He is Mortal

He was a run-making machine, an unstoppable force, every bowler's holy grail,  every captain's nightmare, every aspiring cricketer's hero, and every Indian fan's God. To me, he was always mortal, and that is why he remains a beacon of hope during desperate times. His frame on my wallpaper reminds me everyday that there are no limits to what mortals like me can achieve.

Of course, cricket matches are seldom worth watching if he is not playing, but to me, he was always more than simply someone who made a game more exciting. He stood as a symbol of excellence and perfection, a constant reminder that no excellence or perfection can be achieved without the highest level of hard-work  and perseverance no matter how talented you  are. He taught me that it may take 22 years of discipline, and passion or more to achieve a life-long dream, but giving up today will ensure that that day will never come.

Even when I saw him play and slog on his out-of- form days, I did not see an aging man, but I did see the aging man struggle..I found inspiration that as mortals, we will have our bad days, and we have no option but to struggle through them. When I saw him practice hard before a Bangladesh or Kenya match, I only learnt that greatness comes to those who know not to take anything for granted. When he metes out silence to harsh critics and humility to intense praise, I know there will be another milestone that we will see him cross. For, no one can truly be that humble unless they do not meet their own standards. Just as it does not matter how ill people think of me, it should not matter how well they do either.

It is what we think of ourselves that can truly make us better than what we are.

It is not just the cover drive and the punch on the backfoot that I will never forget, it is everything that he is that have helped me be a better person.

I am certain that this will not be the last of my posts on him, just like the ones before this...

http://flighttoinfinitywithlax.blogspot.com/2012/03/means-matter-too.html

http://flighttoinfinitywithlax.blogspot.com/2010/10/constant-in-changing-equation.html

The Means Matter Too

A symbol of poise and balance

 Prologue:
Achieving a goal is important, but I think the route one takes to get there is even more important. Hiking up a mountain allows one to enjoy a more exhilarated view from the top than simply driving up to it. On paper two people may have the same degrees from the same colleges. But it is easy to imagine that one person may have given one's heart and soul to knowledge, and in that process picked up a degree, while the other was simply picking up the degree for no greater purpose. It is also easy to concede that this difference in means reflects in the character of everything that one may do, be it in life or at work.

Why are we then so encompassed in the final outcome of an issue? Goals set the direction...if they are the reason, we can only rob ourselves out of the pure joy of the journey...

The real story:
Sachin's 100th 100 is a celebration of the journey, not the goal. For those of you who find his achievement vile, drop some materialism out of your thoughts. It is not about the pure statistics of his game, but the means he has employed to achieve this that should give one inspiration. Even on the day before the Bangladesh match, he was at the nets for a full practice session with the extras while the rest of the team took off.  That reminds that one can never take anything for granted, no matter how good you are and how unlucky you have been you need to keep trying harder, even harder, and even harder.
There has not been a season in over the last decade when mediocre performances have not evoked calls to leave the game. Even 13 years of international cricket was more than many were lucky to see. He showed us that the world may be against us, but  if there is a a breach in self confidence and efforts, one will be left with only oneself to blame. Universal approbation as a goal can be a lot worse than risking universal censure.

I am not going to enumerate all his achievements, for that could only be tedious repetition.But, even after all these years, I find it faintly amusing that he cannot go for his doctor's appointment without invoking conspiracy theories involving rifts with  Rahul Dravid. Has not anyone missed important occasions in the course of one's life due to  other circumstances? Why is that  any different? Rahul Dravid was a perfect gentleman by not offering any words of praise for a man who was not present at the meeting. If he had done one former team mate a favor, he would have been a victim of more conspiracy theories on account of not having praised other greats in his time. I am sure that Sachin was perfectly aware of sparking these controversies, but universal popularity had never been his goal. In the end, he had to do the right thing to keep his commitments for the upcoming cricket matches and be fit for that. That is what he cares about, and that is his priority.

Epilogue:
Forget cricket, if you can indeed forget his cover drives...but take a moment to understand how he leads his life and pursues his passions. Even if you  can concede his greatness grudgingly, you are on your way to being a more successful person.

The constant in a Changing Equation

I search hungrily for every single news item I can find in every newspaper I can think of. The contents are all the same, the adulations similar, and yet each one only heightens a vague sense of euphoria.

The media does after all give us little to rejoice for these days. They revel in bad news, blow up bad news to make them terrible news, splatter papers with scandals, and in the midst of all this, wafts a familiar breath of ever-fresh air.

I am not by any means undermining our CWG victories or the rare Olympic medal, but after all, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been the one constant in a country that has undergone unstoppable transformation in 21 years, and in a game that sees constant change. I have never known cricket without him and do not want to think of it without him. The sight of this man at the crease keeps the flame of hope alive. The knowledge that while he remains standing, not all is still lost… admiration and love for the man whose game remains as fresh and youthful as it ever did, are but few reasons why he is special to very cricket lover.

He is a source of inspiration not simply because of the way he plays the game, but the reason he plays so well, and the manner in which he has lived his life.

Immeasurable success, admiration and wealth seem not to be enough to make him arrogant or indifferent. Hearing him talk, it seems this is true because none of these coveted pleasures mean as much to him as his love for the game and his ever growing desire for improvement. This level of passion is by no means easy to attain. When one has played the game every day for 35 years, has been over-worked for over 20 years, has sustained repeated injuries to the body, has borne harsh unfair criticism in-spite of having given nothing but his best, and has borne valiantly the hopes and expectations of a billion people every time he has walked to the crease…here is a true warrior, still undamaged in spirit.

A champion of the game, a champion of the people, a good hearted honest and straight forward man…how can one not respect this young man?

The Day of a New Era

Its been three days now since we emphatically won the test series against Australia, but not surprisingly, the excitement has not died. Some cynics argue that the victory is not quite so special because it was on home ground, some others say that Australia came home leaving behind formidable players like Mcgrath, Warne and Gilchrist. While both statements have substance, I (and perhaps many more people) do not think the series victory was special only because we beat Australia in two games (for the Aussies it is, they have not lost so fantastically since they played Viv Richard's team). It is special to me because for the first time in years my faith in Indian cricket has been refurbished. For the first time in ages, I regret not having watched a match fully...for not being in India discussing the finer points of the game (and the politics) with my father or my friends through the night. I have been reminded why cricket is as popular a game as it is.

We did win on home ground, but the manner of victory this time was different. We still prepared spin favoring pitches, but our pace bowlers lived up to and beyond the challenge. We were playing on familiar home turf and if statistics mean anything we would have probably won the series by pluck or luck, but we still dared to try something new. We have shown the cricketing world that we have become a force that is now more difficult to deal with...Kumble and Harbhajan did their job as spinners are expected to, but Ishant and Zaheer have given us a right to expect from them too. Their mastery in producing reverse swing by the 10th over unsettled the opponents and has raised unknown fear in others, not even the Pakistani greats who invented the action would have anticipated this...from India. The signs this time are unmistakable, we will surely in future add more names to the list that started and ended with Kapil Dev. Nothing is possible without an effort, and the efforts have finally begun to show.
Indian cricket is no longer like the time when I first developed an interest in the game, it is now more worth my time. Those were days when fans were justified in switching off their TV sets after our top 4 batsmen were out (then known as the three musketeers and D'Artagnan), because no body wanted to watch our tail play. Our tail was not meant to bat or to bowl. We were widely acknowledged as the world's worst chasers because we rarely won while batting second. Any match victory could be easily attributed to any single man on the team. Winning abroad only happened in the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic fans. Indian cricketers going for the kill did not happen even there, we not only preached but were virtuous enough to practice our doctrine of ahimsa. All this changed...somewhere, somehow...people who did notice did not understand the full impact of what they were witnessing, Because it was all eclipsed by a more interesting spectacle. The side show has finally ended and people now see what happened behind the scenes, like it so much, and wish that they had not called for the curtains to close on the side show ( I was a part of this band wagon for a brief while) . It is a paradox, but true...the man behind the show got his worth only when he bowed down and quit. I believe it all started with one man...the prince of Calcutta.
If India has today learnt to play and win as a team, it was under him. If we are today not surprised by an abroad win, rewind and remember when it was that you stopped being surprised. He was accused of being a bad captain because he apparently played the divide and rule policy. Even if it were true, it does not matter because we were winning more than usual. He was accused of favoring new young players over the old (give me a break!) and that meant he was jealous and insecure, not far sighted. He reminded his team mates that they were young blood and not old cronies and taught them to aim a blow in return for one rather than dodge them one after the other. The result, he paid for everything in not flesh and blood but in spirit. We squeezed out every last bit from the king of comebacks. Of course he was aggressive against the aussies, give him one good reason why he should'nt have been. A refresher course..Steve Waugh and team openly declared that India had only three formidable players..Sachin, Dravid and Laxman even when Saurav was the captain. In retrospect, what goes around comes around...It was the Aussies who showed Ganguly the way to go and he led India to this path of rebirth, and it hit them before anybody else. Today Harbhajan's statement that Ponting needs to go back and learn some batting is ironic...History has a strange way of repeating itself, Bhaji has proved Ganguly right, again. Ganguly has a lot to be proud of apart from his personal statistics. He created a team from a bunch of men who met regularly to play a game. He awoke the passion within his people (Its not his fault that Harbhajan and Sreesanth get carried away at times, calling people monkeys and showing monkey faces :) ) although I wonder if he did ever point out in his defense that we crossed limits only against the kangaroos and provoked people to see a reason behind that...His only fault was that he was not a born genius like Sachin, but if that is a sin, then every batsman today is doomed to hell.
We missed the dawn of cricket's new era in a plethora of controversies surrounding the king himself, but the day ahead looks long and sunny. The ride can only be more exciting with Dhoni in the drivers seat . He has shown himself to be a player and a man of character. I do not know if his gesture of asking Saurav to captain the last few overs meant as much to either of them as the rest of the cricketing world, but that gesture showed that we were about to say good bye to a man who deserved more than he got...and, got more than he deserved. As Saurav returned the cap to dhoni, I felt he was giving us a final message and I think he is right..: "The future is in good hands, this time please trust them".

Homerun!!!

This is a highly biased narrative of my first experience at a baseball game. So, baseball lovers please donot read further. Last friday evening, I went to watch a baseball match live. It was the day I was mentally relaxed after a long time, so I did go in the hopes of enjoying myself. I made one important mistake though, and that ruined my enjoyment. I believed all those who told me that baseball was like cricket. I would have probably enjoyed it if I had attended the game with an idea of watching an entirely new game. That way, I would not have made mental comparisons between the two games all the time.
Baseball is nothing like cricket except that the game also involves a bat and a ball. The game is much shorter(this match lasted 3 hours) but lacks causes for emotional outbreaks, killer strategies and mental exercises. If cricket was anything like baseball, players would never hug each other on the ground for the loss of a wicket, Shoaib Akhtar would have never invented the aeroplane dance, Muralitharan would have never been called a chucker , Mark Waugh would have never had to take money to reveal pitch information and Sachin Tendulkar would not have the distinction of being out on '90s' the most number of times.
Most of what I am talking about revolves around just one thing..the thing that put me off baseball the most. A batsman getting out has no meaning. Its not a big deal. If a person gets out once, they can just come back again and bat after a certain interval called an inning. No wonder then that emotions among audiences and players dont run high even when the 'star' batsman got out. This astros player 'Berkman' is supposedly so poplular that toys with his face were being distributed to the first 10000 entrants, but his becoming out didnot evoke as much as a sigh from the crowds!!! I tried counting the number of times I would not have switched off the TV just because Sachin was out. All those memorable moments created in cricket at the loss of wickets chased each other in my mind. Pakistanis kissing the ground, all fielders rushing to hug the bowler ,the bowlers themselves performing a variety of gimmicks and the crowds erupting into drum beats and dances. Yes, I missed that , I wanted that, and when I did not get that, I began to look down upon the game, not caring for the fact that this game was supposed to achieve different ends.
The game seemed to me to lack the need for thinking. The field is one eighth or lesser than the size of a cricket field with 9 players on it. So there is no need for field placement. The field is crowded enough to remove that necess. Neither does the captain have to strategise nor does the batsman. Its the same field setting, ball after ball after ball by both teams.Also, there is just one pitcher for each team unless he says he is tired. The guy just throws the ball with varying speeds. I thought there was no more variety until one friend told me that the ball swings a lot more than the cricket ball. Granted, but still, there is not enough variety in the type of ball, like pace, spin, swing, etc. The change in the pitch during the day and the way some bowlers exploit gives one reasons to admire cricket and scorn at baseball. Its just full toss all the time.
There were sudden bursts of enjoyment from the crowd that released them partly from the sin of appearing for an important match without banners, painted faces, masks or drums. They would all stand up and applaud whenever there was a home run, a sixer in cricket would qualify as a home run.Music would be played and an overhead to train would run across the length of its rails once.There was on epoint in the game when it started looking for certain that the Texan team would win, and that point all the texans stood up together and sang a Texan song, "The spirit of Texas". That was really fun to watch and definitely increased my enthusiasm for the game.
All said and done, in spite of the home runs and the spirit of Texas, I vote for cricket as the better game. The next time I go to watch baseball I will try watching it with less bias.