Why this loss hurts?

Sandeep Chandra
2 min readNov 20, 2023

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Credit — Hindustan Times (Screen grab post India’s loss in WC2023 Final)

India lost to Australia in the Cricket WC 2023 Finals played last night.

I am deeply hurt. I am in anguish. But I am not angry.

How can I be angry? My team — India — got to the Finals. Only 2 teams out of the starting 10 made it into the Finals. India was one the two, but I am hurt that India lost having come so close to lifting the World Cup 2023.

I am not angry. Why should I be angry? My team — India — won all 10 matches, 10/10, to get to the Finals, which even the other finalist, Australia, couldn’t achieve. In fact, India even beat Australia on its journey ito the Final. But I am in anguish and hurt deep inside that India couldn’t beat Australia in the last match, when it mattered most, in the Final.

Indian players played like champions, each one of them. Their achievements and their records, whether be Kohli or Rohit, Gill or Rahul, Bumrah or Shami, Jadeja or anyone else, at the World Cup is a testimony of their domination over the opposition. Yet the team of champions did not achieve what a champion team must achieve — the title of The Champions of the World.

That title could have been India’s. Last night it just slipped away. Yet, I am not angry, but I am hurt. I am in anguish.

Anger will subside but anguish stays by the side. Anger grips you briefly, I can reconcile with it. Anguish plumbs the depths of the heart, it lingers for long and keeps gnawing, keeps troubling of what could have been. So near and yet nowhere here.

It is not easy to walk away, saying it was just another game, that stupid mistakes were made by our players, that so and so and so on. If I have a reason for the loss, I have a reason to be angry. We were the strongest into the finals, why did we lose then? I have no reason. None at all. Yet we lost. That’s why it hurts. Not knowing why, hurts.

20-Nov-2023

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Sandeep Chandra
Sandeep Chandra

Written by Sandeep Chandra

International Hydrogen Consultant with investment stakes in Green & Blue Hydrogen production, HRS, FCEVs , FCs and Hydrogen application areas

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