ICC World Cup 2015: Victory is sweeter when you share the #CupOfJoy

Bengaluru, Feb 20: Every 4 years cricketing nations from all over the world come together to fight it out for the ultimate glory in their sport the World Cup.

After weeks of nail biting matches and close shaves when the tournament culminates in the coveted Cup being lifted by a team, it is a moment of pride.

And in a country like India, where it is played not just on ground by 11 players but by over a billion people glued to their TV sets, cricket becomes much more than a
sport.

We, at Rang De, thought that if cricket can make us rise above our differences, it could also be a powerful force for doing good for the society. And with that in mind, we created the #CupOfJoy campaign.

Rang De #CupOfJoy is unique in that it heightens the already charged atmosphere of a match and raises the stakes from winning a match to impacting the life of a fellow human being.

Rang De is a non-profit platform which empowers people, who lack access to affordable credit, to raise loans through a peer topper lending model.

It essentially means that you and I can go to RangDe.org, look up borrowers in need of loans and start lending to them starting with just Rs 100. This loan is then repaid by the borrower as per his/her schedule.

The power of the #CupOfJoy campaign lies in its simplicity. Before a match, a person needs to create a pledge at ​http://rangde.org/cupofjoy​ involving his/her favourite player or team.

The pledge should be as creative as possible e.g. If you wish to support Virat Kohli, you could create pledged like "I will invest 10 times the runs made by Kohli" or "I will invest Rs 1000 if Kohli scores a century".

If you wish to support your team you could create pledges like "I will invest 100 times the number of boundaries scored by India" or "I will invest 100 times the difference in scores between Indian & South Africa".

By creating this pledge, a cricket fan not only expresses his/her faith in his favourite team or player but also pledges support to a fellow human being by enabling access to low cost capital.

When we are rejoicing our win, the joy will be doubled by the good we spread in the society.

Even in case, the fortune did not favour our team, we would have the happiness that someone somewhere is living a better life because we chose to support our team.