Showing posts with label Cricket. Show all posts

This post has been long overdue. So, let me begin with the lesser of the two boring experiences.

Just a couple of posts ago (that sounded pretty weird!) I had said how I had become so indifferent to the game called cricket. But, as it has always been, I find it hard to stick to my so called ideas. The party pooper this time – The KPL. Uncanny as you may feel, I pretty much liked it. The mainstay, something happening good for our very own people. Who would have heard of players like Mithun Beerala, Gaurav Dhiman and David Johnson prior to this? It was indeed a great platform for the local lads to polish their skills. And what better practice session could players like B. Akhil and Vinay Kumar, the regulars in The Bangalore Royal Challengers could have asked for.

Being a big cricketing fan, never having seen a match in a stadium before, was something I didn’t want to speak of. So when a friend of mine offered passes for the finals, I jumped on the idea. Earlier, there was a negative publicity about the total turnout for the matches. On the day of the finals, things were not as they would have wanted. Close to around 25000 people had gathered in the stadium.

Entering the stadium – it was a great sight to behold. The whole of the stadium was being lit up by four giant flood lights. The crowd was electric. The drummers, the cheer band and the audience – everyone were zealous. But things slowly began to fade – the batting was way below what all had expected. We had hopes for a McCullum innings from the first IPL. But it turned out to be a very plain 20 over game. We were so much distracted that we hardly watched the game. All we looked out for was fun and we had to find it somewhere else. There was this drummer, who would start to bang for each and every run. He’d be busy chatting with someone, yet, his sticks would be on the drum set. As the game got slower and slower, the more and more relaxed was he. Out of nowhere, he’d get his sticks and would again start pounding the drum. There was another peculiar guy – an old man. I guess he had a BP of about 250. Anyone who’d cross him was sure to get cursed. Such was his temper and if he had his ways, he would have kicked out a couple of players itself as we were seated near the long on and the fielder was blocking his line of sight! And not to mention about the innumerable number of good looking girls that passed us.

Be it cricket or not, we enjoyed to the brim. Well, that’s what a game like cricket does. Once there are people all around, the more the fun. Looking forward to see some matches again. And, I would like to thank for those willing to hand me free passes!

Remember the good old days, when watching cricket was as if a festival celebrated? At least, that was how I used to watch it. Thanks to cricket, the 1999 world cup was when our house got the “cable” connection for the first time. And by that time, I was Dravid’s one of the biggest fans (don’t think physically when I say ‘big’. I was slim and trim then). There was one particular ad that used to be aired back then. Dravid was shown practicing batting with the ball hanging from the roof. If that was how he practiced, I did the same. I even batted in the same fashion when I used to play with friends. In bowling – Srinath. The action, same as his. That was how cricketers had an effect on me.

Once in Navodaya, although playing cricket was restricted only to Sundays, we rejoiced them. Watching the game was even more fabulous. With the whole school, in front of a 21” TV, with the grainy picture quality, the pushing and pulling to be in the front row added to the excitement. The radio that I had smuggled in, helped me to keep abreast of all the scores in the 2003 world cup. Sport meant only cricket those days. We played every game alright, but it was cricket that topped our list of priorities in games.

Even today, cricket is the reigning sport which would make me watch. Cricket has remained my favourite game and Dravid still my favourite. But it is cricket with all the zeal being eaten up. T20 sure has reinvented the game, but the excitement is what is missing. Today, as I juggled my TV channels, there were two matches – T20 between Sri Lanka and New Zealand and the other being a 50 over game of Australia v/s England. Both of them failed to ignite any sparks of interest. When I eventually watched it to avoid the grueling torture of the prime time soap operas, I had to struggle. Hope Dravid’s return to the 50 over matches would instill some fervor in me and make me watch again – and perhaps, you read again!