And yet, winning is like a welcome drink going down your throat, like a beautiful embrace. It is brilliant while it lasts but it isn't forever. The high eventually melts away and the journey of life begins afresh. The truly remarkable among us visit these highs periodically; winning then becomes a journey, a graph where each point is crucial but is in reality merely part of a larger curve.

Sports teaches you there is always a second innings in life. If you fail today, theres a second innings maybe two days later. Maybe theres another opportunity coming up three or six months later. If you look at mistake as learnings and commit never to make a same mistake again, then you actually get better with every mistake that you make.

Cricket is not a rational sport in India, and we go overboard.

Sometimes, quite out of the blue, sport will throw up a tender moment, when hostility ceases and an opponent is acknowledged.

Cricket, like all sport, offers glory to few and a lifetime of it to even fewer. For the investment it demands, it offers short careers that end when people in other professions are starting to flourish.

In sports teams, apart from talk of sporting prowess and the imparting of inspirational thought, an extraordinary amount of time is spent discussing, and flaunting, material possessions.

Traditionally, sport has looked down at number crunchers, but the reality is that they give sport the financial sustenance it needs.