On Sunday night, India took the final wicket. The scoreboard read: New Zealand all out for 159, chasing 256. A 96-run win. The highest total ever in a T20 World Cup final. The first nation to ever successfully defend the title.
While cities across India had fans jumping and shouting in celebration, bursting firecrackers well into the night, feeling that it wasn’t just a win in the sport of cricket, but a win for the entire nation.
Given how cricket is not just a sport for Indians, for some it’s their passion, for some it is their religion, while for some it is their very heart, it makes sense that every win by the Indian cricket team is celebrated with much aplomb.
But interestingly, in this instance, though, there seemed to be as many feeling almost apathetic with the win, not feeling any strong emotions that they would usually feel.
Which leads me to question, why did it feel as if the usual feeling of celebration wasn’t there, or at the very least, much more muted in comparison to other times?
What Is Going On With Indian Cricket?
On March 8, 2026, the Indian men’s cricket team played against New Zealand for the ICC (International Cricket Council) Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 final held in Ahmedabad.
They beat the New Zealand team by scoring 255 runs against their 159. However, there was a sense of indifference that many felt afterwards, which was in stark contrast to the enthusiasm often seen.
This is not just my opinion, but a sentiment I’ve seen shared across various social media platforms in the last few days.
A r/AskIndianWomen Sub-Reddit thread titled ‘Doesn’t it feel like the hype for a T20 World Cup is a tad bit overrated?’ commented on this saying, “Like don’t get me wrong I m really happy that India won the T20 cricket World Cup but the thing is the hype is so big and people have been posting stories like we have just ended world hunger. Constant sound of firecrackers with parades disrupting the traffic and people acting like so crazy. I mean only bcci(a private corporation) is getting profited financially.
I don’t know maybe it’s just me because I have never been a huge fan of any person or sports in general but this much celebration for a cup which get hosted so frequently when we have so many flaws in the country seems a bit weird idk what do you all think?”
User @Coffeeanyday in the replies also wrote, “Well you are not wrong with the hype, before 2007 there was mainly one world cup(odi) which happened once in 4 years. Now they have a world cup for every format ,IPL every year and female cricket is also gaining alot of popularity (which I appreciate).
Its like you have these big tournaments running almost throughout the year. So world cup or cricket doesn’t seem that exciting anymore. I skipped watching todays final and I have decided to skip IPL aswell. It only profits the cricketers and the general public looses their valuable time.”
User @RagabondRunner also commented, “Feels overhyped because we won so convincingly. Also, outside of the Indian subcontinent, I don’t think people care much about cricket anymore. Makes it difficult to appreciate victories when there is no passionate opposition in most matches.”
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Under the sub-Reddit r/india, user AccomplishedUse9023 wrote a post titled ‘Do Indian fans feel any joy when the Indian Cricket team lifts an ICC trophy during this era?’ commenting how “When the ICT lifts any trophy especially during this era, to me, it just alludes to the fact that India can only be the best or one of the best in a sport where there is lack of competition”.
They further added how India, among other sports, especially on an international scale, such as the Asia Cup or the Olympics, is usually not a winner, or even qualifying for final rounds.
They wrote, “Do you know why India falls short in Football and the Olympics? It’s because India has to compete against the entire world and not just 10-15 countries who currently don’t even take cricket seriously and where India influences significant control over ICC to hold ICC matches mostly in or around India(this is why they joke about tournaments being rigged for India).”
On x/Twitter, soon after India’s win at the 2026 T20 World Cup, one user tweeted a video of the 2011 final, writing, “this win isn’t even 1% of that”, while another said, “It’s also to do with the format and World Cup frequency. Biennial isn’t that special any more.”
Many also brought up the reaction of Indian cricket fans now, compared to June 2024. The all-nighters. The crying. The Virat ‘namaste’ moment that broke the internet. The Mumbai parade that felt like a national exhale after 11 years of heartbreak. That was something else entirely.
If we take this reaction related to just this win, it might seem like a betrayal almost to the country. However, if taken into consideration within the bigger picture, things might seem different.
The bigger picture being that the BCCI has won five ICC trophies, all in under two years and simultaneously. Across genders and age groups, these include:
- Men’s T20 WC (2024, now 2026)
- Champions Trophy (2025)
- Women’s ODI WC (2025)
- Women’s U19 WC (2025)
An India Today report brought up the 1971 paper titled ‘Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society’ written by psychologists Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell that introduced the concept of ‘hedonic treadmill’.
Their paper found that the ability of humans to adapt extends not just as an evolutionary tick, but to all experiences, really, even positive ones.
Meaning that repetition of anything, even joy, which in this context would be the Indian cricket team winning the T20 World Cup, would start to go down the more it happens.
Where the joy might have been a tsunami the first time, by the sixth, it would feel more like a drizzle, something that most wouldn’t really pay much attention to.
We get a raise, feel great for a week, and then that becomes the new normal. India winning trophies has become our new normal. The 2024 win broke an 11-year drought, so it felt like catharsis. This one feels like… maintenance.
Perhaps, one can think of it like: When everything is historic, nothing feels historic.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Today, The Indian Express, ESPN
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: T20 world cup, T20 world cup 2026, India 2026 T20 World Cup, cricket, cricket sports, cricket news, india world cup, indian cricket
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