Child's Play

At III Std, I would not have aspired to be Sachin Tendulakar. At IV Std we would not have aspired to amaze audience. All we had was fun, fun and fun only.. Ours was a Chennai 28 kind of a unit with a little more excitement and childlike attitude.

The team comprised...

1. David George, a right arm fast bowler, inspired by Allan Donald and Heath Streak with his fair and lovely cream applied on his nose.
2. S S Naren, the right hand batsman, quite seemingly plays like Rahul Dravid and likes to play cricket in a more stylish way.
3. Sriram, like our typical Indian seamers who bowls good one day and chucks when it is needed of him but will pick some wickets which will leave us stranded. His bowling figures are either 3 wickets for 10 runs in 3 overs or o wickets for 30 runs in 2 overs.
4. Praveen, the agressive Lara fan, will target every ball that is bowled to him outside the park. Most often his swing at bat results in either a dot ball or a six.
5. Finally, Satish (me) a rigourous Sachin fan like one for a gang, plays with such passion and tries to mock my pals with the usual "Hey, I was not ready at all man - after being bowled by a superb delivery".

We anxiously wait for entry of summer for us to gear up for the tournament. Never in a day we rested more than we played.. At that age, with so much passion in heart if one couldnt reach his dream for a variety of reasons, it remains as a nostalgic cricketing era of childhood.
After a long time, I needed this break from David George who put his childhood pics on FB that helped me travel back to our tournament times. Those moments just flashed back me like a rewind episode in a movie. Aint you believe it when I say that we have curated the pitch one day, by making it soft and pouring lots of water the day before... Nothing made the difference to the pitch, but it certainly made one in our hearts. We almost felt as though we were in India's dressing room..

Dedicated to David George and Naren.