Lorre Weidlich -- Hyde Park Foreign Affairs Desk

This is the latest in an on-going series of reports by Hyde Park's well traveled friend and neighbor, Lorre Weidlich.

    In the US it's football or baseball, in Germany or Brazil it's soccer, in India it's cricket -- the sport that every boy (and an occasional girl as well) wants to grow up to play professionally. On the street where I live, I can see the boys of all ages gather for games. Here in India, Sachin Tendulkar, the name of the most famous Indian cricketeer, is a household word.

    The Indian cricket team competes all year around with teams from the other countries in South Asia, Australia, New Zealand, several African countries, Canada, the West Indies, and a few European countries. The major event in the yearly cycle of cricket games, however, is the World Cup, which took place this year in South Africa.

    When the World Cup rolled around, we all received an email from Abhijith, the release manager. It was time for some FUN. There would be a cricket pool, and it would be MANDATORY. (He later backed off on that). The pool was for rs.100 each. (That's 100 rupees, approximately $2 US but with the buying power in India of about $8 or $9 US.) Whoever won would receive rs.5,000. To put that into perspective, that's 1/2 of the average monthly rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

    The form participants were required to fill out would put an income tax return to shame. Picking winners wasn't enough; you had to fill in the number of runs and wickets by which the winners actually won. After being given cursory instructions (wickets have to be under 10 and runs generally between 10 and 50), I plugged in random numbers.

    Several months ago, I left a stack of rs.100 notes on a table overnight and one fell to the floor. Brigid (surely you remember Brigid!) assumed it was hers and tore it to shreds. I carefully recovered the shreds and taped them back together. Since then, I had been waiting for the right opportunity to use this note. The cricket pool provided it. I handed it to Abhijith with my explanation: "This is my lucky rs.100 bill. It has been blessed by my dog."