Bidding Adieu – My Love!!!

“Eat Cricket, Sleep Cricket – Drink Only Coca Cola”, this punch line was introduced by this cola giant in 1998, featuring some of most coveted Indian cricketers of that era in their advertisement. Like most of the Indians and as a young boy I have lived my life like that punch line. Doing anything for cricket, sleeping late to catch live telecast of matches from South Africa (Day/Night) and West Indies, getting up in wee hours for matches from Australia and Newzeland, bunking classes, getting punishments from parents, watching matches in mute mode so that they don’t come to know, driving at crazy speeds to reach home to get that classic stroke or master delivery from my heroes, remembering stats about cricket better than the formulae in maths and physics and once I covered a distance of 6 Km on my feet as there was no other transportation mode available on that particular day for some weird reasons.

I am one of those person, whose wife considers cricket as her only “SOUTEN” and claims that if she would be on death bed and there is a cricket match, my husband would definitely ask Yamraj to wait till the last bowl is bowled or may be presentation is over. She believes, I would spare the post match analysis, fingers crossed! Another tall claim by her is that she can easily serve non-veg meal to her strictly vegetarian husband during a cricket match without even being noticed. Basically, all your sins are forgiven if you make them during a cricket match. I can write pages and pages to describe my passion for the game and I am sure there are millions like me in India.

But off late, she has started making lesser sins, not that she visited Bodhi Tree and got enlightened with Lord Buddha and even started believing that I would take care of Yamraj even during a cricket match. So, what are the reasons for her to be so happy and considering that her husband is committed only to her and not some damn Souten. First, she should be thankful to the likes of Pawars / Srinivasans / Shuklas / Jaitleys / Modis (Lalit Not Narendra, otherwise I would be called communal and who knows put behind the bars for disturbing the communal harmony), for turning my beloved Cricket as a Draupadi and using / misusing / abusing it like anything for their vested interests. Oops, did I mentioned that they took all the grace, elegance and that Gentleman spirit away from the game with the advent of Indian Party League (IPL). Secondly, the retirement of greats like Dravid, Laxman, Dada, Kumble, Srinath and Sachin (almost), this has definitely taken away all the charm, class and passion attached to the game. This has happened not only on Indian scenario but worldwide as well with departure of greats like Akram, Waugh, Jaysuriya, Warne, Ponting, McGrath, Murali, Lara and many others, all hanging their boots in last few years.

Some may argue that this change of guard is a routine thing and it happens periodically every 10-15 years. But, I didn’t felt the same way when Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Kapil Paaji or the foreign greats like Richards, Greenidge-Haynes, Walsh, Ambrose, Border, Gooch, Gower, Martin Crowe, Imran, retired from the game, somehow their replacements showed signs of greatness very early. Their successors were moulded in the same frame as their predecessors were which unfortunately I cannot say about the current successors. The likes of Dhonis / Kohlis / Ashwins etc, are not able to get the same respect and affection from across the country, across genders and across age group of 8 – 80. They have followers in compartments may be due to this club league like culture or simply they don’t fit the bill. In my opinion, both the factors are responsible. But for the second reason to be true, first one is responsible.

I am writing this, absolutely for the reason, I mentioned in the title of this post. It was my first love and I did everything possible legal and sometimes illegal to catch those passionate fights between bat and ball irrespective of the teams and format of the game. But in last 4-5 years, I have curtailed my cricket watching by almost 99%. IPL is a complete NO, CLT20 – I don’t even know the names of the teams, this year I didn’t even followed Champions Trophy which India finally won and we were favourites too. There is too much of it and as an old saying, too much of everything is bad. It kills the enthusiasm, the thrill and the emotions attached to it.

However, its not easy to forget your first love and that flame always keeps on burning in some silent corner of your heart, I still don’t miss any chance to watch recordings of old matches, thanks to youtube, where I can even choose the specific moments, I want to watch.

I presume that those who are in sync with thoughts in this post, would definitely be praying for success of players like Pujara / Cook, who still infuse some old world charm in their strokeplay which one loves to enjoy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Rahul Dravid has mentioned in one of his recent oration, that T20 should be promoted as it ensures the entertainment element in game and is getting more importance in this “2 Minute Noodle” era but not at the cost of longer versions. Matches between national sides is fine, but this league format is simply killing the game and the unfortunate part is that administrators of our country are the root cause for this, other Boards have also started feeling the heat except countries like England where the main focus is still longer versions and minimal focus on T20. I sincerely wish that some sense prevails and this mad rush is aborted.

Meanwhile, the only silver lining is that my wife has stopped thinking of serving me chicken and started feeling that her Souten is past her prime so she is getting the undisturbed attention from someone who used to Eat Cricket, Sleep Cricket and sorry Coke Lovers, Drink Cricket as well and wait one thing even the ad company missed for them, I used to BREATHE CRICKET.