The end of DADA-giri

I was a bacchha(infant) ,when coming to the nuances of cricket until a point of time.Would you believe that my Mom and Sister urged me to go and play with other kids.I relented because I had almost all zero interest.Thanks to Doordarshan, which added cricket to my life’s dictionary.

Accidentally, on one fine day when I was ticking the buttons on the TV remote, some left handed batsmen caught my attention.He had just fired a six into the stands along the covers.I was awe struck.I haven’t had seen such a shot till that point of time.I was waiting for the name of the batsmen who was firing against the Pakistani bowling

.Scrolling Score ticker displayed his name to be Saurav Ganguly( It was the final match of Independence Cup – 1998).Its the name I will never ever forget in my lifetime.With those sixes triggered from his bat towards long on,covers,long on , long off like ultra fast bullets I used to glue to the TV set.I also came to conclusion after a point of time, the first ball of the match will be a four or six.I would bet on that. Dada was  ekalavya to me. I didn’t have many cricket friends during the start up days.

My mom was little happy that I asked her to buy a new bat for me.For she thought," yeh baccha aakhir abhi toh sudhrega…thoda khel vheel bhi hona padta hain zindagi mein…" She happily bought a new MRF labelled bat for me with Sachin Tendulkar autographed on it. I was feeling ecstatic.For a while I imitated DADA and gave up left handed batting,just carried the zeal to play cricket like DADA.Whenever dada scores a century or some hard hitting sixes we bacchas in colony would run out of our homes and rename ourselves to Shoaib Aktar Vs Ganguly , Wasim Akram Vs Sachin etc etc…and play cricket for some endless hours.We neither bothered about food nor about the aftermath of farting.The only one thing we knew was Cricket.Probably,the day my mom bought a bat for me was the last one which she would have had relished with some positive agenda about my attitude to cricket.It transitioned from

 ‘ Kya beta aaj acha khel liye ho kyan? Thu batsmen banega ya bowler?’ to

"’Aaj kal cricket ke liye tho jyada bahut waqt karch kar rahe hon..thoda padayin pe bhi dyaan lagao" ….

"Ab bahut hogaya kal hi tho naya ball mangvaya aur aaj phir 10 rupaya..yeh le 2 rupaya… chahiye tho le nahi tho cricket vicket band karle"

"bakwass bandh ….cricket vicket sab chodo aur books pakado exams bahut hi jald aane vaale hain….cricket thumhe khana nahin lagayega….thoda tho buddishaali jaisa socho bacche…"

"ab main thereh peeche padne vaali nahin hoon ….is baar cricket ground mein dekhaana tere dho taange thod ke haath mein rahenge…samje khabaddaar…ab jaao andar aur padai pe dyaan lagao"

This saga continued for about 6-7 years.Those were the days.Love’m.

 I am indebted to my MOM for sparing all my notorious acts in the name of cricket and my cricketing GOD DADA.Even today I can’t play some basic cricketing shots but then ,I keep on trying to do so till date just with the passion instilled by my all time favorite , most passionate cricketer according to me ,one and only one Saurav Ganguly.We call him the God of off side , DADA, Royal Bengal Tiger,Sau(100)rav,Prince of Kolkata,….

He was,is & will be a sensation.We all know that he is the most passionate cricketer you can find in his times.This passion brought him controversies too.Whenever he scored a century or picked up wickets he used to roar like a tiger.Undoubtedly he is the best Indian Cricket Captain till date,not just for that he made us relish the taste of the many a number of victories any Indian Skipper ever did but also that he redefined the cricket in the Indian masses by his Teamwork concept.

To be continued….

 

One run away

 

Photo Courtesty:Pradeep Mandhani

India’s Rahul Dravid stands on the verge of scoring 10,000 Test runs as the television screen flashes 9,999 runs, during the fourth day of the first Test match of the Future Cup series against South Africa in Chennai.

Senior Statesman

To write anything original about Sachin Tendulkar is probably as difficult as attempting to add to the Bible. For, there is nothing that has been left unsaid about India’s cricketing God and even attempts to glorify his feats are akin to holding a candle to the sun. So, we’ll just leave it at that and say that today Sachin is excelling in his role as senior statesman, mentor, friend, philosopher and guide to a whole bunch of mates, who have precocious talent and who are ever eager to learn some tricks from the maestro. Ask Dhoni’s band of boys who demolished the Australians in the one-day series.

Having played 146 test matches in the last 19 years, there is precious little that Sachin needs to achieve in his illustrious career. The maestro managed to round off his Australian tour with a much sought after ODI series win and one can only hope that sets his mind on a triple century during the next series. For, going by his own very high standards, Sachin has been a failure against the Proteas. His average of 36.42 against them is amongst the lowest against all countries though Sachin has aggregated 1202 runs off 19 test matches with three centuries.

Very well said about  Cricketing Legend Sachin

Source :MSN Cricket