CricketCrazyPri

I've been cricket crazy ever since i can remember. As a kid i grew up watching Kapil Dev.....i drank lots of Boost cause it was the secret of his energy supposedly...I played cricket with my neighbourhood kids.....i wasn't any good at it but i loved the game. I loved to watch it, i loved listening to Gavaskar and Boycott...as i grew older i learned to appreciate Bhogle and Greg Chappel (this was of course before he decided to become coach and turn everything in Indian cricket upside down)....... I remember getting so frustrated everytime Mohinder Amarnath mispronounced Dravid's name (rahul dray vid) ..........I remember when people wanted Kapil to retire i was still a small kid and i never understood it... i remember that awesome match against Australia in the Chinnaswamy stadium where Kumble and Srinath scored the winning runs.....i remember my dad making me leave as soon as Sachin got out and the crowd started getting wild.....it was my first time watching a game in the stadium and i didn't want to leave even though it looked like we were gonna lose. I remember walking to the carpark and asking the security guards along the way who were listening to the commentary on their transistors "uncle score enu?" I remember driving home through the crazy traffic on MG.Road and people coming out of the stadium yelling India..............India............India............ and i remember thinking no way!!! we won???????? how in the world????
I remember the Titan cup final against South Africa when Kumble took wicket after wicket and the crowd cheered "kumbleee kumbleeeeeeee clap clap clap"... i remember doing that cheer in class the next day and banging on the desk for the clap clap clap part .......i remember the teacher walking in with a look of utter disgust on her face... I remember having to stand for the next hour with the class as punishment for this atrocious behavior! I remember all those awesome Sahara cups between India and Pakistan where Dada was invincible........in his batting and bowling...........i remember coming back from tuitions and having a bath and getting all ready to watch the matches (they started at 7pm)........i remember fighting with my classmates about Dravid and why even though he was a slow batsmen and he 'wasted' so many balls as they called it.....why it was so important he remained in the odi team ....I remember crying when we had the Pakis 5 wkts down in an Asia cup match and it started to rain and the match was called off. i remember telling my dad "pa but Venkatesh Prasad took all those wickets......will it stay on his bowling record?"I remember my dad coming home with a tri coloured cake the day of the India Australia match during world cup '99 and finding me bawling in my room cause we were 5 wkts down for some 50 odd runs and it meant the end of the world cup for us. I remember hoping it would stop raining and the electricity would come back that first day of the first match of World cup 99.....we weren't even playing it... it was Srilanka(the last world cup winners) vs England (the hosts)..........just the excitement before every tournament....... The sheer excitement when we were getting close to a win.........the thrill of actually winning......the sound of the neighbours bursting crackers right after (i always wondered how they had this year round supply of crackers ready to burst..) I remember when Sachin came to my School on Sports day...... i remember sort of touching the corner of his shirt and almost getting crushed in the crowd.........i remember lying to everyone later about how i got to shake hands with him...... I remember borrowing my dad's pager so i could get live score updates at school.....i remember writing the score on the black board for my classmates and erasing it before the teacher saw it.........i remember making my parents buy me 'cricket today' and 'wisden cricket asia' magazines and then many years later driving into airlines just after buying the latest issue of Wisden cricket asia and finding my letter in the letter to editors section......i wanted to scream..........they'd published it........really??? my silly letter???? I remember Irfi's first wicket... it was super early in the morning and i yelled so loud my entire household woke up... I remember VVS Laxman's three consecutive hundreds in Australia... one more beautiful than the other.......I remember the fun Sharjah matches and Jadeja's sixes at the end.....I remember Eden gardens and the semi finals where i refused to accept the forfeiture of the match........I remember March 23rd 2003 when right after the national anthem i saw Zak bowling wide after wide and no ball after no ball and thinking to myself this isn't a good start.......I remember weeping in the interval thinking there's no way we can chase that mammoth score......... I remember washing my face and coming back to watch the chase believing in my heart that it was not impossible...But we lost that day like we have so many times......I know it's just a game but by god its a freakin awesome game.......and its so worth it.........all that bunking... and giving up sleep ......fighting with cable tv guys and with God (why why why does this always happen to India?) ...........all that ........all worth it...........after all my most cherished childhood memories.........are all cricket related!!!