What has Cricket given you?

Oh no not again, you would say. But, I can’t just keep cricket out of anything in my life. So here I am again discussing the topic of cricket. People keep asking me why you are so much into cricket. What has cricket given you? With the smile I would reply, a lot. In fact I would not be exaggerating if I say I am what I am because of cricket to a certain extent.

I look at the world with an altogether different perspective because of cricket. Cricket taught me how to make friends with a complete stranger. Cricket taught me perseverance. Cricket taught me patience. Cricket being a gentlemen's game made me gentlemen. Well please don’t laugh, it might not be 100% true, but you have to agree with me to a certain extent.

I am playing and watching cricket right from my childhood. People used to devote their time in studies, I used to spend the same time in playing cricket and then if I get a chance watching cricket and listening to cricket commentary. Playing cricket with all sort of people having various different religions and beliefs made me understand people of different cultures. Made me realize that even when my mom always used to say that people of a certain religion are not good, I learned it myself that those people are just like us and just like me they love cricket. I always say that there is nothing that unites the whole country like cricket. Imagine a cricket match in which India is playing. Everything stops to watch the match. And then there is no particular religion that the fans are following apart from cricket.

Cricket taught me the language English to a certain extent. It was the test cricket commentary of Sir Jeffery Boycott, Michael Holdings, Tony Grieg, Henry Blofield, Sunny Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and also non cricketer commentators like Harsha Bhogle who gave me a lot of my vocab power which I never learned from books. I always had fights with my elder brother over watching cricket. After listening to the commentaries I also used to read almost anything that I got to read in newspapers and magazines about cricket. It helped a lot. Indeed it did. The strength of oral and written English communication which I learned from cricket has a lot to do in making me who I am. I have always used my ability to write in all the examinations I have written since childhood. I learned expressing myself better thanks to cricket.

I remember there were tough times during my childhood when I used to get very depressed because of some personal family issues, but, cricket always came to my rescue. Just a call for playing a cricket match and I used to forget everything and totally engross myself into playing cricket. It really made a lot of difference in those years. I would not have been what I am had I not been involved totally into cricket.

Cricket taught me to be a leader. Since the time I have been playing, more often than not I was asked to lead the team. Sometimes because of my abilities, other times because no one wanted to do the Job of a team captain. It made me a balanced person as I always tried to do justice to the people playing in my team and at the same time keep the fighting spirit going. I might not be able to be a shrewd leader as that is one thing I could not overcome because of my nature. But, it off course gave me the experience that when you are leading a team, you are entirely on your own. People look up to you to make decisions. People look up to you to face the problems and to hold the bull by the horns. Cricket gave me the strength to be a whistleblower. It gave me the strength to bell the cat. This virtue did help me in professional career as well. It taught me that as a leader you have to take the decisions for the team and at the same time always take suggestions from the team.

It was still not always that I could play cricket. Once I got a Job and got into the business of working and making money, it was difficult to keep associated with playing cricket. But, even during that period I would always find time to watch cricket. I have been watching cricket since such a long time that more often than not I read the captains mind while watching it. I am able to read what bowling change is needed in a particular situation and the fielding captain just makes that bowling change. I can see the Leg before decision on the actual speed and make out whether the umpire is going to raise a finger. Well it’s called experience of watching cricket. Isn't it? :) :)

When in July 2007, I met with an accident and got the worst injury of my life in my leg, all hell broke loose. Not just because of the accident and pain, but because I felt that I would never be able to play cricket again. I had an iron rod implanted in my right leg which only got removed in November 2009. The recovery process again started. Finally one fine day in December 2010, I made a decision of now or never. I took a New Year resolution of playing cricket with my company's team. And on 8th Jan 2011, I started playing cricket again. It has been six months since I am playing cricket with my company's cricket team every Saturday. Life seems beautiful again. We just wait for playing cricket every Saturday. Every week we pray that it won’t rain on a Friday so that people would come to play cricket the next day. Such is the passion of cricket still after so many years. Off all the things cricket has given me, it always went un-noticed that it made me physically and mentally fit as well. And just to keep playing cricket, I do try to keep myself fit. Nothing motivates me more to keep myself physically and mentally fit.

Did I say cricket was, is and will be my first love? Well off course I did. All I want to say is Dear Cricket, you rock!!!. I want to play till I have the abilities to play. I wish I have it forever. :)