This Guest Post comes from the wonderfully talented writer who prefers to be known as
'The Fool'. He writes at -
Lucifer House Inc. In the following post he shares his trysts with cricket during his formative years.
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Bernard Shaw is known for his saying “Cricket is a game played
by eleven fools and watched by eleven thousand fools”. When I call myself “The
Fool”, obviously I would be one of the eleven fools or eleven thousand fools.
Wouldn’t I? If you were to see me hold the bat, you can be sure I wouldn’t be
one of the eleven fools even in my wildest dreams. So one of the eleven
thousand at least I had to be, right? I started off about where it all began
right at the beginning like Oliver Twist – the cricket cards and stuff. If you
are collecting cards having pictures of cricket players on the front and their
statistics on the back, isn’t it conceivable that you will take interest in the
actual players themselves and their statistics? That is exactly how it happened
with me.
Having managed to collect most of the cards, my interest
began to fade. I found it a better idea to make the cards myself rather than
depend on the limited cards that come free with bubble gums. So I began to take
interest in collecting pictures of cricket players and the statistics.
Obviously how can you not see the matches where the players whose pictures you
are collecting are creating the statistics live? The first series I really
watched with interest was 1992 World Cup. Some of the memories of the things I distinctly remember are Martin
Crowe’s captaincy, Inzamam’s batting and the altercation between Kiran More and
Javed Miandad. It was also a series where I saw the fading of the only star I had
idolized during my hitherto days of indifference to cricket: Krishnamachari
Srikanth.
For the next 4 years there was not a single match I missed.
I tried playing cricket too. But it was too late an age to begin. Already many
of my peers were batting prodigies while I was a batting comedy. So obviously I
would be sent last down and hardly ever get a chance to improve my batting.
Bowling or wicket keeping obviously no one wanted to give to a neophyte. They
sent me to field at the boundaries. Standing alone at the boundary where
nothing happens can be really boring and you tend to get contemplative. And
when you are contemplating on finer things in life, can you be blamed for
missing the rare catch that comes your way? But the boys thought differently.
The net result was I decided playing cricket was not my cup of tea and gladly
renounced the game.
So my interest in the game remained confined to hero worship
and compilation of statistics. Due to my lack of success in playing the game, I
never really got on to the technical aspects of the game. I was happy as long
as my favorite players got the half centuries, centuries and the 5 wicket hauls
and the scoreboards kept ticking. So following the matches on radio or
newspaper worked as well as seeing the matches on television. I followed almost
the entire South African tour of India on our ancient family radio that was a
year older than me. It was a disappointment in terms of India’s performance.
But I found a new hero to worship: Pravin Amre. And there were no cards of him available
too. Then there was the England’s tour of India which revived India’s fortunes.
Vinod Kambli’s double century delighted the statistician in me.
Very soon I moved from cards to a diary which was more
convenient to maintain the photos and statistics. I had a page for every player
and religiously maintained the statistics. In fact it was cricket that inculcated
the habit of reading the newspaper in me. In those days there was no internet.
Nor was there cable television. The newspaper was the only way of following
international matches. I used to religiously cut the scorecard of every
international match that was played and compile them series wise. For the
pictures, I had to depend on sport star as I preferred color photos to black
and white photos from the newspapers. But when I did not get color photos of a
player I would make do with the black and white photos as well. We were financially
not too well off as such. So I could not afford new Sport Stars. So one of the
most exciting activities for me during those days was going to the waste paper
man with my father and buying old second hand Sports Stars. As soon as I come
home I would finish reading all the cricket articles and then get to work with
my scissors. I did not limit myself to recent statistics. I also bought and read
a few books on cricket history. Hindu used to publish an annual edition of
cricket year book. That was a favorite with me.
Every activity has an initial start up phase, then a peak
period and then a decline. So it was with my interest in cricket as well. The
four years were my peak period from 1992-1996. From then on the decline
started. I became busy with academics as I had my board exams and IIT JEE
preparations. Also in 1996, we got cable
TV in our house for the first time. That brought a new range of entertainment
at my disposal. My new school had a library with a good fiction collection and
I began to return to my old love – reading books. So my new love – the cricket
diary and cards were neglected. One fine day I gave away the cards to a boy in
the neighborhood and my diary to my cousin. I still continued to watch matches.
But the old passion was no longer there.
There were still a few highs for me in the years to follow.
I went to watch a Ranji trophy match and watched Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and
Javagal Srinath in live action in flesh and blood. I watched India chase down
an impossible 300+ target against Pakistan in a crowded college hostel common room. I
watched the emergence of Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. I discovered a cricket
card collection from my father’s childhood days in my grandparents’ home. But
there were also the bad moments. The conviction of Azharuddin and Hansie Cronje
was one of them. Decline of the English and West Indies teams was another. With
the details of the match fixing emerging, all the statistics I had been
collecting began to look meaningless. So slowly I began to drift away from
cricket. The old passion gave way to new ones: reading, trekking, martial arts.
Soon it came to pass that at one stage I totally stopped watching cricket. From
following all 5 days of a test match on an old transistor, I have still not
seen a complete 20-20 match to date. Then that’s how infatuation is, right? You
never know when it comes. You never know when it goes.
