Why cricket means so much to me !. Review on Cricket

When I was five years old, my favorite cartoon show was the animated series based on R.L. Stevenson’s

“The Swiss Robinson Family”. As it was dubbed into Arabic, I couldn’t follow a word but still I loved to watch the shipwrecked family adapt to life on the deserted island.

This may seem totally irrelevant, but I’m getting there….. One day I ran into the TV lounge to find my daddy home early from work. He was perched on the edge of his seat watching men in white arranged all around in a green field. This was my introduction to cricket.

And I HATED it!! I saw the men in white, as aliens who had hijacked MY show, My television and even My daddy!!!

So I sat and sulked while India won the Cricket World Cup (for the first and so far the last time). I sat there thinking what my favorite character, Roberta (for some reason in the cartoon , she’s called Fiona) must be doing , while Kapil Dev, the then captain, lifted the coveted cup in his hands !

But somewhere along the line, I got interested. Everything started to make sense. There was actually a purpose to all that running around the field !!!

And my father was simply delighted….Finally he had an ally. Finally there was someone to support him while the rest of the family grumbled about him monopolizing the TV !!

But I don’t think even he had any idea that, it would soon become my pet obsession!

I was almost fanatical about the game. When there were matches on TV, I would try to make up excuses to stay home. That of course, usually,didn’t work out. So I’d make up excuses to call home from school ( to get the score).

I’d take my walkman along to keep updated, till my mum found out and confiscated it.

I’d keep alarms to wake up at odd hours and stealthily creep up to the TV and turn it on at a low volume.

If the going was good, I’d wake my father up. And we’d sit there, having coke and chips ….at three in the morning !!!

If India lost to arch rival Pakistan in Sharjah ( as they so often did) , I would be too upset to even have my dinner(not the least because I would be mercilessly teased by Pakistani friends at school the next morning).

Cricket ironically enough, is not India’s national game. It is also not just another sport. It is actually the life breath of India. Where else would 30,000 people pay to watch an exhibition match between a Filmstars XI and a Cricket XI !!! Amazing , especially, when you consider the fact that about the only thing the Indian team manages to perform with any consistency these days is …… to LOSE !!!

And that is no less because the Indian team has the world’s most exciting player in its ranks. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar , is, I daresay, a major reason why the average Indian hasn’t stopped watching cricket altogether ! I personally have given up any hopes of the current team staging any big wins ( with the exception of the odd one here and there ). So all I look for these days is whether sachin comes up with any of his brilliant knocks. And if he does, I’m satisfied.

Till recently one of my biggest dreams ( besides camping in the Australian outback) was to watch a live match. Sharjah is just a fifteen-minute drive for me, and India has played innumerable matches there, but somehow I could never bring myself to attend a match there ( India has a dismal record at the venue).

So I was expectedly ecstatic when a friend and I landed box seats for the India – South Africa match in Cochin last year ! And it was worth every bit of the long 3 hours we spent queuing up to enter the stadium! Over 90,000 people making as much noise as they could ! And India managed to pull off a win, in what was a nail biting finish ! And it actually felt as if we , the crowd had helped them do it , by yelling as loud as we could !!!!

A truly remarkable experience and for anyone who hasn’t experienced live sporting action, I’d say disregard all those bits of advice people give you , about how the couch in front of your TV affords the best view and comfort. Cheering your team on, at the top of your voice, sharing the delights of a six or boundary or the disappointment of a home team wicket, with about hundreds of thousands of other equally cricket crazy fans is something which every cricket lover ought to enjoy.

At least once .

And if you do , maybe you can even begin to figure out why Cricket is India’s Number One Obsession !!!!