Cricket mania: "Club-bing The Nation"

A towering hit! A white orb flies in the orbit! Elation!!Euphoria!!! And pure ecstasy…28 years of wait gets over in an instant. A dream of a nation, the heartfelt wish of every marketer and hero strapped common man’s prayers, all fulfilled and answered. The marquee cup is ours. The talisman of everlasting fame, adulation and heroism returns!

T20: Yeh dil maange more, even more!

Wait! Is the world cup over? Of course it is…I saw the six, I saw the victory lap, the ceremony, the cup…even did a jig on the street caught in the unbridled joy. But why then I can still see a sea of people wanting to get into the stadia. My friend gets into my ear. Oh is it? The IPL?Now what is it?…My friend uses expletives which I would find hard to mention. Now, now mind your language here gentlemen! Agreed I don`t know about this new brand of the gentleman’s game, but I still follow tests and ODIs…I hear a muted response…what…I am old fashioned? Grrrr…I am sad. I feel pathetically rueful. Not because the game is being slowly midgeted to fit the 20 over coffin hinged and bolted with precious metals.Nope.Hardly my concern. Not because my favorite players are playing with one leg, a broken finger, a sore back..No..No..That’s what heroes are…unyielding to pain. Neither it is because of the defection of players from boards to play in IPL,or players refusing to report to international duties. Buck matters!!Neither the chaotic sea of money,power,corruption,commercialization deters my spirit that itself is changing its colour from being pearly white to that of an obnoxious green. Having no loyalties, I cheer for all. What bothers me the most in and about the ‘much advertised-thrill laden-run feast-bowler’s backyard-cricket killer’ IPL is that it offers too less monetary incentive for the players.You read the above line (if you still are here) correctly. Is it not? The players after getting through the auction hammer, take home ‘only’ what 28-54 lacks per wicket or about 5 lacks per run ‘only’. Gross injustice for players who bend their aching bodies, restless souls and perform to the billing after all the hullabaloo over the busy annual schedule. They defy odds! They make the packed international schedule appear nonchalantly easy. It’s all too natural to pick up a few niggles and one or two injuries along the way. But they play with pain for two months and this is what they get? Few crores? Okay,agreed the life is full or rather overflowing with glamour(blame that lass and the blog!), you have a chance to make it to the national squad(easy for you if playing in the same club with the national skipper!).But are these perks enough for these superhumans?Nah!!I don’t like the West Indies! I think the place has lost its importance and relevance. So what if we haven`t won a series there since long? What if none of our players boast of a record worth mentioning on the ‘once terror-now genial‘ pitches of the Windies. Cakewalk is the word. World Champions vs. Caribbean Minnows: No match. We might end up losing a few games here and there, so what? The England series is where the focus is and should be. Obviously less important than the IPL but no doubt more important than West Indies. Let the stars nurse their scars. Pardon them O countrymen if they don’t perform. I beg you to consider their rustiness once they take the field after sharpening their skills in front of studio camera lens.Completely in contrast to one another,tiredness,rustiness,injury scare are the three words in Indian cricket which are not only the most banal placebos for under-performing, yet in a strange way players switch between them so beautifully, that they seem to complement one another rather embarrassingly.But I don’t get enough of cricket. After nearly 3 months of world cup and IPL, I want more. 3-4 cricket channels dishing out nonstop cricket 24*7 isn’t enough. I eat, drink, sleep cricket but I miss it during my work. The impact of the sport wanes, but who cares about quality, quantity rules the roost. More runs needed?Make the blades thicker, boundaries shorter. Need more money in the game? Stuff advertisements between balls, invent an ill timed timeout. More matches? Get more teams. No one can touch or match us. We can make them play according to us. We will create a window that will shrink the game to our great nation only. We have the power!I have the power too! Power to watch nonstop raining sixes and fours. Appetite for miscued fours, edgy sixes and swirling dropped catches. I cheer for misfields, dropped catches, missed stumpings. Hungry for runs, I cheer the bludgeoning big buys.I breathe and live only cricket. I only play cricket.I neither watch nor play other sports.I am a common Indian man who loves his cricket more than anything else. I know nothing about a certain Somdev or a certain Saina or someone called Vishy. Not my fault, is it? Every time an event of other sport is on air, cricket is also there. Choice between the two, bah…easy.Olympics,hockey,athletics,archery,wrestling ,chess? They don’t exist in my sports vocabulary

When cricket is there who longer cares!!!Heard that there will be T-20 tournament in my colony also. Will watch that too. What better things have I to do?