Thursday, November 6, 2008

It's days like these that you should be on a vacation.. in Nagpur.

It has been a highly distracting day at work, for me. So I think I will just push it to the brink by toasting to the #40. Here, here. Cheers.

To write about a test match on its first day is tempting fate, but I am willing, today. For these are romantic days in Indian cricket. And this is a special test match. It pledged history even before the first ball was bowled. So every word which shall follow will hop around cliches.

And I hasten to write this, before Saurav gets carried away on a featherbed of a pitch in his last test match, and do something characteristic. There was a great piece on cricinfo about Dada today. Many more crafted articles will be written in the next few days on India's most charismatic captain. We shall wait. And read.

...

In principle, I also wanted to write about the debutant opener, the man I never heard of, before this week, for I do not follow the Indian domestic circuit as religiously as the people who should, do. Thankfully. But the story was so dramatic, that I could nt help be strangely glad for a young man who just saw his dream take flesh while still catching up with its realization. It is a great story, and there have been many before. And more will follow, surely. But each is special in its own right.

To earn the spot to play for that one team.

To look around and find yourself in a room full of strangers you knew all your waking life. To walk out to a slap on your back from a great man who has seen many a summer in whites. To stand at one end of the wicket and wonder if you are going to die. A moment of isolation. A realization. And that one long breath, like its gonna be your last.

It must have been special.

"We are going with M Vijay," his captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said. "He will open the innings."

Oh. Fuck!

They say he did well. But that is almost inconsequential in this story. For the moment. For the day. For today is the only day he would have been forgiven if had got a naught, even. For he lived out a dream today, one that little kids with gaping mouths have.. sitting on their floor four feet away from the 12"er, squinting their eyes.. wondering why grown men cry.

He became an Indian national cricketer. Today.

"We are going with M Vijay," his captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said. "He will open the innings."

...

Er, that's what he said.

3 comments:

P said...

M.Vijay played well dude.
Even considering it was a flat pitch.

Anonymous said...

That was an awesome article on Sourav. “Over the past 12-13 years I’ve made good friends and made some enemies, but it was all for the good of Indian cricket and, hopefully, you’ve enjoyed walking the path with me.” We did.

Anonymous said...

Mast written. The Vijay part esp.