India won.

Not in kabaddi, not in gilli-danda, but in cricket.

We thrashed New Zealand, and a few days earlier we had done the same to England. And that is where the comedy of history begins. Because cricket, in case we have conveniently forgotten, is a colonial game.

It arrived here with the British along with railways, stiff collars, and the habit of drinking tea in the afternoon as if it were a national emergency.

But here we Indians were wonderfully practical people. We did not waste time complaining about history. We simply borrowed things, improved them, and then defeated the original owners.

The British gave us cricket. We examined it carefully, added wristy shots, reverse sweeps, and the remarkable ability to argue with umpires, and then proceeded to beat them at their own game.

Today the inventors of cricket sit in commentary boxes explaining Indian batting techniques with great seriousness while Indian players treat bowlers from around the world like bowling machines that need servicing.

It is a beautiful thing to watch.

Which makes one wonder. If we can do this with cricket, why stop there?

Why not beat them at courtesy? At the moment the world across the seas could certainly use some practice. Once upon a time Indians were famous for politeness and grace, but today we have become experts at honking horns, pushing into queues, and treating traffic signals as gentle suggestions rather than firm instructions.

Stand in any queue in India and watch carefully. Within three minutes a mysterious human being will appear from nowhere and quietly slide into the front as if he had been there since the Indus Valley civilisation.

But why not become polite again. Why not defeat the world at good manners?

Imagine India where people actually say please and thank you without looking embarrassed. Imagine drivers who stop at pedestrian crossings. Imagine citizens who do not treat public walls as personal spittoons.

It would be revolutionary.

And why stop there? Why not beat the world at democracy, justice, and fairness? Not by shouting louder than everyone else, but by behaving better than everyone else. Not by constantly reminding the world about ancient greatness, but by showing modern greatness.

Cricket teaches a simple lesson. You do not win matches by talking about how magnificent your ancestors were with the bat. No batsman walks onto the field and announces that his great grandfather once played an excellent cover drive.

The bowler would remove his stumps in three seconds.

You win by scoring runs today.

So perhaps the real lesson from our cricket victories is this. Instead of proudly pointing to ancient texts and saying we were once good, let us do what our cricketers have done. Learn the game, play it properly, and become better than those who taught it to us.

And if we can do it with colonial cricket, we can do it with everything they think they taught us…!

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