Note: This is a Guest Post by a very good friend of mine Alapan Ghosal last night he sent me this post.I am just posting this on the behalf of him.Here it goes:
Sachin’s 100th 100.Last year for an Indian cricket fan has been frustrating by part & dismal for the rest of it.
We have been pounded & grounded into submission by a couple of teams we have had thoughts of beating,if not easily then by some perspiration but the ugly truth has been clubbed repeatedly & painfully over our heads over the whole of last year.
Now we stand duly chastised & humbled,by the virtue of our teams performance While in midst of this travesty lies the mysteries of Sachin’s 100th 100.
Why couldn’t he get it over a period of 365 days??
Why couldn’t he pound the Aussies & the poms??
why did he get out repeatedly making silly mistakes or Why did the balls get better of him…..
Probably if he would have had the 100th against either Aussies or the poms we would have had consoled ourselves that our hero defied the opposition & his teammate’s mediocrity & rose above it.But as things stand we have been stripped of even this consolation.
Our hero has been repeatedly struggled to put bat on ball & found ways to get out the last of which involved trying to flick Malinga of his pads from closer to middle than leg.He started both the tours with decent form & got a few middling scores with amazing regularity & just when the stage seemed to be set for him,got out.
I don’t know why he got out & I don’t particularly care much.
But I would like the Sachin of old to make a comeback where nothing seemed impossible.Where he could make me smile exclaim & sigh over a coverdrive where he could right all the wrongs of the day.I would like him to treat every bowler as Henry Olonga(remember Sharjah 97 I think you can)
I would like him to pummel every opponent.I would like him to be my childhood hero again….
I would like him to be best batsman on current form ever & always….
I would like him to be grim determined & victorious….
When even hardened pros like Mcgrath & Warne had to clap when he made them look foolish….
I would like him to be the guy for whom bunking classes & a punishment didn’t matter much for a student….
I would like him to chase all the dreams that have remained unfulfilled among billions of us….
Yes I admit, I would like the boy from Sharadashram Vidyamandir to appear as good for each & everyone of us and today he finally managed to scale the statistical impossibility a century of centuries….
Where he scored practically flawless 114 runs from 147 deliveries,but it didnt give me much satisfaction,where he slowed down after 80,where he struggled to get gaps,where he was made to perspire by a pedestrian attack,where inspite of being best batsman on show,He cost us 20 runs.
Before he makes a final bow & before a curtain drops over innocence.I would like my hero to comeback once again just for a last glimpse the men who made everyday worth it.Three of the golden age have already gone taking a part of my childhood with them.Men of tremendous dignity honour & commitment who made cricket worth watching.Men whom you & I miss everyday but I wud like to see him at his very best just once before he goes.I would like him to punish a full length delivery by drilling it straight past the bowler.I would like him to be God of all batsmen who ever came & of all those who are yet to come.Just before he goes off into the sunset, just once,I wud like him to be my childhood hero yet again.
Image Courtesy: Cricketnext.in.com