Thank you, Team India

I was watching India and SA battle it out last night – and my only thought at the end of all the celebrations was that there is nothing like sport. And there never will be.

Sport is in believing your team can do it with 3 wickets down. It’s in believing Kohli can prove his critics wrong again, on the biggest stage of all. Sport is about seeing Acar consolidating for his country, only to be whacked out of the park towards the end. Sport is in believing Quinton may bring it home for SA, that Klaasen can prevent SA from choking. Sport is in that moment you’re about to switch your TV off, and Pandya does the trick. It is in that split second that you hope against hope and hang in there. Sport, my friend, is in not moving an inch so you don’t jinx it for Bumrah. Sport, to me, is about the billion people watching with their hearts in their mouths, as SKY did his magic. Sport is about millions praying for Pandya in the last over, despite having caused him pain in the past few months. Sport is in these very moments with a thousand emotions, as Rohit falls to the ground seemingly relieved after Ahmedabad, as Kohli and Pandya she’d a tear, as Bumrah smiles looking at his wife, as Dravid sheds a tear and shows us why he’s been the purest servant of the game there ever was, and as the families of these lends them a shoulder to emote on, because they know what it took.

Sport, in my view, is also in the tears of Miller and Quinton, in Rishabh Pant’s hug to Klaasen, in the hands they all shook because they know they gave it everything, and in the hugs the South African wives gave to their men, to relieve them of some gut-wrentching pain.

I have and will continue to be a student of sport – no matter what the outcome. Because I don’t know of a bigger teacher to teach me about life, love, determination, hope, struggle, confidence, thrill, nerves, joy, exhilaration, tears, spirit, and everything in between.

Thank you, Team India, for bringing us all closer when we are being fed divide. Thank you, SA, for giving it your all, within the spirit of the game – there will be light to tomorrow.