A game of cricket...

Well high time i wrote something about cricket since I think/read(newspaper/cricinfo.com)/talk(lunch/tea/dinner/news time) about this atleast once a day... The "/" means it might be at any of those times and doesn't mean ALL of that every day!

You would say , dude, its impossible not to be touched by cricket in this nation! But I give you an example of my cousin Mahesh who is untouched by any teeny weeny thing to do with cricket and almost lives like he is in Europe - every cell of his body thinks/talks football ! Anyway, Mahesh, if you are reading this, thats the amount of awe, surprise, dedication and appreciation I have for you.

Anyway, my recent memories of cricket include India and Sri lanka playing whenever I went to channel 107 and after a while I completely stopped that as it was so freaking boring. I mean every player, his wife and kids in the 11 and the 15 and the 'A' team from one side knew every player, his wife and kids in the 11 and the 15 and 'A' side from the other side. It was as tedious as you reading the previous line. Seriously!

On the other hand, I loved and I tell you I really really loved watching Dale Steyn bowling to the haughty Englishmen and lately, our own Indian fellas. I had previously got this feeling only when I watched Allan Donald bowl to the Waughs or Wasim Akram bowling to the Aussies. 99% of my body wants to be a fast bowler(1% wants to be a batsman who wants to play with a straight bat :D) and watching Steyn when he is at his best is like eating the best Masala Dosa in the world and relishing every bit,nibble and byte of that! yumm...

Ahh, let me not forget , I like this guy Manish Pandey, provides me with the same restlessness and tension that I had when I used to watch my all time favorite Brian Charles Lara. His Ranji Trophy final exploits should have been enough to make him play instead of Saha against SA but the selectors didn't think so . Pity them. Anyway coming to Brian Charles Lara, I followed these doctrines :
1. Never watch him play live as he always gets out. Remember several such occasions. One was in the 3rd test against Australia he was batting on 182 when I switched on the TV and did my yahoo and told my dad that he is batting and immediately, the next ball , he nicked Colin Miller to first slip !! Unbelievable.
2. Always watch highlights whatever time it is coz' he is worth it. Watch the 90 runs he made against Aus in late 90s where he took 90 balls for his 1st 50 and 20 balls for the next 40 and obviously won the game!

One of my dreams was to visit Trinidad and that actually came true and I saw where he practiced his cricket, which school he went to, his memorial, got a memorabilia and finally missed meeting him by a day or so as he was out of the country!

Finally, last evening I played cricket at the office nets where people just gather in numbers after 4.30 to play. I think I might have bowled 15 overs for an hour and a half. I never probably was more irritated with my bowling before ! Every ball was down the leg side - whatever I did it didn't help for the first 30 mins. It slowly improved and finally got a couple of nicks and then bowled a good bouncer, got a guy beaten and gave him one of those fast bowler STARES and then got him nicking again and then stopped as I wanted that good feeling to stay within me...

Seemingly very long post but hey I have missed IPL...hold your horses ,thats going to come soon as well :)

Cheers!