{"id":157,"date":"2022-03-02T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karunyakeshav.com\/fireburnsblue\/?p=157"},"modified":"2022-03-02T09:01:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T09:01:56","slug":"wwc22-1-the-ones-we-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karunyakeshav.com\/fireburnsblue\/2022\/03\/02\/wwc22-1-the-ones-we-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"WWC22 #1: The ones we miss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m not going to be on the ground covering the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 in New Zealand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loads of people aren’t going to be at the World Cup, so boo effin hoo, you may think. And you’re right. Your eye roll is justified. But this is the first women’s world cup after 2016 that I haven’t been at, so allow me a moment of self-pity as I nurse my FOMO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tragedy is romanticised in a foreign language, so I’m embracing a word in Welsh: Hiraeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiraeth, I understand, is a deep yearning for something you can’t have. A longing for a place you can’t be, a place that feels like home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the crack of the bat I won’t hear, the roar of a crowd I will see but on TV, the echoes of victory bouncing off an emptying outfield and the calm of a sprinkler on the green I won’t feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s something calming when the sprinklers come onto an emptying ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I’m not at my pity party, I think also of all the players that won’t be at this World Cup too. The amazing Dane van Niekerk, who broke her foot<\/a> while mopping the floor. Shikha Pandey, whose in-swingers are made for these tracks, who’s been treated so unkindly by India’s selectors<\/a> and management. Jemimah Rodrigues, Leigh Kasperek and, a personal hero, Kate Ebrahim, who lost out to competition to be in the 15. The powerful Chamari Athapaththu, who was hard done by the apathy of the Sri Lankan cricket administration. Of the whole delightful Thailand team who were so cruelly denied a place<\/a> at the World Cup when the qualifying tournament was called off because of COVID and they found themselves in a Catch 22 situation: Only the top eight ODI teams would qualify, but Thailand isn’t considered an ODI team, so their wins didn’t matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\udc94\ud83d\udc94\u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83e\ude79 pic.twitter.com\/Xho22YBaYl<\/a><\/p>— Natthakan Chantham (@NatthakanJeans) November 27, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>