Cricket is a very noisy and irritating insect. It surely brings in the silence, when it is not chirping. Hai wait, I’m not making a documentary on an insect.
Oh yeah, cricket. I find this game quite funny. The more I watch it on TV, the more I get bored and the more I love and respect it.
I played most of my cricket till date, in a basketball court of a park in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Cricket is a gentlemen’s game, hence we aspiring young cricketers weren’t given much care and admiration. We lacked class big time, when compared to other blokes of various sports on that court. The only thing that looked grand was our arrival – men in uniform (lads in white) carrying their military gear (cricket kit) which consists of spears (stumps), grenades (balls), grenade launcher (bats) and armour (pads, gloves etc) and so on.
Cricket comes in two forms – tests, the traditional one for the old and relatively more civilized & the ODI for people who appreciate things to get over faster. Whatever it is, I find this the greatest game. It consists of all emotional, psychological, and physical attributes, which is wrapped by self and patriotic pride.
Well let’s look into the people who constitute cricket.
The batsmen come to the crease, knowing his limitations and his opponent’s capabilities. He has his pride to save and to give his country a good base. He is welcomed by the opponent’s friendly comments (jeers and couple of swears). Then he undergoes a therapy of mental disintegration). The outcome of this therapy might be loosing cool, passing back some of the sweet comments, gazing dreamingly into the opponent’s eyes or finally succumbing to the sweet praises and in the quest of proving himself right, he looses his wicket. But the batsmen follow the traits of music artistes, calling for an encore whenever they think they have reached a milestone.
The bowlers, what a sight especially the pace bowlers, looks like civilized creatures that come charging as if they are possessed. The bowlers operate in two modes – brawn or brain or very rarely in both the modes. It is the bowlers who welcome, the batsmen to reality from their dream world. Their motto is a two-piece one - either get the batsmen out or get the batsmen down. The bowlers are very friendly blokes who give timely reminders to the batsmen to return to their crease, whenever they are lost and start wandering here and there. Also the bowlers get such tendencies of passing on such friendly gestures and if the batsmen don’t understand it, then these gestures are put into the form of words. The bowlers are the likely contenders for some acting awards. They bring the macho ness and the vital X factor into the game.
These cricketers are such lucky people. I mean they get to travel around and also do what they like, i.e. to play cricket, I presume. They can get to taste the various cuisines, and be part of the cultures and whatever. They will have their favorite stadiums, the favorite areas within the stadiums and also lots of fond memories and barrage of nightmares. Nostalgia does attack these players constantly, whenever they are free. I’m sure these cricketers can come up with really good biographies. All these years of playing cricket will give them few pages in a book. What a classic it will be;
‘all my sorrows, all my rage;
teardrops on every page.’
Watch out Harry Potter.