Listen to Lucky

I always have a fascination for Test cricket compared to ODIs / T20s as they are not for the mass (or) a mundane crowd. To watch test cricket, to understand the nuances of Test Cricket, you need to fair amount of cricketing knowledge to understand the Climatic conditions, New ball funda, Grass on the wicket, Seam positions, Shuffling Batting Orders, Pace of the Cricket etc. Most of my words in the previous paragraphs may not mean much to Modern ODI watchers particularly in television sets. VVS Laxman's innings / just a leaning drive on the backfoot on Napier Test is more on the lines of a camera angles of a Kurosawa movie, a neraval in a song by MS in a Kutcheri. I am pretty amazed by anybody who talks to me/anybody on Cricket, that a particular XYZ should have played this way (or) the other. To me playing, Observing Cricket in itself is an art. I would love to follow VVS/Azhar's Ondrive/flick with their wrists as much as a piece in synchronised swimming / dancing on the skates...

The last week in cricket was eventful with many exits and the greatest of all was Brian charles Lara's retirement from ODIs and which marks as a prelude to hang the curtains of his cricketing career, one of the fabulous cricketers along with Tendulkar, Akram, Warne, Murali and Walsh et al, i have seen in my during my living years. I would be talking with pride to my grandchildren as my uncles talk about richards / vishy about the exploits of Lara's single-handed demolition of / Sachin's swashbuckling "operation desertstorm" in 98' / Warne's ball of the century. Lara's cricket has brought enough joy to me, who signalled his arrival with a magnificent 277 at sydney (he named his daughter as sydney after that knock...) The one thing which i admired with Lara / sampras / lance armstrong / sergei bubka is their appetite to win and challenge their own records and the way lara jumped and pumped his fist after he got his record back from hayden stands testimo...

This would be my first world cup after '83 when kapil's devils came back with the prudential's and i still remember the celebrations back home when "jaggu mama" woke me up said india has won. I was a kid aged 5 then, but still that was the best victories which reminds me as though i had won (In fact, that marked the beginning of Cricket as the religion which had its origin in india). Here in the so-called mecca of cricket at lords, i don't see the same celebrations/fever which we have for the cricket world cup. Cricket to me is one of the "C which i liked and has been inherited from the "gora log" next to janu's coffee and cinema. Date 06 feb 1985, i still remember we (ofcourse in the company of ram) really bugged my father AVR during the world series (remember ravi shastri got an audi car...), finally came in Mr BPL to our home. I lost my first teeth, injury on the forehead, ram's broken thumb all still linger in my memory. Cricket in t...