Mother's day special

A CRICKET LOVER

By: Chandi Rout Ray

The other day I was having a heated discussion with one of my close friends regarding the popularity of IPL.  In the midst of argument the discussion went astray and moved to what being a cricket lover means. A statement was made by my friend “People who are genuine cricket lovers don’t watch IPL”.  Now…..that caught my attention, I wanted to understand the definition of a cricket lover. According to my well read friend, a cricket lover is one who follows every ball of the tournament, reads all the analysts and reports of the players and watches all the interviews of cricketing greats. I couldn’t argue at that point of time with him….not because I didn’t have any points to counter but the discussion had pushed me back 15 years.

9^th March, 1996 –

I got up in the morning to the sound of tinkering  bells…..after five minutes of struggling with opening my eyes I realized Aarti (Morning Prayer) was going on. It was 5.30 am in the morning and I was a bit surprised to see mom finishing her daily prayers so early. I was curious but didn’t want to take any chances ….so I pretended to sleep.  Finally mom woke me up and asked me to have breakfast so that she could go back to her prayer room and she didn’t want to be disturbed. I wondered what she was up to and more importantly why that day?

Me: Mom! What’s the occasion?

Mom : Today is  the quarterfinal – INDIA VS PAKISTAN

Mom continued…….

“I have to cook dinner for 20 people; lots of people are going to come from far off areas to watch TV since we are the only family to have TV in this area. Once the match starts I have to go and sit in front of the altar and complete chanting the Hanuman Chalisa 108 times.”

Nothing was making sense to a 10 year old boy. Why would mom cook dinner for 20 people? More importantly, if the match was so important to her,whywas she going to sit in front of God chanting that really long Hanuman Chalisa 108 times, and not watch the match…..?

Me: Mom…..nothing seems to make sense …..

Mom gave me that all knowing smile……she knew that in few years I would be another addition to the indescribable madness of Cricket.

As the match started ……I was sitting with 21 people in 100sqft area of a room and was officially baptized to the madness of cricket which included cheers, prayers and the occasional outburst of swearing on the cricketers ‘sisters and mothers’ not suitable for kids.

India posted a target of 280+ and Pakistan started chasing in a very handsome way. Aamir Sohail was blasting away Indian bowlers and our home was experiencing a pin drop silence. My mom finished her prayers and has just joined the room. I saw my mom and wanted to break the awkward silence ….

Me: Mom, looks like your Hanuman is not helping us….

Mom: How many are out?

Me: Only One…and they need 160 more

Mom :Haan….they have to score 160 more na….

Me: But they have more than 200 balls to score

Mom: And we just need 9 balls to get them out…..

Needless to say we required less than 9 balls to win that historic match…….

That was the day when, subconsciously, I was attached to this matrix of billions of hearts of cricket lovers whose hearts thump every time Sachin faces his first ball, who sing when Dada places a ball between gaps on the off side, break chairs out of joy when Sehwag makes the bowler cry …..

I questioned myself – Does a cricket lover need to be well informed about the minute details of the game?

And I questioned myself further - if too much of cricket is killing the interest in cricket then TOO MUCH OF INFORMATION KILLS AN INDIAN CRICKET LOVER

Well, there is a subtle difference between a cricket lover and an Indian cricket lover. An Indian cricket lover is “more than a patriot”. He is a dreamer…..

Few places in the world would witness a huge roar when Rahul Dravid gets out….not because we want Rahul to get out (we literally pray for him) but love to see the mix of fear and amazement in the eyes of the opposition who are confused in their faith of God…since all the attributes attached to the never seen God are suddenly surfacing in a stadium with 100000 people chanting his name – SACHIN, SACHIN, SACHIN and you have no way out……

Are these mad people in the stadium not genuine cricket lovers………????????????????

They don’t understand the importance of losing Rahul Dravid’s wicket. Neither do they understand the pitch nor do they care about reverse swing or give a shit about how many left arm spinners the opponent team has?

 Is my mom not a cricket lover because she is not well versed with the technicalities of the game but has spent more than half of her prayers in her lifetime praying for India to win, for Sachin to score a century? Can those crowds in Eden Gardens no longer be called cricket lovers because they couldn’t bear India losing a game and instead they threw bottles into the ground and matches were banned in Eden Garden for not displaying the spirit of game.

I think the answer lies in the title itself – A CRICKET LOVER

He or she is a lover first…..and love is unconditional. A mom has the right to scold her son because she loves him but at the same time she will protect him from all troubles.

A cricket lover demands Sachin to score a century in every match but at the same time has protected him  last 22 years and stood by him during his troubled times. Analysts and cricketing greats kept raising the question – should Sachin retire?

And only two people stood beside him – Sachin and Indian cricket lover

An Indian cricket lover never understands the conditions just like a mother who will never understands the job her son is doing……but nevertheless when it comes to any joyous occasion, celebration  or sad news, the son first shares the news with his mom.

It was very evident on 2^nd of April, 2011 when the Indian cricket team shared the tears of joy with their most loved family – THE INDIAN CRICKET LOVER.