The most significant characteristic of Calcutta is that this city has a viewpoint about almost everything. Always regarded as the city of politics and culture, Calcutta is also known for its passion for sports, be it football or cricket. During the football world cup last year, people went around with Ronaldo haircuts, newborns were named after the soccer star's girlfriends and there was general hysteria all around. With the cricket cup, however, matters seem more subdued; may be, because, there are personal stakes in for every Indian who would like to see a repeat of 1983. The football hysteria could be validated because India was not involved and if there was any identification, it was only with the game of football, so close to the Calcuttan's heart.

There is still no cricket fever in Calcutta though there are advertisements and hoardings looking at you from every street corner, stories emanating from London by the hour and every second newspaper and media station trying to outdo each other in terms of coverage. The Calcuttan, on the face of it, does not seem interested but then, this could be just a question of not peaking early. If India does enter the Super Six, then the motley yagnas performed in suburban areas and the handful of posters of cricketing heroes pasted on street walls, could just be turn into a wave of popular events and mass hysteria when roads will remain deserted and work will come to halt and cricket will take over.

Calcutta's very own hero, Saurav Ganguly, has performed creditably well in the country's first outing and there were loud cheers emanating from living rooms in the evening of Calcutta as the player pierced boundary after boundary with some regularity. But the city is rightly cautious; Saurav's heroics may be a personal milestone for the city but it is national honour which is uppermost. In 1983, it was Kapil Dev who was being worshipped; if India does do well in the Cup, then it will be Azharuddin who will be idolised while the rest will achieve greater celebrity status. But as of now, all fronts, except the media, seems to be in a state of animated suspense; the belief is there but the hope, at the slighest whiff of a setback, seems to recede. Calcutta expects a lot. That is why it is prepared to wait before giving itself up to hysteria. After all, hysteria does not happen every day. Unless, there is sickness.