the cricket lovers take

Now that the entire cricket show in the subcontinent has temporarily taken a pause and that the new movie in town is “the Lokpal bill featuring Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev” running successfully over the last six weeks .I was  drifting through various blogs and articles to keep myself updated. I personally hate been hash-tagged ‘nerd’ because of my prefix. And thus it was a pleasant change when I stumbled on some articles written by an esteemed author on cricket.

However I was a little zapped. Within a month’s span he had written two articles that were so contradictory. The stark change in his take on the different forms of cricket jarred me. Maybe he does that because like he says’ he earns fifteen percentage of his living by writing about the game. So he has to write’  I guess for him its just about writing on anything related to the game, and  as long as the article has multiple  cricket tags the pay-cheque will reach his account. For me however it is different. I am writing this motivated only by my passion for cricket.

Let me walk you thru my very own personal cricket journey. I have always been a cricket lover. In fact I think ever since I was a kid I knew more about cricket than any other game. I followed every single cricket match I could. I have even bunked school, missed exams, given up on sleep, all to watch cricket matches. People found it rather queer that a mallu girl could recollect cricket stats faster than multiplication tables.

However, even though my other cricket passionate family members were stuck up on the aristocracy of test cricket, I readily took in ODI’s with the same passion. For me somehow, it was not the purity of the game or the version that mattered, it was about  the patriotism that struck right at the root of  my heart when I saw the “ men in blue” in action. It was only while watching a cricket match that i felt the real essence of being a proud Indian .While in the stands, it felt like my voice box was made for the sole purpose of cheering for India and every sweat pore was actually bleeding blue. Even in the hottest of Indian summers I have got goose bumps watching them play.

I lived through watching Sachin mature, his lovely curls shorten. I have seen the Sharjah cups, Anil Kumble’s ten wickets take. I have witnessed Gangulys shirtless action. Survived the horror of the Azhar- Jadeja-Mongia disaster. I have proudly seen a mallu make it to the team and mourned his crashing out. (this was way before Sreesanth, Abbey Kuruvilla anyone remember?) I have seen the young Yuvi with fire in his eyes, the wannabe Dhoni with his long hair become captain cool, I have seen every edition of the world cup since it was last played in the subcontinent. It was all good till the introduction of the IPL.

It looked like the IPL had become a new sort of game of planet Bollywood. Some new game ,like Qidditch. Which normal mortals like you and me couldn’t play. The rules were written in a language that the aam- admi couldn’t read. It was all about the magical Indian royalty- the Ambani princes of Mumbai, Prince Wadia and his pretty beau of Punjab , The Badshah of Kolkota, off course the King of Bangalore  and few other savvy tycoons and beauties who swore their alliances to  Lalit Modi, who for some reason reminds me of the Russian ‘Rassputin’.I had gone through the first three editions of the game blindfolded. The new cricket seemed warped; the game got wrung between the glam and glitz. Cricket migrated from the traditional last page in the newspaper to page 2. The after parties, the semi naked pom pom girls from some poor Russian country who parade for the crowd, it all became jargon in my cricketing language

During the first three  seasons of the IPL I busied myself in my work and studies but this year, I was so high on my cricketing meter, post the exhilarating world cup I decided that I would give the IPL a shot to impress me. After a quick update on what I had missed during the first three seasons. I was ready to dace the IPL tamasha. Then came the dilemma of which team to support. After much debate and a fight with my better half, I decided to support the Chennai Super Kings .It made no sense to me in supporting Mahela Jawardena and his half band wagon of lankan boys, owned by a non mallu, just because their ridiculous jerseys said Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Besides, I felt good as I was still supporting the captain of the blue boys.

To please my better half and to undo the crime of “treason”, I decided to go for the KTK vs DDD match on the 30th of April in Kochi. It was a four o clock match. The sun was still there in the western sky, it was surprisingly pleasant. The salty breeze from the Arabian Sea blew me backwards in time, suddenly I remembered. The last time I came to the stadium was for an India vs Australia ODI. It was the first ever match to be played in Kochi. An amazing match, my throat got sore screaming, my skin got burnt I looked liked a baked potato but the highlight of the day was Sachin’s five wicket haul and more importantly the win. The 5 for 32 I guess is still his best bowling figures.

The IPL match was mundane I dint neither feel the adrenaline nor the melodrama, KTK lost I was emotionless. That night I had a long talk with myself. Who should I support? The KTK team with more Sri-Lankans than mallus? Should I support royal challengers because I think Vettori looks cute with his glasses? Should I pray for Valthaty every time he bats because we pray to the same god? What or where is the logic?

I might not be a cricket historian, commentator or guru. All I am is a cricket lover. But one thing I know for sure is that you can’t enjoy d game sitting on the fence. You need to support one side, you need to cheer with them and cry with them. You need to bleed with them.

The week after we won the world cup I read an article in the “Open page" in the Hindu, which said”that in India the only unifying religion is cricket”. But somehow I feel that the IPL is making Indian cricket look like a gang war with mafia, money and their women!

It takes a lifetime to build a relationship of the nature that I have built with the Indian cricket team and no, I am not going to let any Premier league team take that away for me. I am just going to take the IPL seasons as bouts of bad viral diarrhea, explosive and violating my peace. However I do know that it will pass away sooner than it came and get flushed down the annals of cricketing history.

NOTE: If any of you missed SV’s articles, please do read- http://www.espncricinfo.com/page2/content/story/517217.html test cricket fans, shut ithttp://www.espncricinfo.com/page2/content/story/518441.html test cricket haters come here to be slapped. (No he isn’t paying me for publicity).