"There is a romantic in me who believes that many of us watch sport for reasons other than the vulgar desire to win, that we enjoy the intrinsic charm of the game itself, removed from who its participants represent, and what they mean to us."
This is taken out of Amit Varma's cricket blog, 23 yards - "Cricket and Country".
He goes on to discuss how one's opinion on various aspects of the game gets clouded by one's love for the country. He brings out the point about how no Sri Lankan would say that Murali's action is illegal and no Australian would agree that it is legal!
This is one paragraph which really sumarizes the point very well:
"For those who feel deeply about contemporary politics, certain topics have become so infected by considerations of prestige that a genuinely rational approach to them is almost impossible. Out of the hundreds of examples that one might choose, take this question: Which of the three great allies, the U.S.S.R., Britain and the USA, has contributed most to the defeat of Germany? In theory, it should be possible to give a reasoned and perhaps even a conclusive answer to this question. In practice, however, the necessary calculations cannot be made, because anyone likely to bother his head about such a question would inevitably see it in terms of competitive prestige. He would therefore start by deciding in favour of Russia, Britain or America as the case might be, and only after this would begin searching for arguments that seemed to support his case. "
- Taken from an essay by George Orwell in 1945.
I would say this holds true not only for politics, but any issue which affects us emotionally.
As for Cricket, it is definitely an emotive issue with the vast majority and it must be attributed to patriotism/nationality!
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