Chocolates, Soft drinks or Dinner for the Winner!

Please do not call these simple gifts as bets or stakes or wagers. Then it would mean sinning and gambling, the latter of course is illegal.

Since several years; I and my nephew Sridhar have been playing this Game of taking sides. Whenever Indian cricket team is playing a Test Match Series or a Limited (50) Over Match or the recent version of Twenty20 or in the Finals of a Tri-series Match or in a World Cup, we support different teams. Sridhar takes the side of India and I support any team that is playing against India. Sorry if I have hurt your feelings for India, I do this for fun and entertaining (irritating?) others. May be I love teasing Sridhar; he is 28 years junior to me. I used to do this with my elder brother Dr. Lakshminarsu and when India won the World Cup against West Indies in 1983 I treated my brother to a dinner at Lung Fung a Chinese restaurant in Secunderabad. Sridhar was hardly 3 years old in 1983.

After Sridhar began to understand cricket and became an ardent fan of many Indian cricketers I started playing this game with him. If India wins; he gets a treat from me and otherwise I would be the beneficiary. The treats are mostly in the category of Chocolates and Soft drinks! When he was small and he won the game, the occasion called for another Party where in the presence of all family members he was gifted with the items promised by me. There are several photographs taken on different occasions at different ages of Sridhar (India) winning.

It is now time for the Second Twenty20 World cup in England and both of us or at it again. This time we would be looking forward for a 12-Can Coke Carton! Sincerely!? I would like to say, Good luck to you Sridhar!