It would be blasphemy if you are an Indian and haven’t
played cricket even once. Guilty as charged, even I have played lot of cricket
since my childhood till my late 20s.
As I vividly remember, I used to visit my hometown during
school/college vacations in my teens. I, my brothers and cousins, our uncle and
few family friends used to play cricket matches in the evenings. Those matches
used to be as competitive as hell. I used to captain one side and my older brother
(one year older to me) used to captain the other side.
What can I tell about my brother; he was strongly
built, athletic, short tempered and very intimidating; while I was slender,
passionate but very calm. While we both bowled quick, he was quicker than me.
Since we used to have just 12 to 15 players, we used to play only-offside
cricket.
Well, my brother’s only mantra was to win; by hook or by
crook. He used to cleverly set the field on the off side and he used to bowl around the wickets all the time. Every single ball he bowled was
precisely on the leg stump(body line), so that the batsmen would never get any room to play
the ball to the off. If the batsman moves across thinking the ball would be a wide,
often he would see his leg stump flying off in air. If the ball missed the leg
stump, my brother never agreed that it was a wide. He would argue that since he
was bowling from around the wicket, the ball went over the leg stump and was no
way a wide ball. He made every possible attempt at misusing the rules. He
often took the bails off whenever he was about to deliver a ball and the
batsman happens to leave the crease at the non striker’s end. When the other
bowlers in his team were to ball, he always used to run from the boundary line,
come to the bowler and whisper some strategy. He did that to every single
bowler and every single time. I wondered, what new he had to whisper every
time. And when he batted he always played this reverse sweep so that he could
even connect the balls which were on the leg stump. To all, it looked as if he was
more of a left handed batsman than the right. He also always used to shuffle across the stumps
or come down the track and then go back to confuse and threaten the bowlers. If a decision didn’t go in favor of his team,
he used to pick fights and threaten to quit the game. He would also say that he
would dig up the pitch so that no one could play from the next day.
While on the other hand, I believed in fair play. I used to
believe in variety in bowling. I sometimes tried a yorker, or a slower
delivery, or a bouncer. I preferred to beat the batsman from outside the off
stump. I always used to convince my team
saying that we would win fair and square, with our talent and better play. Our uncle, being neutral, considered me as a
better cricketer than him.
Evidently, my brother’s
team used to win two third of the matches, most of them close finishes.
After losing, when I used to lay in my mom’s lap, mom
consoling me, used to yell at my brother saying, “what kind of teams have you
all made?. All nice and decent guys on one side and all the cheater cocks on
the other?”
Hearing this, my brother used to laugh wickedly. He would
come close to me, and taunt in his usual inimitable Gabbar Singh voice, “Lagta
hai Thakoor ne hijdon ki fauj bana rakhi hai”
Guess what? We both grew up. As my friends know, I am a loyal
Federer fan today. And my brother is a die- hard fan of Rafael Nadal !
When I go home next, I will play cricket again. And I believe
I will beat my brother because I believe goodness always wins at the end; no matter what! Federer will beat Nadal in a grand slam sooner than later; no matter what !!
