There was much in the papers recently about the rich rewards showered on the victorious Twenty20 team. So much was the hoopla that it prompted many other sportsmen (billiards champions, hockey champs) to protest that their achievements and victories were equally important and not given their due. While no one could deny the truth of that, some staunch cricket supporters replied by stating that cricket arouses such huge levels of passion in our country that the brickbats are as huge as the bouquets. When the team loses, effigies are burnt, homes are vandalised and faces blackened. Not so with other sports where bouquets may be few - but fewer are the brickbats!

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