CHENNAI: Flight delays are never nice. Especially when they come at the end of the work trip and in the middle of the night. The airline staff have no idea about the gate or the revised departure time, so to salvage the damage done by multiple delays they hand out the food package.
Even in that line for the cold airline food at the Pune airport a full day after South Africa's win against New Zealand, two strangers — one wearing a jersey of a rugby team and this reporter wearing that cap of the same team — managed a high-five yelling "Go Bokke". That's what sport and a cap can do.
It wasn't the first time that the cap had come in handy to break the ice. Just a day before at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Morne Kirstein and Gavin Myburgh, both from Pretoria, finally found a local with whom they could share their joy of South Africa's Rugby World Cup win.
"It was tense in the final. But it was like that throughout the knockouts. The Springboks have won the quarterfinal, semifinal and final with just one point. We are used to that stress by now. I even saw a video where they said, winning by one point is the best. Anything more than that is a waste of resources," Morne and Gavin laughed. The cap made these conversations happen.
And it did not stop with the fans. The cap also resonated with the players and support staff. Mickey Arthur, Pakistan's team director, was visibly distorted after Pakistan's close loss to South Africa as he addressed the media at the press conference with his regular flair.
After that, the South Africa-born had a small conversation with all of the reporters from the Rainbow Nation. While leaving, he spotted the cap and cheered, "Let's go Bokke". "They are going to win. They have been in excellent form. One more World Cup," he said. One could sense the child-like enthusiasm in his voice. A few days later, Boks proved Arthur right, by lifting the trophy for the fourth time.
Siya Kolisi's team and their success — winning back-to-back World Cups in 2019 and 2023 — has been inspirational for those who know what their journey means to South Africans at home and all over the globe. The team shows their pride, plays fair and strives for more than on-field success, making it hard not to love them.
As for this reporter, it was probably the best 200 ZAR that was spent on a cap on the final day of the tour to South Africa earlier this year. Who knew ten months later, just wearing the rugby team's cap would play a significant role at the cricket World Cup in India, making this reporter feel like a part of a bigger family.
