Let not prejudices take over sports

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Editor's note: There is a new India being weaned. An India that happily waves its chubby little hands and legs at the shiny objects—Philip Kotler awards, photoshopped images of Daddy surrounded by admiring world leaders or decked out in military fatigues and standing in the turret of a battle tank—dangled over its crib. Myths about a glorious past are its preferred bedtime stories; the promise of a return to that imaginary past pacifies its occasional tantrums and lulls it into soporific stupor. The result is an inbred sense of entitlement; a belief that we were, and continue to be, the best at whatever we chose to turn our hand to. That all we have to do is to just show up. That entitlement was on full display on the night of 24 October, when the Pakistan cricket team decimated the Indian team in its opening encounter of the World T20 championship now under way. Before the game, the editor of a TV channel positioned it as a matchup between the Indian army and the “merchants of cricket”. Immediately following the toss, prominent …