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Ball, Bat, Bails and Life Lessons

My heart was missing several beats over the past five minutes. It would have missed even further. It was choking as well. The one that didn't miss, was pounding hard. Wasn't able to breathe easy. Couldn't even manage a smile. Anxious and nervous. The face stoic. Almost expressionless. Deceptive.

As I watched the monitor, I looked at the digital chrono on the screen. Another 7 minutes for the scheduled close. There! Another beat missed. And then came the final blow! And the heart exploded to a joy. I looked around. Nobody there. I managed a smile.

Five days of agony. And India had won!

For those who don't understand what that means, "Welcome to the life called Cricket." For those who say "Cricket? And Life? Bollocks!", I have just two words "Fuck Off!!!" And my middle finger to you as well Mr. Bernard Shaw! Some asses with a gift of words, seldom have gift of sense.

Cricket may not be the most beautiful game, for it is not about gimmicks and show offs. It certainly isn't any short. Even the shortest form runs for almost 4 hours. Test matches will be played for eternity. It isn't for the cheap thrills or the quick flings. It takes, as said earlier, an eternity.

It isn't just a sport. It is more than that. It reflects life. And life doesn't get over in jiffy. And nothing worthwhile ever gets over in a whiff.

Football may be the largest of sporting religions in this planet. Tennis might have larger fan following. Motorsports might make us "uzzz'' and "fizz". Basketballs may look sexy. So does Pamela. But then, greatness isn't about being "large", or "quick" or "sexy". It is about what it tells us and teaches us. What is being tested and how it is being tested. It is about what is being offered.

No other sport, ever matches cricket in terms of quantum of abilities and other endowments being tested. Football is more about skill. Yes it is also about stamina. There is grace. I admit. I have to, for I watched God in mercurial Zidane some four years back. It is one exceptional sport. But it is no match for cricket. Test cricket to be specific. And here is why.

Is there any sport, where the enrivonmental conditions have such a significant influence on the course of play? To my knowledge, no.

Consider this: Different types of pitches - some are flat, some are turners, some are pacers heaven, some are swingers den, some support skidding, some play slow, some play 'true'. Different sizes of grounds - a six hit in Eden Gardens would clear the Auckland Cricket ground by some ten miles. Adelaide Oval has got the among longest boundary straight down, and shortest squarer the wicket. Some grounds are oval shaped. Some round. Some look squarish.

There is the ball. Dukes. Kookaburra. The bat. Light weight. Medium Weight. Heavy Weight. The handle length. The variety of shoes for the player.

Is there any sport, which has so very very vastly different playing conditions? Again, no. (Except for Golf may be). Different climatic conditions. Some assist swing. Some supports drift. Some helps batting. Few helps bowling. And then, there is the grass, the outfield. Fast. Smooth. And what not. And I am not done with the various other factors. Playing conditions determines the choice of players. Nature of pitch affects the team composition. Six Batsmen Four Bowler or Five Batsmen Five Bowlers.

Then comes the fielding and field placements. Where to place them? Where to place whom? What decides these factors? Again the pitch, the bowler, the batsman, the direction of the wind, condition of the ball and the match position, to name a few.

And then, there are the players. What a wide variety of actions, styles, and mannerisms. Short run up and a smooth action of Wasim is one of the most pleasing sights from Cricket. So is Glenn Mc Graths. Shoaib Akhtar's run up is one of the most dramatic prelude to fast bowling. Sanath taking guard or Srikkanth's batting stance are equally interesting to watch. Who can ignore the helicopter shot of Dhoni? Or the brutual clubbing of Vivian? Nudges of Bevan? And of course, there is God - Sachin.

You have a variety of characters. Despite being a non-contact sport, cricket symbolizes war, and life. We are not speaking of battles; the gunslinger's five second shoot out preceded by feverish anticipation. We are not speaking about entertainment values. Just about War and Life. There is this stare from the bowler. There is this non-chalance (or is it indifference) from the batsmen. There is this "booohs" and "Ohh!" from the audience. There is this fancy umpiring antics. Each has his style of playing and expressing his anger and anguish. Celebration and ecstasy.

Is there any sport which tests persevearance? Who can forget that epic spell that Ishant bowled to Ponting at his pomp? What about Shakib Hasan and Mutihiah Muralidharans epic spells of non stop bowling? What about Gautam Gambhirs back to the wall batting to save a test match in New Zealand? Is there any sport, where there can be four results (Winning, Losing, Draw and a Tie), with each of them equally good. Sometimes, draw is a victory. Recent Test matches between England and South Africa yielded two of the finest drawn test matches, sending suspense dramas to the bin.

And people who speak about stamina not being tested in the cricket, consider this: Hanif Mohamad batted for a whopping 970 minutes in a cricket field in West Indies. Recently, Hasim Amla had a marathon innings at Kolktata ranging almost 8 hours over two days. Dhoni often spends a cool 15 to 20 hours in the cricket field over three four days. Squatting, standing, jumping, batting, running. This is excluding the amount of mental activity that goes on his head. Who to bowl, what field to place so on and so forth. Muralitharan has bowled non stop in a day.

That brings us to strategy. Cricket, to my knowledge, is among the finest example of a sport demanding war like strategy. Mind games and tremendous amount planning goes into the game. You cannot leave your heads at home and get into the game. You have to plan. You have to execute. You have to have alternative plans. You cannot simply rely on speed and skills alone. You prepare to wait. Your strategies results in opportunities which can be capitalized. You intentionally lose a battle to win a game. You lead the opposition to destruction. You often chart your path to glory destroying few adversaries. (Remember Saqlain Mushtaq? Remember that triple ton at Multan?) Often reputations are destroyed. Newer ones created.

Management Decision Making needs a lesson or two from Cricket. Principles of "Right Man for the Right Job" is often practically applied in Cricket. Horses for Courses. Swinger for Swinging Tracks. Spinners for Dustbowl. Blockers for Pacers heaven. Cross batted batsman for bouncing pitches. Straight batted ones for flatter tracks.

Even batting styles are required to be modified. You cannot play the same way always in all places. Wickets fall around. Bat patiently. Flat track, go blast. Pitch is bad, go for the swing, don't rely on the bounce. Pitch is solid, mix up your deliveries. Aggressive Gambhir toned down for Wellington. Sedate yet busy Sachin, exploded at Johannesberg.

Strategy and key decision making reminds me of an instant heard from a friend of mine long back. A test match. Between Pakistan and some other opposition. Imran Khan the captain. Pakistani team was trailing in the first innings by some 70 odd runs, and Imran Khan declared the innings! Reason: The conditions at that point of time seemed to favour the bowler. He took the new ball and with his fellow pacers, destroyed the opposition and ended up winning the match.

Mere fan following cannot be an indicator of how good or great a sport is. I consider Golf, Boxing and Tennis as among the other sports which are worthy runners to the Cricket.

I can go on endlessly speaking about cricket. For this is the greatest game on this planet. For this is the only sport I understand.

Comments

Unknown said…
Is the last line of the post the reason for the post itself?
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sundar Raman said…
True, this game of cricket helps you to read the person as well...

1. by asking a person to hold the bat and play couple of shots you can read his confidence

2. to field and find hw fast he his...

3. leader qualities a person possess.

But of recent, I find those whose heart is cricket, day in and day out their life is cricket, those who watch ball by ball test cricket, they hardly impose these qualities.
Ketan said…
Hi Saimukundhan!

You've put forth a very strong case for cricket, not that it was required in my case at least! ;)

I'd been trained in badminton, and yet I've to say cricket is much more exciting to watch on TV. After reading your post (when it was published), I was thinking of the reason could be psychological. There is a less of suspense element in badminton, in the sense you can see in one camera frame itself what is happening, whereas cricket is one of the very few sports where you don't know what will happen next till the ball after being hit is traced by the same camera or some other.

Also, you're right about the amount of variation. Motorsport becomes so very monotonous to look at. Whereas, in cricket every bowler's action is so different. Imagine, Shoaib, Brett Lee and Shane Bond despite bowling at comparable speeds have such differing bowling actions.

BTW, bowling actions I've liked the best were of Allan Donald, Jason Gillespie (older action), Danny Morrison (weird action, but used to like it), Damien Fleming (hope you remember!), Ata-ur-Rehman and recently Dale Steyn.

Even batting styles are so distinct - one can make out a batsman merely from style of strokeplay! When Sehwag had just entered cricket I'd found it difficult to distinguish him from Tendulkar (okay, don't hate me for that!). Meaning, Tendulkar on the cricket field is recognized more by his strokeplay rather than his face (which can hardly be seen through the helmet).

But yes, I've to shamelessly admit I enjoy T20 much more than test cricket.

I've one fond memory attached with cricket. I've hardly played with the cork ball. Once in practice before college tournament, I was bowling, and one of the classmates told me - "Panchal your bowling is very accurate, but it is very slow and easy to hit". I knew he was merely provoking me, and I allowed myself to get provoked. Next bowl - I could only see the bowl pitch and the next thing I saw was the batsman's spects flying, and blood oozing like tap water from his left eye brow. To my own surprise I felt no remorse and rather pleased and proud. Then on, everyone started wearing helmet! Then next over another batsman (out of Mumbaikar v/s localite rivalry) was taunting me - "Daal KC (my nick in college), daal". First ball his leg stump flew away; I was delighted. Next ball he'd charged down one-fourth the length of the pitch, and the ball hit him in chest. And everyone started wearing chest guard! ...
Ketan said…
But anyway, I was not taken into the team (politics).

I hardly allow my aggression to show except for while bowling and in badminton. But this level of ruthlessly sadistic pleasure I could gain from someone else's pain had shocked me. I never knew it was in me to be like that! So in that sense bowling helped me discover a latent part of me. :)

After that event localites started taking me more seriously even off-field! ;) This shows the power of cricket in India.

But I'm a bad batsman, especially on leg side. Probably it's got something to do with my fear of the ball.

So here's where I would disagree with Sundar (and not because I'm bad at batting). I think every person has certain expertise. I've seen good batsman having stage fright. Also good orators being pathetic batsmen. Tendulkar and Jayasurya hold their bats very differently, but I would not say talent-wise one is very different from the other. I find strokeplay of Virat Kohli and Dravid very similar, but their temperaments are polar opposites!

I've noticed and am sure you too must have, a trend in current generation to badmouth cricket. These are the people who like football or motorsport better.

Many, I feel do it only because of the glamor associated with the sports (what innerwear a footballer's wife/girlfriend wears becomes major news in sports' section!), whereas cricketers in India are largely from middle class background who even struggle with their English and are not fashionistas.

But there are some who genuinely are more passionate about football than cricket. I think this has something to with prioritization in life. Those liking football better are 'outcomes'-people, i.e., bothered more about the final outcome, whereas, those liking cricket better are 'processes'-people, i.e., more interested in the process that leads to the outcome. I'm not saying which one is better, but former are more likely to be alright with by 'hook-or-by-crook' methods. Of course, this can make them more successful in the final analysis. Imagine, in football pretending being hurt by opposition and getting them yellow-carded is a 'skill' (which football fans don't find disgusting), whereas in cricket call tampering is a big sin (except according to Ramiz)! ;)

Somehow the recent hockey world cup didn't excite me at all!

Enjoyed reading and commenting! ;)

And your knowledge of sports in general is really impressive. :)
G Saimukundhan said…
@@ Hi Shravan,

the reasons for the last line is detailed in the entire post. I understand cricket because, it is the only sensible sport to my knowledge. Capable of being understood, that is. The statement of mine is not a reason, but a conclusion.


Thanks for your comments. Sorry for the terribly delayed response.

Cheers

Sai
G Saimukundhan said…
@@ Sundar,

I am a reckless batsman, and believe that I am a better bowler. I swing my bat a la Javagal Srinath or Harbhajan Singh. If you try looking for any confidence, you may find one. On a closer look, you'll realize it is absolute apathy towards batting that I have. Having said that I have been pounded for four sixes in a over during my school days, inter class cricket.

And I was never agile or quick. I was super slow, and invariably had a runner (classmates who wouldn't pass the exams without my support).

I admit, confidence certainly shows up in the way one handles his "domain" (u love this term, don't you?) There is certain degree of non-chalance. They are not perturbed by the opponents. Viv Richards, Sachin, Dhoni, Mc Grath are great examples.

True. Of late, many people who watch test cricket, rarely impose these qualities in their personal life. As much as watching "T20" is the new cool, equally cool is to say "I LOVE TEST MATCH", "I AM A TRADITIONAL". Idhellam naamam poatundu US'Burger saaptindu la vela paarkra maadhiri.

Cheers
G Saimukundhan said…
@@ Ketan,

Good to note that you loved bowling (or atleast you were better at bowling than at batting). I never played any serious cricket (i.e. representing school team and all). Only once I attempted trying to get selected for my College team. Six balls two wickets later in the selection process, I was sent out because, I tried bowling spin (they already had lot of spinners), I was not a good batsman, and most importantly, I was not serious about playing cricket professionally for our college. I was wearing "bathroom" slippers for the trials.

Never tried thereafter for any serious cricket.

Very interesting observation you have brought out in your comment. "Outcome" people and "Process" people. Never thought in those lines. But, process leads to result, and process involves head, mostly, if not always. My primary motivation to make a post on this was to highlight cricket requires intelligence, and not just fancy antics or skills.

During school days, I used to bowl aping a flop English Bowler Paul Jarvis and Allan Donald. Somehow found their actions to be very impressive and beautiful. Never became one though. A post on Shane Bond is in draft mode for over a year now. I respect that man for the sheer talent he has and integrity which is a rare commodity in most of the players.

And Yes. The recent hockey world was Yuck! Couldn't enjoy one bit. Didn't even bother to follow who is playing and who is winning. As usual, the media went ga ga over the first victory over pakistan, and started whining and offering billion reasons for the whitewash Indian team face thereafter.

Thanks for the comments and cheers

G Saimukundhan

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