Back in ways !
Finally I found some time. Last 3 weeks have been filled with mixed fortunes, I was quite high in spirits late in June for things were looking all bright and encouraging but again some major turn of events and I am back to my pissed-off state of mind. So my stint of mis-fortunate days continue (I can't blame anyone so, I blame my fortune :-) )
I've been playing some cricket of late. I realized one thing, mediocrity has no place on this earth no body feels happy being a mediocre performer and nobody really enjoys their company. I feel really miserable when I see that I cannot perform above average in anything I do. I got into a cricket club here and started playing tennis ball cricket. It is real fun, we have practice session and matches almost every weekend. The team I play for is really good and we really fight it out on all showings. I managed to take 11 wickets in 4 matches, with best figures of 5/9. I was really happy and thought I should get into cricket ball cricket. Soon found my way into a team here.
Some history: I used to bowl orthodox leg spin with a cricket ball at the age of 10. This was the time when I was in the 4th grade and stayed in Mandaveli. School got over at 2:45, I used to walk back home; took like 15 minutes. The routine was something like this, get back home eat some tiffin, most often it was uppuma, either Godhuma Ravai uppuma or plain ravai uppuma (my paatti's favourite) and some tea. Every weekday at 3:30 this guy Ramanan comes to our place for taking paattu class(music lessons) from my paatti. He was the guy I hated the most at that time for that bugger almost always was very prompt, used to come bang on time and was very regularntoo. My paatti always made me sit for the paattu class. I sometimes showed my disinterest by sighing and tried to avoid the class but, most often would end up being embarrassed, sometimes even verbally threatened or intimidated. I would sit down for the lessons with much gnashing and grinding of my teeth. All this fuss because Boskey & co(yes, the jaya tv mottai boskey) would start their cricket practice at P.S.High school at 4:00 and I would be relieved only at 4:30. I used to get really restless if the clock went beyond the 4:00 pm mark. I would make it very obvious by turning back and looking at the clock every minute or two.
It was Shyam my cousin who introduced me to Boskey & co. Shyam also used to bowl leg spin and I simply used to mimic him, but some how I picked up a different action. I simply bowled diagonal around because he did too. Boskey and co were like at their early 20s I guess, then. I used to bowl orthodox leg spin wicket to wicket pretty consistently at an age when I could barely hold the cricket ball comfortably. Boskey liked to play us becuase all our deliveries used to consistently land on line and at good length. We were the perfect bowling machines for him to step down and loft us for towering sixers. Most of the shots would seem like action replays and boskey used to clear P.S.High school ground pretty comfortably despite it being one of the biggest. I still vividly remember once I was on the out field doing the ball boy act. The out field was notoriously hostile. P.S.High school for those who don't know has one of the biggest but worst maintained ground. Particularly, the ground was no good for cricket. The out field was simply sere and dead. In fact the sand used to have stones and even pieces of broken concrete and also uneven, one side of the ground had some grass with some uncontrolled growth of some mysterious flora. Despite being big it would look cramped by 4 pm with around 10 teams of varying ages playing their own instances of the game. In fact it was pretty dangerous for there was a chance to get hit from all directions. So this one time I was trying to stop a ball by using the text book fielding technique of getting on the left knee with both hands together to collect the ball on my left side. Within few seconds I didn't know what happened but all I could feel was a warm gush of something out of my nose, I tried to wipe it out using the sleeve of my shirt and realized it was blood. What happened was that the ball hit a stone bounced right into my nose. I didn't feel the pain, I was pre-occupied with the thought as to how I would look with a flat nose and how my parents would react if they came to know that I played with a cricket ball. Soon someone informed my elder brother who incidentally was also playing with one of those n teams that was in the ground. He quickly grabbed me by the collar and took me to the tap, on our way he verbally abused me for doing something as stupid as playing with a cricket ball. After all those wonderful verbal anointment he helped me wash my nose and somehow got the bleeding to stop and later got some rudimentary medication.
That was the gentle introduction that I had to the game of cicket ball criket. After that, I joined my school team and we once beat Vidya Mandir in one of those supposedly friendly match. The next chance I got to play cricket ball cricket was for our Apartment(Anand Apartments). Our apartment big boys formed a team. I was not their age, they were all in their early 20s and I was in 9th grade, I still got to play for I could bowl/field pretty well and bat decently. We played and practiced in tarmani CPT ground, this was during the summer holidays. Another interesting and rather ridiculous (if I think of it now) incident happened. We played a cricket ball bet match, that is, whoever wins the game gets a new ball :-) There was this rowdy team called the Canal bank team with whom we played a cricket-ball-bet match. There were few controversial decisions against the Canal bank team and eventually we won the match. During the match there was some unpleasant verbal exchanges from both side. That evening much like in the movies the canal bank rowdies brought few more real rowdies and beat up couple of out team mates, I clearly remember Mani getting beaten black and blue and few others ended up with broken bones, didn't really know what damage was inflicted to the other team. All this just over a ball and a game of cricket :-)
The third time I got to play cricket ball cricket was when I was studying B.Sc maths at Guru Nanak college. There was this college team selection going on; First year into college I did not know anyone, didn't know the PT which was the minimum requirement even to appear for the selection. One of my class mate and myself, we literally craved to get into the team. Guru Nanak college had one of the best grounds in the city maitained by India Cements. The ground had frequent visitor of likes of Dravid, Sriram and Sharath. Even few Ranji matches were played in our ground. I recall in one of the Ranji matches Atul Bedade if, I remember right, cleared the ground and the road and sent the ball in to Rane madras factory. The ground was fairly small; If I am not wrong was like 40/50 yards to the boundary. It was a blessing to play in such a ground. We all assembled in whites for the selection at 3:00 pm the then PT was a tall, stout, bald headed and dark guy should have been in his early 40s. I was told that he was totally corrupt and would let you into the team if we took care of him. Anyways, I was asked to bowl to one of the existing college team member. I did the bowling at the nets, thank god ! that guy was bashing me all over if not for the nets we would have lost few balls to IITm and Rane Madras. I however didn't bowl wides or any full tosses. For some reasons I couldn't get the ball to turn I was not sure if it was because of the mat. The ball was also a little old but simple refused to turn. However, after bowling like 8 overs to 2 batsmen I was shown the doors. I didn't get to bat I didn't want to for I didn't want borrow cricketing gears from anyone particularly the abdomen gaurd :-) Though I could bat a little I didn’t concentrate on it much for it was an expensive proposition. My dream to play in GNC ground came true when I was selected to play for my department (maths). I consider it as the crowning glory of my cricketing career :-). First match I opened for my team :-) sounds ridiculous now. I was not afraid of facing the new ball while others were, I was not afraid for I had never faced it before and didn't know the danger lurking behind. On our first match which was also our last, I opened and scored 8 runs in 4 balls. 4 4 0 w yeah clean bowled. My bowling figures were good 2/24 in 6 overs. We were all out in 30 overs and set them a target of 128. They reached the target in 25 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. It was a humiliating loss; basically we had a very poor batting line up.
The fourth time is now, the present. I am still having difficulty finding a place in the team when it comes to actual matches. My bowling is very poor when compared to others. I am not getting the line and the length correct consistently. I get like 3 balls right for every 10 balls bowled. There is competition everywhere and only the best survive. I hate loosing no matter what it is, I simply am unable accept defeat. All I want to do is perform to my own satisfaction and that's not happening. But the bitter fact is that I am just another run-of-the-mill guy be it sports, music or my career, what to do? Anyways, that has been my tryst with cricket ball cricket. I don't hope to get into the Indian cricket but in whatever level I play I want to play well. I am planning to follow this one with another "My Tryst with Table Tennis" a sequel :-)
I've been playing some cricket of late. I realized one thing, mediocrity has no place on this earth no body feels happy being a mediocre performer and nobody really enjoys their company. I feel really miserable when I see that I cannot perform above average in anything I do. I got into a cricket club here and started playing tennis ball cricket. It is real fun, we have practice session and matches almost every weekend. The team I play for is really good and we really fight it out on all showings. I managed to take 11 wickets in 4 matches, with best figures of 5/9. I was really happy and thought I should get into cricket ball cricket. Soon found my way into a team here.
Some history: I used to bowl orthodox leg spin with a cricket ball at the age of 10. This was the time when I was in the 4th grade and stayed in Mandaveli. School got over at 2:45, I used to walk back home; took like 15 minutes. The routine was something like this, get back home eat some tiffin, most often it was uppuma, either Godhuma Ravai uppuma or plain ravai uppuma (my paatti's favourite) and some tea. Every weekday at 3:30 this guy Ramanan comes to our place for taking paattu class(music lessons) from my paatti. He was the guy I hated the most at that time for that bugger almost always was very prompt, used to come bang on time and was very regularntoo. My paatti always made me sit for the paattu class. I sometimes showed my disinterest by sighing and tried to avoid the class but, most often would end up being embarrassed, sometimes even verbally threatened or intimidated. I would sit down for the lessons with much gnashing and grinding of my teeth. All this fuss because Boskey & co(yes, the jaya tv mottai boskey) would start their cricket practice at P.S.High school at 4:00 and I would be relieved only at 4:30. I used to get really restless if the clock went beyond the 4:00 pm mark. I would make it very obvious by turning back and looking at the clock every minute or two.
It was Shyam my cousin who introduced me to Boskey & co. Shyam also used to bowl leg spin and I simply used to mimic him, but some how I picked up a different action. I simply bowled diagonal around because he did too. Boskey and co were like at their early 20s I guess, then. I used to bowl orthodox leg spin wicket to wicket pretty consistently at an age when I could barely hold the cricket ball comfortably. Boskey liked to play us becuase all our deliveries used to consistently land on line and at good length. We were the perfect bowling machines for him to step down and loft us for towering sixers. Most of the shots would seem like action replays and boskey used to clear P.S.High school ground pretty comfortably despite it being one of the biggest. I still vividly remember once I was on the out field doing the ball boy act. The out field was notoriously hostile. P.S.High school for those who don't know has one of the biggest but worst maintained ground. Particularly, the ground was no good for cricket. The out field was simply sere and dead. In fact the sand used to have stones and even pieces of broken concrete and also uneven, one side of the ground had some grass with some uncontrolled growth of some mysterious flora. Despite being big it would look cramped by 4 pm with around 10 teams of varying ages playing their own instances of the game. In fact it was pretty dangerous for there was a chance to get hit from all directions. So this one time I was trying to stop a ball by using the text book fielding technique of getting on the left knee with both hands together to collect the ball on my left side. Within few seconds I didn't know what happened but all I could feel was a warm gush of something out of my nose, I tried to wipe it out using the sleeve of my shirt and realized it was blood. What happened was that the ball hit a stone bounced right into my nose. I didn't feel the pain, I was pre-occupied with the thought as to how I would look with a flat nose and how my parents would react if they came to know that I played with a cricket ball. Soon someone informed my elder brother who incidentally was also playing with one of those n teams that was in the ground. He quickly grabbed me by the collar and took me to the tap, on our way he verbally abused me for doing something as stupid as playing with a cricket ball. After all those wonderful verbal anointment he helped me wash my nose and somehow got the bleeding to stop and later got some rudimentary medication.
That was the gentle introduction that I had to the game of cicket ball criket. After that, I joined my school team and we once beat Vidya Mandir in one of those supposedly friendly match. The next chance I got to play cricket ball cricket was for our Apartment(Anand Apartments). Our apartment big boys formed a team. I was not their age, they were all in their early 20s and I was in 9th grade, I still got to play for I could bowl/field pretty well and bat decently. We played and practiced in tarmani CPT ground, this was during the summer holidays. Another interesting and rather ridiculous (if I think of it now) incident happened. We played a cricket ball bet match, that is, whoever wins the game gets a new ball :-) There was this rowdy team called the Canal bank team with whom we played a cricket-ball-bet match. There were few controversial decisions against the Canal bank team and eventually we won the match. During the match there was some unpleasant verbal exchanges from both side. That evening much like in the movies the canal bank rowdies brought few more real rowdies and beat up couple of out team mates, I clearly remember Mani getting beaten black and blue and few others ended up with broken bones, didn't really know what damage was inflicted to the other team. All this just over a ball and a game of cricket :-)
The third time I got to play cricket ball cricket was when I was studying B.Sc maths at Guru Nanak college. There was this college team selection going on; First year into college I did not know anyone, didn't know the PT which was the minimum requirement even to appear for the selection. One of my class mate and myself, we literally craved to get into the team. Guru Nanak college had one of the best grounds in the city maitained by India Cements. The ground had frequent visitor of likes of Dravid, Sriram and Sharath. Even few Ranji matches were played in our ground. I recall in one of the Ranji matches Atul Bedade if, I remember right, cleared the ground and the road and sent the ball in to Rane madras factory. The ground was fairly small; If I am not wrong was like 40/50 yards to the boundary. It was a blessing to play in such a ground. We all assembled in whites for the selection at 3:00 pm the then PT was a tall, stout, bald headed and dark guy should have been in his early 40s. I was told that he was totally corrupt and would let you into the team if we took care of him. Anyways, I was asked to bowl to one of the existing college team member. I did the bowling at the nets, thank god ! that guy was bashing me all over if not for the nets we would have lost few balls to IITm and Rane Madras. I however didn't bowl wides or any full tosses. For some reasons I couldn't get the ball to turn I was not sure if it was because of the mat. The ball was also a little old but simple refused to turn. However, after bowling like 8 overs to 2 batsmen I was shown the doors. I didn't get to bat I didn't want to for I didn't want borrow cricketing gears from anyone particularly the abdomen gaurd :-) Though I could bat a little I didn’t concentrate on it much for it was an expensive proposition. My dream to play in GNC ground came true when I was selected to play for my department (maths). I consider it as the crowning glory of my cricketing career :-). First match I opened for my team :-) sounds ridiculous now. I was not afraid of facing the new ball while others were, I was not afraid for I had never faced it before and didn't know the danger lurking behind. On our first match which was also our last, I opened and scored 8 runs in 4 balls. 4 4 0 w yeah clean bowled. My bowling figures were good 2/24 in 6 overs. We were all out in 30 overs and set them a target of 128. They reached the target in 25 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. It was a humiliating loss; basically we had a very poor batting line up.
The fourth time is now, the present. I am still having difficulty finding a place in the team when it comes to actual matches. My bowling is very poor when compared to others. I am not getting the line and the length correct consistently. I get like 3 balls right for every 10 balls bowled. There is competition everywhere and only the best survive. I hate loosing no matter what it is, I simply am unable accept defeat. All I want to do is perform to my own satisfaction and that's not happening. But the bitter fact is that I am just another run-of-the-mill guy be it sports, music or my career, what to do? Anyways, that has been my tryst with cricket ball cricket. I don't hope to get into the Indian cricket but in whatever level I play I want to play well. I am planning to follow this one with another "My Tryst with Table Tennis" a sequel :-)
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