Indian cricket has reached a new low in Bangladesh. After tasting big defeats repeatedly in SA and NZ, we thought they will be more at home in Bangladesh. But they have lost to Sri Lanka and Pakistan and struggled to beat Bangladesh. Today they are spinning a web around Afghanistan but we have to wait and see the result.
One end of the pitch in the Asia Cup games is called Cycle Agarbathis end. Not your Park end or Lord Bentinck end. Why this burning bathi end of a name? Because the prime sponsor of the tournament is Cycle Brand Agarbathis.
As Agarbathis go, it is the leading brand in India proudly hailing from Mysore. Since any product's success in India is measured by the number of its spurious copies out there, Cycle Agarbathis are definitely right up there.
But the connection between Agarbathis and cricket is not very obvious, until you see their ad. There, a boy, a mother and a soldier all say that it's because God is up there protecting us, that things are going alright. And the Agarbathis are merely your way of daily reminding God to protect you and your later saying thank you to God.
I believe BCCI was willing to sign up Cycle forever in place of Sahara provided the Agarbathis helped India win the Asia Cup. But holy smoke, no such luck!
I can already see someone accusing NaMo of tempting Hindu voters with free supply of Agarbathis, a sure way to bribe God.
Did you light your bathi today? GOD, No? You will surely choke on your luck.
