Its all in the Game !!

I wrote the following poem ages back - right after the 1999 Cricket world cup in England, still in my teens - so you will find more stress on the rhymes rather than the flow and language of the poem ( actually its a set of paragraphs, calling it a poem would be false )

Its All in the Game:

'India', 'India', roared the air,
It seemed every soul had joined the fair;
There were songs and there were praises,
The players now had to tie hard their laces.

World cup 1999 was the affair,
It was a complete May fair;
Azhar led his boys towards the Goal,
Against the proteas though, disappointing on the whole.

A tragedy then occured, left all in a bother,
Sachin had lost his dear father;
Came home the son, without any 'Shor',
The Ads still appeared - Yeh Dil maange more.

There in England, was another tragedy,
India lost the match to Zimbabwe badly;
It seemed the world cup was good as over,
The Indians had lost their love, faith and honour,

But when Sachin hit a century for his father,
The Indians could breathe a little lighter;
However the best was yet to be seen,
Saurav against the lankans proved very mean.

He hit the ball, constantly to the ropes,
The Lankans had now lost all hopes;
Saurav then had England in a fix,
As India advanced to Super six.

The Indians now rapidly marched,
And they also looked very charged;
Against the Kangaroos still they lost,
As wickets kept falling fast.

Permutations and combinations now started to work,
A Slim chance still did knock;
The Pakistanis were the next target,
As the old rivals again met.

'Good Practice', said Wasim, when winning a must,
As a result, he had to bite all the dust;
The Pakistanis received a good 'maar',
The Indians had won the battle, if not the war.

The Indians now had a close watch,
On the Pakistan- Zimbabwe match;
The Zimbabeweans lost in the meeting,
The Indian hopes now got a final beating.

It was over now,all over,
The Whole of India got sober;
The Kiwis crushed India and won,
Even they were having so much fun.

The disappointment here knew no bounds,
There were hardly any sounds.

This is what you call cricket,
You score runs and take many a wicket,
But you may still have to hide,
As winning and losing are part of the ride.

You face a lot of critics and still earn fame,
As they say - 'Its all in the Game !!'