We doubt very much whether a spontaneous outburst of joy, fury, ecstasy and delirium bordering near hysteria would have been witnessed in recent times or would be seen in the near future as what happened in the Wanderers Stadium at Johannesburg when India beat Pakistan by a mere four runs with four balls remaining in their Twenty- 20 World Cup Final.

As the Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq staged a near miracle with his 43 runs off 38 balls with strokes rarely witnessed in cricket - even hooking a ball over his head - but only to be caught deep in the outfield, this frenzy of Indian joy burst out on to the field with adult Indians, some of them officials, running to the field to hug, embrace, go into weird forms of dancing, and some of them rolling on the green.

Old boys turn into boys

I have witnessed such scenes at Royal-Thomian cricket encounters when a side won after long years but those running onto the field were schoolboys - not bald, greying old men with bandy legs. Yes, old men became boys and the sheer patriotism of Indian expatriates in Johannesburg flowed to the brim in the stands and on to the field. Even the usually coy Indian girls could not be restrained. TV cameras showed one such lass with a placard saying: 'Yuvraj, I want to marry you!'

The poor South Africans who hosted the tournament wanted to stage something different to the staid old game of cricket. They had a stage with black, brown, and white girls and boys with generous expositions of their mid riffs gyrating and going through pelvic thrusts with a disc jockey playing funky African beats. But all that was eclipsed as the Indian volcano of joy erupted.

Cricket they say is religion to Indians. Now, we believe it.  We recall the day when Sri Lanka won the World Cup at the Lahore Stadium in Pakistan under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga, beating the world conquering Aussies. We did not have an expatriate community in Lahore to cheer us on but even our players were markedly restrained in their expression of joy. Compared to what Dhoni and his boys did, Arjuna and company were like old ladies at a tea party.

Red carpet reception

How the celebrations ended at the Wanderers Stadium the live telecast did not show but days later the world conquering heroes landed in Mumbai, three hours behind schedule and hundreds and thousands of Indians waited for them.

The Indian media had already laid out the red carpet. The press had screamed 'victory' for days on their front pages. The most impressive we are told was the Hindustan Times which had the banner headline across the front page: "Paki-stunned!"

It took three hours for the victory parade to pass through the streets of Mumbai into the stadium where presentations were made. They were taken in an uncovered double decker bus all the way. It's hard to imagine whether even the conquering Roman emperors were welcomed in the manner the Indian wielders of the willow were received.

Occasions like this call for hyperboles of the highest order in the presentation ceremony and they did come their way. So did the presents, in crores (one crore = 10 million) of Indian rupees. This is besides the winner's purse of US $ 490,000. The poor Pakistanis missed it by four runs and got nothing.

Presents galore

But beyond that, the entire Indian team got houses. Remember what a fuss we of the Sri Lankan media made when our World Cup winners were given small blocks of land by President Kumaratunga?

Yuvraj Singh who scored six sixes in six balls was presented with a brand new Porsche!  Almost all states made massive contributions to their own sons and to others who are not from their states as well.

Dhoni the captain should be a millionaire by now. It was not many moons ago that the modest home he was building in his hometown was wrecked by angry cricket fans when India had to quit the World Cup unceremoniously. Besides all this the Indian media expects undeclared contributions to be made by Indian millionaire businessmen. The opinion of Indian commentators appears to be that their cricketers deserved all this.

Riots too

But no Indian celebration is complete without a political demonstration and a riot. In Kashmir's capital Jammu, fighting broke out between Hindus and Muslims after the Indian victory. It was reported that Hindus who had gone in a victory procession had claimed that they were attacked by Muslims. Some said Muslims provoked Hindus with pro Pakistani slogans. An AFP report said that 35 people including policemen were hurt in the fighting which broke out overnight in Indian Kashmir and continued on Tuesday.

In Jammu some 1000 Indian fans outnumbered Muslims 10 to one as they stormed a college, officials had said. Heavily armed military troops had come under attack forcing authorities to ban public gatherings the report added.

In Sri Lanka too

Cricket does generate some communal tensions not only in India but in other countries of South Asia as well. For example minor clashes were reported around Maligawatte when a visiting Pakistan team played Sri Lanka some years ago. Nonetheless cricket is a lovely game and it is the only thing that brings together South Asians in such large numbers.