The president of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav made an odd jab at the Bharatiya Janata Party on 21 November when he stated that if the World Cup final match was played in Lucknow rather than Ahmedabad, the Men in Blue would have lifted the esteemed trophy. Speaking at a public gathering in Etawah he claimed that Team India would have had the blessings of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lord Vishnu if the match had taken place in Uttar Pradesh’s capital.
He declared, “The match that took place in Gujarat if it had happened in Lucknow, the Indian side would have got blessings of so many. The team would have been bestowed with the blessings of Lord Vishnu because the stadium is named ‘Ekana’ after the diety. However, the BJP changed it to Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium. If the match had been played there, Team India would have received the blessings of both Lord Vishnu and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and India would have won.”
The leader of the opposition in the UP assembly added, “Now, we have heard that there was some issue with the pitch and the preparation of the players was left incomplete. Hence, sometimes omens indicate that the time is not favourable to us but rather to someone else.”
The former Samajwadi Party government branded Lucknow’s cricket venue as ‘Ekana Stadium’ which is one of the many names of Lord Vishu. BJP’s Yogi Adityanath administration then renamed it ‘Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium’ in 2018 in remembrance of the late prime minister and party stalwart.
While it is true that Ahmedabad’s slow pitch has been cited as one reason for the low runs scored by India batting first, it is unlikely that the situation would have been different if the final was in Lucknow. This is because, just like the pitch in the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the pitch in Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium is also known to be slow.
Shockingly, Congress Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi had earlier attributed India’s loss in the final match to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and referred to him as ‘Panauti’ (bad omen/unlucky charm) while addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Jalore. He alleged, “Modi comes on TV and says ‘Hindu- Muslim’ and sometimes goes to a cricket match. It is a different matter that the match was lost. Panauti. Our boys were almost winning the World Cup, but the ‘bad omen’ made them lose.
India concluded their World Cup campaign with a heartbreaking loss to Australia in a one-sided final on 19 November, succumbing by six wickets to the Australian side in the last encounter of the tournament after winning every match since the beginning of the almost two-month-long championship.