Episode 346 : The run-maker
This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
I still remember how I first got to know of him. It was an article on the last page of an India Today issue that described a mammoth partnership between two teenaged boys in an inter-school cricket match. There was a photograph of those two boys smiling, one holding up his bat and the other leaning onto his.
I had forgotten all about them until I heard that a certain Sachin Tendulkar was in the squad that would tour Pakistan. And I asked myself, wasn't he the same boy?
He was.
I don't claim to be a great fan of his, but I used to follow matches that India played. I used to agonise when he got out, knowing that the rest of the team would follow him. I used to be disgusted that an entire team of erstwhile stalwars preferred to depend on a youngster to bail them out of each game. The moment he got out, I would lose interest in the game althought there was a faint sliver of hope that the team would win.
On seeing how he got out just minutes after I managed to persuade myself that superstitions were just that, I convinced myself that the only times he would score would be the times I did not watch him play. Consequently I followed only match reports and highlights. Most of the time, he would score as long as I didn't watch the match. I was convinced that somehow my not watching was connected to his scoring well.
But there were also times when I had disgreements with him (which were always kept to my self)- how the team would lose in test matches, or how he appeared to be playing for some sort of record, or how he continued to be in the team even when his form deserted him.
It ends today. When I see all those paens and tributes describing his twenty four years in cricket, I realise most of us grew up watching him play. And that from now on, there won't be any more articles how he scored those runs, or on why he should have retired by now.
Like they say, all good things come to an end. But hey, it was a treat to watch him play.
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again
For this is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
I still remember how I first got to know of him. It was an article on the last page of an India Today issue that described a mammoth partnership between two teenaged boys in an inter-school cricket match. There was a photograph of those two boys smiling, one holding up his bat and the other leaning onto his.
I had forgotten all about them until I heard that a certain Sachin Tendulkar was in the squad that would tour Pakistan. And I asked myself, wasn't he the same boy?
He was.
I don't claim to be a great fan of his, but I used to follow matches that India played. I used to agonise when he got out, knowing that the rest of the team would follow him. I used to be disgusted that an entire team of erstwhile stalwars preferred to depend on a youngster to bail them out of each game. The moment he got out, I would lose interest in the game althought there was a faint sliver of hope that the team would win.
On seeing how he got out just minutes after I managed to persuade myself that superstitions were just that, I convinced myself that the only times he would score would be the times I did not watch him play. Consequently I followed only match reports and highlights. Most of the time, he would score as long as I didn't watch the match. I was convinced that somehow my not watching was connected to his scoring well.
But there were also times when I had disgreements with him (which were always kept to my self)- how the team would lose in test matches, or how he appeared to be playing for some sort of record, or how he continued to be in the team even when his form deserted him.
It ends today. When I see all those paens and tributes describing his twenty four years in cricket, I realise most of us grew up watching him play. And that from now on, there won't be any more articles how he scored those runs, or on why he should have retired by now.
Like they say, all good things come to an end. But hey, it was a treat to watch him play.
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again
For this is the end
Aired at 11/16/2013 05:55:00 pm
0 Comment(s):
Post a Comment
<< Back to the show