Category: Cricket

Letter 8 / 3 Nov 2018. On Cricket.

This is an edited version of a letter than I sent to a closed mailing list. I try to write one everyday to a select set of people. Should you want to get one in your mailbox, please do let me know. The first letter is here. A complete archive is here.
So, I played cricket today. Properly. Bowled, batted and all that. Must have played after a year. And back then, about a year ago, when I played, I would’ve played after decades. With a S. More than one. Serious.

Here are the things that I take away from the experience. Lol. Experience 🙂

A. I enjoy physical activity. I love to move around.
And contrary to what people close to me believe, I am not inherently lazy – its the heat that has made me lazy. And I hate wearing shoes or too many clothes. If I could live in a cold country, I promise I would dress up well and even wear shoes. And I would love to move around.

B. My game sucks.
Of course there are no surprises. If it dint suck, I wouldnt be here. Writing about the experience. But today, it sucked so bad that I am embarrassed. Well, I have never been a batsman but I used to be a pretty handy bowler. And I was a brilliant fielder if nothing else. While I bowled ok today, and batted as expected, I was probably the worst fielder that I have ever been. There was no hand-eye coordination, something that I have been proud of all my life. I MUST improve. And no, I cant really “practise” but I need to get better. May be if I get regular things will improve?

C. My fitness sucks more than I suck at the game.
If I dont get regular and dont improve, I guess it will be ok. I am anyway way past my prime and I cant even imagine playing at the highest levels. But the game today made me realise how unfit I am. And at all levels. Thankfully I wasnt really panting (maybe I dint run too much?) but I couldve run faster, been more agile, fielded better! And after the game, each part of the body was hurting. And hurting as in HURTing. If I had a “functional” home, I would have sprayed myself all over with some painkiller or something. I even wished I had a masseuse to ease the pain. And although its past 11 (and thus about 12 hours since the game ended), my ankles, tendons, calves, knees and the back still hurt like crazy. Well, the Achilles tendon and the knee’s been giving me problems for some time but the calf and the back is new. Side note. When I wear the Nike sneakers, the pain is little bearable. I need to wear them more often, once the weather becomes bearable.

In fact, here’s a lesson. Things that connect you to the ground (Earth), you MUST not compromise and invest into getting the best possible alternative.

A few things that “connect” you to the ground are mattress (and the bed), shoes, chairs, footwear etc.

I dont recall where I read this first but more I think about this, more sense it makes. Its cool if you want to buy a cheap phone, shabbily made dress etc. But your feet take the most of the grunt in the day. You better have great shoes. And no, not fancy or goodlooking ones. But functional ones. And the only two brands that I recommend are Nike and Crocs. Ditto for mattress. And chair. Think about it. Use logic.

D. I love my mornings! I may claim to love nights but I love my mornings even more. To the point that the day my mornings dont go as per plan, the entire day is wasted. Take today for example. In my scheme of things, mornings are not meant for exercise et al. But then a game like Cricket requires a team and for most others, morning is where fitness takes priority!

Coming back. The days I cant get up early and step out of the house and get some things done, I feel terrible and the entire day gets “wasted”. I mean today, all I have done is write for a bit, worked on SoG for a bit and agonised in the pain inflicted by the minuscule amount of cricket that I played!

If I were to club A, B and D, I need to probably find a sport that makes me move around and can be played at afternoons. Or late evenings.

And you could try and understand if you are a morning person or a night person. How do you find out? Not through what you love. But as Charlie says, invert! Question to ask yourself is, “fucking what part of the day affects you the most?” For me, its the morning! You?

E. Sports bonds people like nothing else.
The people I played with, they were probably aged between 20 and 45. And from different backgrounds, interest areas, personalities, varying degree of proficiency and all that. But while playing, most of them had the single-minded focus of the game. And they could do whatever for their team to win. They dint think about their differences and they came together to focus on the game!

Can I take lessons and use sports as as tool to make my team at C4E and all other initiatives more tight-knit?

I have seen team-building games in action at most of the events that I have worked on as an event manager but most clients do it as mere lip-service. They do it once a year and hope for miracles. Can I use create an ongoing intervention that makes my team come closer? Need to think.

And, having said that, I know that sports can also create great divides. I saw it happen today. And we all know about “enmity” between fans of competing teams! So, need to put some thought!

So yeah, thats about it for the day.

Over and out.

Dear Shikhar Dhawan

Dear Shikhar Dhawan,

To start with, I love your batting. Really do. And I love your body language, your raw masculine appeal, and despite being a heterosexual male, your mustache. So much so that I wanted to grow mine to ape your style. Never before a physical trait of an individual has impressed me so much that I was willing to ape it. Your’s I was. But thanks to paucity of time, I could not.

I am grateful I could not.

You know why I am grateful? Because I am ashamed of you because of what you did on the field today and I dont want anything to do with you. Afterall they say a man is known by the company he keeps (or people he chooses to emulate).

Shikhar, I am also ashamed to have you as a part of the team that represents India, my country. A country where guests are greater than the God himself. A country where guests are welcomed with open arms and open hearts. What you did today was not something that a true Indian would do. If I could, I would throw you out of the country. And never let you back.

Shikhar, it was totally uncalled for. I understand that you are young and restless and emotions run wild while you are on the field. I know all the media frenzy and attention from young damsels can ruffle you. For a minute I am ready to even consider that they are masters of sledging and they could have instigated you in the first place. But Shikhar, we do not stoop down to their level. No sir, we do not. I guess while you were growing up, you did were not taught moral science. Which school did you go to again? I bet you skipped all the civics and moral science classes.

Someone may dismiss your actions as an immature act of a child while at play. But Shikhar you can no longer afford to be a child. You have a great responsibility on your shoulders. You represent India at the highest level of a game that everyone follows. Everytime you twirl that mustache of yours, millions of younger Indians take note. And your every action is like a fodder to young and impressionable brains of the next generation. I hate to see young Indians becoming ruder and irreverent while growing up. Shikhar, for a minute imagine your younger brother doing that you while you are playing a friendly match in your galli.

Anyway, despite claiming to be a writer, I am a man of few words. And most of my words are rants rather than fact based editorials. So anything I add henceforth in this letter would only be gibberish. Just that I want you to know that while the match was on, I frantically prayed that we, India, lost the match. And I sincerely hoped that the blame fell on your head. So that someone could put some sense into you. Someone has to. It sucks that people like you are free to roam around like loose canons.

And as a planner, someone who watches how the world is moving, I am really worried about the young India that we are creating. Being aggressive, brash is great. But being rude for no reason or without provocation is not. Even if we are instigated, there are other ways to settle the disputes. You know, we definitely need to aim for the stars but we must not forget our roots.

Shikhar, finally, thanks to you, the wonderful sport of cricket has lost yet another fan.

Regards,
An erstwhile cricket fan

P.S.: Dear Shane Watson, I apologize on Shikhar’s behalf.

Epitaph of a hero

I did it!

I have been waiting for it for over a year now. It was always so close and yet so far. Like that trek that you go for, when the summit is always just a stone’s throw away and yet you need to walk a thousand miles to be able to even touch it. You can feel it in the air, you can see it, you know you can conquer it and yet it takes you so long. Two years, in my case. Two long years.

I think more than me, everyone around me was waiting for it. Everyone I met, everywhere I went, everything I read, was invariably about it. “When are you doing it?”, “Please do it soon.”, “We cant wait.”, I started getting tired of all the comments. I know that all of them were my friends and they really want me to do it. But after a point, the words became harsh and got into a very narrow zone. It sort of became the final frontier. Its like that last thing that a man can do. It started to feel that I’d die after this. Its like my epitaph is being written and everyone’s waiting for me to etch my final words on it.

What people dint realize was that I am a mere mortal and I too have dreams. And insecurities. I too want to scale the peak. And I do get scared every time I get an opportunity. And of course more than my personal achievements, I need to fend for a larger cause. I represent a collective. I can never let my focus wander and chase personal glories. If only words could describe the pressure you are under when you have more than a billion people expecting you to entertain them and live their lives.

I think that is what it boils down to. Live their lives. More than myself, I am living lives of millions others. Everyone has the potential to do great things but they dont really get as many opportunities as I have got. I got lucky I guess. What do they call it? Ovarian Lottery I think. And when I do well, they probably see themselves doing well. They celebrate my success, as if they have played a significant part. Of course they do. A performer can never survive without patrons! And they are sad everytime I perform poorly. As if they are responsible for my failure. And no, its me, am individual that fails to perform my duty, my karma, everytime I fail. For others, if I dont do well, they can move on. I on the other hand, am left alone. To reflect on things. Trust me, someone rightly said, its really lonely at the top.

But now that I have done it, I think I can take a sigh of relief. All my life I have been measured by everyone along a long highway dotted with milestones. It took me a while but I have crossed all the milestones. And now there are no more milestones to chase, the onus is on me to set the new ones for people who would walk on this road in times to come. This is what every artist wants to be! A benchmark. A milestone on the sands of time.

And you know the best part? I can now go out and play like a kid. The way I used to, when I first walked out on a cricket pitch and had the entire ground at the mercy of my strokes.

May 24, 25: Awesome Weekend

I had the most perfect weekend that a girlfriendless guy can have. Full of sleep, Counter-Strike, Partying, Cricket Match, Travel, Eating, Shopping, Talking and Gyaan sessions.

  • Sleep: Slept for half a day. Switched off my phone for that duration. Blissfull.
  • Counter-Strike: Played CS for about 3 hours with friends from MDI at Zapak Gameplex. This is turning into a weekly thing now.
  • Partying: Met people from MDI, more people from MDI and still more people. Ate out on both days and had awesome time remembering things from past. An interesting incident happened. We were trying to remember the songs we like at MDI and I said “Bin Tere Sanam” by DJ Suketu and at that very instant it was played. Awesomeness.
  • Cricket Match: Saw Kolkata vs Chandigarh march at Rodas. Huge screen. Great place. Friends boozing and pulling pranks. Awesome finish. Brilliant.
  • Travel: Local mostly but well after mid-night. I love traveling at nights. When the entire world sleeps, you are on your way.
  • Shopping: Long overdue bout of shopping. Only thing remaining is hunting for books. Will order online today. Saratchadra Chattopadyaya.
  • Talking: Awesome conversation about history of India and how political turmoil pulled us from being the leaders of the world to a developing country.
  • Gyaan session: This is where we acted as visionaries and talked about things that could make India what it was before we were invaded.

All in all a very good weekend. Hoping for more of these.

How Zero marketing can revive Indian hockey?

Prof. Ray Titus talked about reviving Hockey on his blog here. I am copy-pasting it here …

You don’t need a marketing genius to plot how hockey can come up to cricket’s stature in India. For that matter, pin no credit to anyone in the cricket administration team (read BCCI) for cricket’s supremacy as a sport in India.

The only reason why cricket is what it is, despite being one of the most boring of sports, is ’cause that’s one game at which we are ‘world-beaters’, never mind the ‘world’ being just a few countries.

Want a resurgence in hockey? Get India to win!

Sure, that’s a tall order considering yesterday’s Olympic qualifier debacle. But its not impossible. Can the guys who manage the sport. Get in foreign coaches. Revamp the admin. team. Build astro-turfs for players to play and practice on. Bring in something akin to Corporate governance.

Again, an initial investment is needed. Well, its worth it, if that can propel India to become world beaters. If that happens, watch the moolah roll in. No marketing whiz-kids needed.

I dont really agree with him. I left a comment there. Reproducing it here …

Hi Prof. Titus,

I am mostly a silent reader of your blog and agree to most of the things that you say. However today I disagree with you.

I dont think getting more facilities and making the game professional will help the status of Hockey in India.

I think there are two huge variables in making something a mass phenomenon.

1. The network effect coupled with a feedback loop: Most people (including media) talk about the game because most people want to hear about it. And more people want to hear about it as everyone else around them is talking about it. No one wants to be left behind. Over a period of time, this network effect gets a positive feedback loop and suddenly you have a mass hysteria for something. In our case, cricket.

2. Experience: Most of the current fans of Cricket have grown up playing the game in the gullys, homes, schools etc. Most of the people have fond memories of the game and somewhere or the other they relate to the game and hence the following.

Am sure there are other things also. Please share.

Regards,
SG

P.S.: Posting this on my blog as well.

Any thoughts?

Disappointing Umpiring

The recent cricket test match between Australia and India would be in limelight for quite a few reasons.

Andrew Symonds has alleged that Harbhajan Singh abused him – racially. Then there were numerous places where umpiring went wrong. Very wrong. And for some strange reason India was at the receiving end in all these decisions. Field umpires can make mistakes, they are under stress from players and appeals and crowds but what about television umpire? Any mistakes that they make are unacceptable. In this particular test match, there have been at least 7 decisions that went against India.

To err is human and umpires are humans after all. There can’t really be a foolproof way to umpire cricket matches. On this Sunday morning, how about discussing how to improve the standards of umpiring?

Take a cue form Tennis. Players can contest one or two (don’t know the exact number) umpires’ decision (could be line calls, could be service calls etc) with the referee. Referee looks at the replay and has the power to overrule the umpire’s call. In cricket, allow captains to contest a fixed number of umpire decisions with the match referee. Match referee would have the power to over rule this decision.

Implications
Match referee would become a sort of match godfather. For all practical purposes, he still is the godfather. This is yet another power being vested with him.

The game would be interrupted for few minutes when the match referee looks at the replays and decides on the decision. The delays are norm with the television replay decisions anyways. Waiting for a few minutes to improve the standard of the game is worth the wait.

Umpires might argue that their authorities would be diminished. They might get offended if a decision is overruled. ICC needs to decide which is larger and more important – umpires and their egos or the game.

Captains and players should be happy and can use this contesting power judicially. For example if Australian team doubts that Rahul Dravid has indeed nicked a ball to the wicketkeeper and umpire has ignored their appeal, and they think Rahul Dravid is a key player, they can contest.

Any more solutions?

Sachin scroes his 38th test match century

Sachin today scored his 38th Test Match Century.

This century is very important from a lot of perspectives. For starters, he got the team out of very difficult position. From 3 for 185, he along with Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma etc. helped the team take a vital first innings lead.

This century also helped India salvage some pride in the series. India got our for less than 200, in both innings in the last test match. Team needed a strong response in this match. And they delivered.

This century would also elevate spirits of the team. Arguably Sachin, Sourav, Dravid are the best three batsmen India has at this moment. If these three score, team would be upbeat. If these guys don’t, other players are still not mature enough to stand and be counted.

For people who are superstitious, this century broke the jinx. He finally got a century after getting out seven times in nineties in 2007. It was not uncommon to see people speculating that he chokes in crunch situations. This should silence them and these critcs would take a second look at their opinion.

On personal front, he was visibly relieved to reach the milestone. He hasn’t celebrated a century in this huge a fashion in recent past. In fact in the post match interview he said “I breathed a sigh of relief as I had missed eight or nine hundreds in 2007“.

There are people who think that his illustrious past is behind him and he needs to retire. They need to read few facts, re-think and accept that the master blaster is still one of the best batsmen India has.

What remains to be seen is how India bowls in the second innings and if India can go on to win the match from here on.

Related Posts
Sachin 194*
Sachin Tendulkar – Happy Birthday