cricket,india and me

the words cricket, India and I may sound simple enough but the ramifications they have created in the nervous system is quite mind boggling. my journey into this world started quite like Iqbal(not the saint i am talking about but the protagonist of the movie by Nagesh Kukunoor) with India winning the world cup when i was still in my mother's womb but since she was not enthusiastic enough or from the other side she was sagacious enough that she didn't take the trouble of doing a bhangra number with me inside(another advantage of being a Bengali-Bengali women are not encouraged to dance whatever may be the reason but let me not stray )-hence unlike the protagonist i came to this world very normal and very healthy . however the seeds of cricket fanfare has been sown in my nerves. When I was a little kid the game appeared quite a mystery to me with 11 and two very mysterious men going after 2 very innocent men who were so afraid that they came about wrapped up in all the areas they could fathom worth protecting. However that was when I was a little kid and soon I started understanding the game and when I saw there were enough possibilities of retribution with the two mysterious men switching sides in the crucial juncture I realized that the game was not that bad after all. and from the day I could identify the man named Tendulkar there has been no looking back.

But being an Indian Cricket fan is not easy at all which has its fair share of misfortunes and plain bad days. Wins were sporadic and defeats were embarrassing-still i hung in there with my faith intact in the short curly haired man and his wielding willow. watching that man play gave a strange sense of satisfaction-and for that only i had to take great pains fighting off the burlesques and cynicisms and all sorts of tantrums- i took them as a personal affront and hence a duty to ward the stupid people off. the days when he delivered were nothing less than euphoria for me for i walked around like a proud father with an expression i knew he would do well. But he didn't deliver always and during most of those days India fared quite badly. He didn't take the responsibility on his square shoulders - rather i did(not that of the defeat but that he would do well in the next match and make sure that India soar like him and not tremble with a sore foot)

india played badly in most of the tests and one-dayers that they played during the years 92 to 96 loosing, as far as i can recall most of them and winning a few, that too at home. Ours wins at home however is attributable to the performances of our spinners headed by kumble and sometimes by raju, chauhan and others. however the faith that we as a fan place on our team gets mysteriously renewed before every match and we foolish mortals hope that this team our team is going to come on top with flying colors. even if we are beaten badly we tend to think of a good show at the next test match-not in the likes of securing a respectable draw but more in the lines of taking a bloody revenge and scoring a huge win with our top players all getting hundreds and specially sachin scoring a double or for that matter a triple-who cares as long as he delivers.+
the results seldom match with our hopes but when they do we are at the top of the world and when they don't - well there's always a next time.

1996-world cup in India-nows our real chance to win a second one-that sachin was in prime form scoring a ton against Kenya in the India opener-it doesn't matter that the Kenyan were the first timers in the 96 event what matters is that sachin scored a ton. and then we defeated Pakistan in the quarters.....what matters more is that srinath and prasad bowled well...we were in the semis and there were no stopping us..we were on the top of the top.....well almost..until reduced to 120 for 8 at eden gardens after being set a target of 250.play stopped and sri lanka went to the finals and we trudged our way back to the square 1 ......(continues)