How I learned to stop worrying and love the game.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a very strange girl. Well, the others thought her strange. Reason? She thought that a certain sport - cricket -was NOT the greatest thing invented by man since potato chips or the Swiss Army knife. The girl happened to be me.

My papa and brother obviously loved the game. Somehow I never took a liking to it unlike WWF or football. The never ending discussions of run rate and average and ODI rankings at home, school, shops, clinics, bus stops, marriages, et al. bored me to tears. A few of my friends were crazy about it, and whenever the discussion about last night's match came up, I just had to nod my head and listen. Or in case I was feeling devilish, make comments like "Hey why do they run back like scared crows whenever it rains? I’ve seen foot ball games that continue even in snow!" Or "Hey can u play a match without all this gear? Helmet and knee pads and stumps and cheerleaders...".[Typical obnoxious behavior on my part to argue about things I don’t care about at all].

Then it happened that some of my team mates were having a cricket tourney and invited me to play with them. So I said, instead of being an empty talker, let’s see what the big deal is about really. So I went to cricket practice for a week. Turns out, bowling has too much technique and all I did was chuck. Turns out, batting involves holding that wooden willow bat [duh], which is damn heavy. Turns out, fielding involved having extremely good reflexes and being quick in throwing long distance, and worse at the right side of the pitch[!] accurately. Hmmm, so not so easy after all. And surprisisngly, nowhere close to boring as it seems on TV.

Being pathetic at batting and bowling, I was told to just learn to do fielding.

“Like Jonty Rhodes!”, I exclaimed. We did fielding practice standing in a circle as is the fashion, and it was totally fun. I got sun burns on the first day, but then it was not considered wimpy to use sun screen.

Bowling was and is a very distant dream for me. I still cannot hold it in just between my two fingers and the thumb - too painful. Plus it creeped me out to touch the ball after so many had rubbed their saliva into it. Yuck.

Batsmen are the ones who get all the glory and the fame, but one should know to judge the incoming ball within seconds and the way to swing it at the right moment and the right angle - not something you can learn in a week or for some, even a lifetime. A Sachin is not born every day.

While practicing some memories came back to me. Having a brother meant I would play catch everyday from 4 to 7. He would throw the small cricket ball really high, sometimes I would lose sight of it in the blue clouds and the white sky. [I could never reach that height no matter how hard I tried :(]. I had to catch it right each time, no matter how hard it hit my palm; else he would get bugged and call me a stupid girl! Come to think of it, all of them here were kids somehow, these sportsmen too: big boys playing this silly bat and ball game, like it really was something very serious and important.

Still I was fascinated that they could play so well and so easily. But then as my friend said, it’s what they have been doing 24 hours since they could walk and talk. It’s second habit for any guy in India - eat cricket, drink cricket, sleep cricket.

We played two matches and lost both. But it was okay. Since I had never played a team sport before, I caught a fleeting glimpse of what it means to be in a cricket team.Who gets to open the batting, who fields where; strategy huddles even with just the last two overs remaining. Criticism, claps on the back, celebrations at the fall of a wicket, sledging even. Always the captain and the wicket keeper encouraged [now I know why they yell so much after each and every ball]. How to take 11 players and make one great team. And one hell of an experience.

Lesson learned: Maybe cricket isn’t so boring after all. [Next time I shall think twice before saying anything about any game or sport.I'm sure now that golf is a great sport and is very useful].

I just played two matches, and already I think it’s a pretty neat game. And one catch I took is still talked about with respect :). Someday I plan to watch a test match live for the full 5 days.

For the controversies on and off field, it might beat all games present hands down. From body line [my fave] to Cronje to Woolmer to Indian coaches to metal bats to sledging to racism to slapping-crying to streaking, it has it all. And now cheerleaders too.Though for me, a lot remains to be learnt. Like why Ravi Shastri would sit on the pitch and describe for full 20 minutes, the amount of dead grass and the cracks on it; or why people hate Monsieurs Duckworth and Lewis.

I shall definitely pay attention at the next discussion over cricket. Anyways, social acceptance increases if you can discuss something about last night’s game or any upcoming game. The best ice breaker between strangers in India is to discuss cricket. As easy as that. Now I shall stop writing. I have to go watch the one hour pre match analysis of India vs Australia ODI. Another cricket couch advisor is born \m/.