Cricket, India and I

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This is a 1898 photograph from Udupi where some high school boys are playing cricket.

58 years after the formation of the first county cricket club Sussex. 54 years after the first ever international cricket game between the USA and Canada.34 years after the great W G Grace made his first class debut.  31 years after a team of Australian Aborigines toured England in what was the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas. 21 years after an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches.8 years after the constitution of official County Championship in England, in what is now known as the Golden Age of cricket, these boys, oblivious of all these things are playing cricket in kacche panche and topies just like Swami and his Friends

Lord Harris in his A Few Short Runs (1921) said,  That cricket is going to stay in India there cannot be a shadow of a doubt; it has taken hold all over the country, and chokras can be seen playing in every village with any sort of old bat and ball that they can lay hands on.  Lord Harris, as Siddhu would have said hits the nail on its head and cricket has not only stayed in India but has grown from strength to strength. Like countless Indians growing up in 90's, cricket had a very significant impact on my growing up.

My earliest memories of cricket is the 1987 world cup finals. I have vague memories of Australians going around the stadium and David Boon’s mush. Then I remember Austrailasia cup and Atul Bedade [ of all the people, I donno why]

I studied in a school called Holy Saint English School in Jayanagar, Bangalore. When I was in first standard we had an alumni of the school as our guest. He was a thin tall ‘uncle’ with large spectacles. I remember my grandmother telling me he is a cricketer called Anil Kumble. He had given us chocolates. After that it was a matter of pride for sometime to boast that I belong to his school or rather he studied in my school, whenever he came on TV.

Then there was Hero cup, Sachin Tendulkar’s magic over had snatched the victory from Kepler Wessels et al. The finals was on a Ganesh Chaturti day and India had batted first and had scored a mediocre total. We left for the puja place after some time there were fireworks around. I rushed back home to find that India had beaten the West Indies. Anil Kumble’s success in a way became my sucess. I boasted around saying “he is from my school.”

I really started following the game in Azaruddin’s era. Hero cup gave me an hero in Anil Kumble. Then came Rahul Dravid, whose batting style I desparately tried to imitate [partially successful].and was nicknamed Dravid in school.

 I have done crazier things for cricket than any other things, will mentiona few here....

• Stood in the rain watching match in a TV showroom
• Prayed for people to get back to form
• Running to the shop near school during breaks to ask for scores
• Remembering people like Nolan Clark who debuted at the age of 47 for Holland in 1996
• Making a FM radio from an electronic model set inside a soap box to listen to the commentry[while i was in boarding school where cricket was a taboo]
• Smuggling sport star to the hostel 
• Doing extra things and homework early so as to get myself an extra serving of cricket during matches
• Carefully scheduling a stomach ache or a head ache during key matches
• Sssociating events with matches – I would remember things by associating it with cricket matches– like 2 days before the titan cup finals…. the day when Kambli scored a double hundred etc etc. ..

With all the fancy hype about T20, I wonder if this was the game that made me go crazy. I dont know, if I can identify with the game like the way I did after Kumble, Rahul and Sachin. I donno if cricket will be cricket or rather I donno if I am the same ‘I'
photo from Bassel Mission Archives video from Youtube