiracy angle. Will Pakistan want India in the final? Younis Khan says so, but can we trust him, can we take his word for it and hope that Pakistan will pull out all the stops? Isn’t it more likely that Pakistan — who, as we all know, we can never really trust — will play just below par in order to do the dirty on India? Imagine what a laugh they will have in the dressing room after they’ve contrived to lose to Australia, knowing that the old enemy, still engaged in its own game against the West Indies, now has to go through the motions knowing that its last remaining hope has been scuppered!
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo