22 yards

All triggered during a conversation over coffee, discussing about the days when we could watch at least 3 days of the five day game in full after taking a day extra off, or a lucky holiday coming up. Ironic to this, the reason for writing this is quote from a great player in another game. Juan Roman Riquelme retired yesterday, and he was quoted by FIFA.com as “I was lucky enough to grow up during Maradona’s heyday. After we’d see a game of his, my friends and I would run out onto our street for a kickabout. When I had possession, I’d say things like ‘It’s Maradona on the ball’. Nowadays, my son says the same thing, but he’s always Messi when he goes to shoot. For people of my generation, Maradona was the ultimate idol. For the kids today, like my boy, that idol is Messi.”

During my discussion, I told my friends that once the match finished at 4:45 or so, we would skip all the refreshments and rush out to play. This was during the time period 1994-1997. I might be hardly 5 foot tall, but I used to rush and bowl like Waqar! The guys whom I used to play with was older by 4-5 years! I had to beat them to get consecutive 2-3 overs in a 12 over match. Now after watching the match so closely, and all the balls bowled replaying in mind like clockwork, it was easy to replay that. Like Riquelme said, I would say things to myself like, "Now I am gonna swing it in!"

This is not just my experience. We had a lot of fun discussing the days when we could watch a game for fun. The most bizarre of experience was narrated by another friend. I was telling how power never used to go during the match and then he said, "Oh, you need to hear this then. During my school days, there was a crucial India Pakistan match but I don't remember when it was exactly. Mind you, these were the days before mobile phone and all. Just half an hour before the match, the power goes off. Everyone is down. Then my uncle called up a neighbor house which is 3-4 kilometer away and asks whether they have power. They had, but they didn't have a TV. He immediately called us and told to take the antenna down while he took the TV. We took the TV and antenna to that house and fixed it before match. Once after the entire match was over, we took it down back to our house."

We Indians have a craze for games - some might say it is only cricket, just say that to a Bengali or Malayali. For that matter, we Malayalis are craziest lot. We can be crazy for even basketball (Have you ever watched a inter-collegiate game. The crazy commentary on DD-Malayalam! Presentation, UC College etc are just a few of the names which I can remember.)