Recently during one of our pre-lunch conversations , a colleague of mine was mentioning the experience of watching a cricket match with his father. It took me back many years and a trip down memory lane as one might call it and recollecting these moments is as interesting as the journey itself. Appa was a strict disciplinarian to my other siblings and not so much to me, last borns are the most pampered ones I guess. This made me take some extra liberties during my early days and doing things which I wanted to do and others could not, one being watching as much cricket as possible. During my earlier years, both in Cochin and Hyderabad, he used to make me clutch the cricket bat explaining the position and the style of the grip and give me throwdowns with a tennis ball in our garage or on the road. Like the modern coach today , there were no visible signs of tiredness on display and the straight bat and the V were emphasised and cross bat shots were despised equally.
Having picked up the game at an early age, it was natural that anything connected to the game was loved . I was an avid listener to radio commentary as well especially during the 1983 World Cup on BBC. 'The Hindu' was a major source of information and R Mohan's cricket articles were talking points between me and my dad in the early 80s since we didnt have the luxury of a television. The discussion stretched some times to the dinner table ,bed time and always it was my digested statistics pitted against his assimiliated analysis. He listened to me intently on the statistical part only to have differing views on the quality of bowling and batting. In my memory archives, what lingers on are some highlights particularly the Gavaskar century against the West Indies watched on the T481 Dyanora Black and White TV where I rushed back home only to find that Gavaskar had just got out to the spin of Larry Gomes. I got a gist of the match from him over the dinner table and you could see the passion for the game in the unbiased narration. India were winning close to nothing as a team and individual brilliance of a few individuals like Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath stood out. He was a fan of Mohinder for his unflinching attitide against hostile pace bowling and how he played the hook shot. In fact that was Gavaskar's most aggressive innings in a test match and hook shot was played often in this.
During the 1985 World Series, though I was appearing for my board exams , I was allowed to watch many a match in the day time after bunking classes. If it was a day match in Australia, up by 4 am waking my dad for the start of the match was an unbelieveable experience , especially in winters when you yearned for the first drop of coffee which would be prepared with the left over milk of the previous day but not before 6 am when my mother would wake up. The second dose as it is referred to , would come much later with fresh milk after half past 7 when one innings would come to a close. My friends would know that I would not be attending school if there was a cricket match especially a one dayer to watch or the last day of an interesting test match. When we watched together , I would keep the commentary on a higher volume since I loved the energy of Bill Lawry on Channel 9 , but he was one of those mute variety and he felt you didnt need commentators for a game if you observed it keenly.
The only hitch to uninterrupted cricket watching was power supply, in summers we had power cuts for almost 4 hours in Hyderabad and during rainy seasons ,we had falling trees dislocating power lines. Our normal schedules were not a problem since the temple and social visits of the evenings were conveniently rescheduled to suit match timings. The last set of matches I watched with him was the World Cup of 1999 and I distinctly remember the India - England match which carried on from the previous night to the next day evening. He was never a fan of instant cricket and today's T20 matches would have been a definite NO
From the tar roads and self prepared pitches at Hyderabad , the cement tennis courts of BITS Pilani and even some gully cricket in New Delhi, Baroda to some school grounds in Madurai and Ambas and now to the green outfields of Singapore , cricket has been in my genes .These days when I turn up at the cricket ground wearing whites for some serious cricket in the league, I can't help feel that he would have sat through each one of those matches enjoying the occassion , admonishing my cross batted hoick and emphasising the need to stay till the very end. When Tendulkar looks up to the skies after every landmark crossed, looking for his father's sure blessings, I can't help think that the person who shaped my love for the game will also be doing likewise when I do something eventful on a cricket field however miniscule it may be.
