An open letter to Cricket
Dear Cricket,
What could I write about you? If you hadn't been a sport, you certainly would have been my girlfriend. I couldn't have loved you anymore. That no other sport comes even close in involving my interest, means that my love for you is faithful and has survived all other attractions. I do play tennis at times or I miss playing you with office mates because of work but I miss the touch of rough wood of the bat handle on my palms and my fingers miss the rigorous imparting of spin on the ball. You, like my family, have stayed with me forever. And I am very grateful to God for bringing you in my life.
I remember the first time when I got introduced to you. It was February/March 1991. I was about to turn six when cricket World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand. I used to go to my school, which was nearby, in an autorikshah. The autorikshah driver and his colleagues used to talk about the cricket World Cup and India's chances in the World Cup. While other kids were mostly interested in creating mischief, I used eavesdrop on the autorikshah driver's conversation. "Dakshad Africa ne ek aur match jeet liya. Badi hi majboot team hai, Bhai. Yehi, World Cup jeet Lenge. (South Africa won another match. They are a very strong team. They will definitely win the cup.)", quipped a friend of my autorikshah driver. When I came home, I used to see the news to see what was happening in cricket. The colored clothing, the white ball and the powerful lights, I was totally taken aback by you. Few days afterwards, India and Australia played a thriller which my father was also seeing on television. He explained me my various questions about you, how you were played, what was the clothing color for India and Australia and how exciting the match turned out to be. After that day I had developed a serious crush on you. My father was told me why Pakistan won the World Cup when the legendary Imran khan lifted the glass trophy. He explained "The team who wins four matches in a row wins the world cup. Pakistan won four in a row.". I believed him with skepticism even though I could tell he was probably wrong.
My obsession for you didn't stop there. I remember my Tauji, who cheered for the legendary Kapil Dev, as Kapil Dev kept hitting some poor spinner out of the stadium every time he bowled to him. "Kapila!!! Ek aur maar de! (Kapil, hit another six).", he would say as we both watched the match together on a warm winter afternoon on the evergreen national channel Doordarshan. Then came the young Sachin Tendulkar who played like a dream. I looked up for his scores in the newspaper every time he played and scored. While he batted, I used to loose my breadth and couldn't watch the game. Every time he turned the strike over, I used to breadth easy. Every time to used to hit a four or six my heart used to fill with an indescribable feeling of joy.
I remember the time of the 1996 World Cup in India. There was unprecedented anticipation among people for the event and if India could win the World Cup first time after 1983. I remember a class activity in my physical activity period. Our coach asked us to name three captains of the teams participating in the global event. As much as I remembered I could answer one or two. Many of my other class mates could answer three, though many of them cheated the answers from one another. But I was not unhappy at not being able to answer three captains. I distinctly remember one of my class mates mentioning South African captain at the time, "Hansie Cronje". It was the first time I heard a unusual name and the name and this memory has remained etched n my memory forever.
I remember the day March 14th 1996. It was my 11th birthday. Australia and West Indies played the semi finals at Mohali, Chandigrah. India had already existed the tournament with a disappointing lose to Sri Lanka in Calcutta (Yes, it was called Calcutta at that time). My mother came home from office and she brought an unexpected guest to our house. It was my maternal uncle from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. My brother and I fondly called him Sanju Mama. West Indies was close to a win in the semi finals as they were within touching distance of the Australian total. He took us out to the market to get us sweets and candies. This was a norm in those days as both of us were really fond of sweets. Looking atmy enthusiasm for the game of cricket, Sanju Mama took us to a shop which sold some cricket gear. He bought me a pair of cricket gloves and pads as my birthday gift. I was over the moon and wanted to get back home to try my first cricket gear on. When we reached home, the game between West Indies and Australia had changed its course and we saw Australia win an exciting game of cricket. It was a great day. Not only two teams played a fascinating game of cricket but I also got my first cricketing gear.
As I got older, my father graduated me from cartoon stripes of Amar Chitra Katha to India today. But even in India Today, I looked for the sports section. I slowly began to expand my horizons by finding other sports magazines like Sports Star. I would buy the magazine or get it from the library in the temple nearby and would read it for hours together looking at the stylish photographs of the cricketers and memorizing all the scores of my favorite players. I would get the hindi version of the magazine if the English version was not available. I read with excitement every time India won, would get gut wrenched when they lost and would read the matches not contested by India with complete ambivalence. It is a feeling I retain to this date.
Among some difficult and painful memories of you, there were unhappy events like the match fixing saga in early 2000s. Even though some corrupt players tarnished your image by fixing matches for monetary gains, they failed to sway me away from you. I still remember one match that my mother and I watched after the breakout of the match fixing incident. Every time someone misfielded or dropped a catch, my mother would laugh and say "Did he take, money to drop the catch?", I would respond by saying, "Maybe the batsman also took money to loft the ball in air to get out. But the filder dropped it.Too bad for him, he inset getting paid today". We would still watch your matches after the match fixing scandal because it gave us way to find happiness.
In early 2000s, I would give my 10th board exam. It was the month of March and I distinctly remember that I didn't give my social sciences paper well although I gave my Mathematics paper well. It was India vs Australia test match at Eden Gardens at Calcutta. It was March 14th again, my birthday. My sciences paper was on March 15th. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted the whole day to put India in a winning position. I didn't get to see the match (lying here) but I didn't study with full concentration either. I will at a peek at the news to check the score and then reluctantly go and study. Next day I knew I was not well prepared. But after the board exam I rushed back to see India win. It was one of my most memorable of you. Just for your information, I scored 90% on this science paper. I had scored 100% in sciences in a much harder exam. But no hard feelings.
Then as I grew older, in my early twenties, I became very fond of the players like Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid. These were perfect gentlemen of you and the serenity that they possessed is closet to my father's. Their work ethic, gracefulness and demeanor on the filed and off it was something to follow and imbibe in my life. So thanks a bunch for giving such roles models which would define the way I think and do things in my life now.
When I moved to United States from my master's degree, you were with me throughout. You were my invisible friend who via ESPN Cricinfo and other websites kept my mind occupied when things got tough in the master's program or when I would feel homesick. I clearly remember the late nights when it was about 2am in USA a one day game would start in India. All of my friends and I will watch the game until we could till wee hours of morning. The India-Pakistan games were the funfest where the MCs and BCs would fly almost every minute. When Dhoni lifted Sachin's world cup in 2011, we all celebrated but missed the mad celebrations back in India. To this day I would ask my wife, who was in India in 2011, what did she do on the night when India won the world cup. She wouldn't remember :).
Most of my adult life I wanted to see a live match of you. But being in USA for so long didn't allow that luxury. Until in November 2015 when you finally came to USA as a part of Sachin Tendulkar and Shae Warne's team. You were played in make up baseball fields in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles. I finally got my wish when my wife and I went to see you in Los Angeles. I saw all my childhood heroes playing live. There was Sachin and Sehwag opening the batting, Dada came and hit a fifty, Shoaib Akhtar bowling fast, and finally Ponting and Kallis winning it for Shane Warne's team. We also saw the post match presentation which gave a view of all my favorite players. I took so many pictures that day from my old rustic camera.
As I became more mature (fancy word for older) you gave me some thing more interesting. Your enormous amounts of statistics. We formed a group in my office where we discuss which player scored more in away games, whose average is better, whose captaincy record is better etc. Your stats arranged nicely in a table gives a challenge to look into depths of how good some of your players are and details of you are being played in different eras. We also sometimes trash a player for fun (unfair to him, but wait he doesn't know) saying that he thinks of his score first then his team's, that now is his time to say goodbye to you and so on.
My wife envies my love for you. Whenever there is an important cricket match that I can catch, I would tell her, "You will be cricket widow from 9am to 12pm on Sunday morning. Is that ok with you?". She would roll her beautiful eyes in exasperation and pat my forehead. Sometimes I watch videos of you on YouTube or I listen to your podcasts on YouTube (again) whenever India wins. She says that its unhealthy for my brain and probably she is right. But when heart wants something the brain usually doesn't work.
Let's conclude this unusually long letter now. I hope that you stay healthy. By healthy I mean that you continue to have all three formats of test cricket, one-day cricket and T20 cricket with you. Please do not let money that T20 gives you to clamp down on test cricket and one-day cricket. I hope that you be more affordable to the people who come to watch a match of you. I hope that you remain a gentleman's game given that sometime your players fight like school boys. May you become more global like football and tennis. Lastly, I wish that you unite people of a nation where you go just like we Indians feel united whenever our national team plays irrespective of our backgrounds, religion or beliefs. I want to thank you for being with me all this while, to have kept in my interest in you and I request you to please stay with me forever.
Love,
An ardent fan
