Cricket

Image via Wikipedia

The gentleman's game had always been my favorite probably because of the large fanfare that it has in the subcontinent. Cricket influenced me mainly because I saw and played the game right from my childhood with my cousin brothers at home. The trio - me, Mani and Veliattan shortly velli always played cricket in the small area at the side of our house whenever we got time. Kochappan, Kollam Chittappan, Asianet's T.N.Gopakumar, Kesavan Namboothiri, Velli and Deepu chettan were my cricketing guru's initially when I started playing. They even changed the boundary line for me and taught me to beat in the gap so that I can get runs without getting caught. Extra Covers? Nay.That was EXTRA STRAIGHTS specially covered for me. Kochappan even made me a bat of wood since the ones my brothers used were heavy and I was unable to lift it. I was so small then. Sho was a great encourager outside the field and also she was a fan of Kapil. Since the ground necessitated straight shots to get runs I learned to play straight of front foot. Velli's and Deepu chettan's spin were awesome and Mani's shots I envied a lot. Kuttetan too sometimes plays with us with his very peculiar hard to repeat bowling actions. But he doesn't like we younger brothers me and Mani score runs when he bowls or even Velli when it comes to cricket. The craze grew worse when Mani got selected in the district team and chanced to play with some players who played for the state. That was the time when I got a chance to play with the cricket ball. Also some very useful and handy fielding tips from Mani so that I can catch the ball without hurting myself. Yes I was in the school cricket team that won the cup in the sportsday event and even was able to score the highest of all playing and that too against Mani's Team! To mention Mani did not put his usual knee breaking stuff for me but opted for the spin. No never fixing matches, maybe he had thought that was enough for me. And his friend Shambu's support for me and our team and the big partnership with Vinod saw us through the game. Not to forget the hand cricket - a version without bat with Rajendran the enthusiast, Planner and captain and Neelambaran captaining the opposing side and he always had Abishek as his key team member. The fad continued in college too with official matches in the hostel ground with mech and eee guys and often played stuff in front of Sajeev's room and ofcourse we discussed cricket at the large ground in Udayagiri fort.
Then the live matches in TV. I remember the entry of Sachin Tendu

Image via Wikipedia

lkar but we all considered Kambli to be the better player then and laughed at the small boy who was new in the field. Especially Allen Donald's balls to the maestro stirred a lot of giggles on our faces. The ads for boost by Kapil Dev and Sachin were quite famous. Kochappan always liked Keppler Wessels and his South African team that had just come back after a ban from International cricket due to its Apartheid laws. Ya I watched Jonty Rhodes fly in the air to catch a ball and Gary Kristen's long innings with the bat. Those were the times. Azhar and Ajay Jadeja were my favorites but unfortunately they had a really bad exit from cricket. The much followed episode of Hansie Cronje was indeed a black mark for cricket. Saurav and Dravid were great during their peak time and has done a lot to the Indian side. Not to miss the Indo-Pak matches, it created a lot of enthusiasm especially the duo of Javagal Srinath and Venketesh Prasad while bowling to players like Inzy,Yousuf Youhana and Saeed Anwar. The Miandad-More episode was funny. I had watched the ODI match in which Anwar took 194 and the test in which Kumble got all 10 wickets. Though players like Gilchrist, Afridi, Flintoff, Dhoni, Gayle and Gibbs with their power shots and quick runs were phenomenal, I always liked methodical players like Martyn, Bevan and Kallis whose cricket were right out from the books. The trump games also increased my knowledge about the players. I always wanted the card of Vivian Richards and Desmond Haynes to win the game. Also movies like Chamatkar and Iqbal had themes about cricket. Of late due to Chiranjivi's and other classmates enthusiasm I heard some match details and also happened to see some matches with Jeyettan at his place.