In the Corner of a Foreign Field *

One of the most cherished moments of my childhood , which, otherwise can be found in the few statistics listed out in my resume.

It was the summer-break of 95 and as with most of my summers,I was busy carrying my lazy butt around the by-lanes of Mattancherry, which was my ancestral home, MY SUMMER CAPITAL , taken care of, in my absence, by my Beloved Thata and Patti. More about them later, but a brief back-ground of the place wouldn't hurt the story-line.

Mattanchery was infested with Brahmins..and as with any BRAHMINIC abode..Cricket was in the air and ofcourse, they breathed it. The effect was so evident that, one could be throwing a stone to shoo away a stray dog in Mattancherry and in the few seconds that would take the dog to see it and sway away , one of the natives would have cried 'i shall' and taken the
catch, inches infront of the dog.
They lived and breathed cricket out there. The Cricket-analysts out there would give the
Greigs and Boycotts a run-for-their money and the routine power-cuts would give them the opportunity to gather together in one of the pan-stalls to unleash their potential.

Coming back to the story ,It also boast of a Cricket club called MYCA, not one of those teeny-meeny ones, which amount to nothing.This one has actually contributed an Opener to Kerala State team ( i have bowled to him once.."brag" brag"). Many a times have I drooled at the their state-of-the-art cricket equipment, when we managed to take a peek into their quarters.Well then..This MYCA had ,as its source for talent , lots of teenager-outfits (small clubs), named after the various Gods that permeated that 10 km radious.The one in my region was called 'Ayyappas' because..

"Oh come-on reach there, faster!!"
Correct..we had an Ayyappa deity in our area...

Now..now...Ayyaappas were in a different league. They were one of those ragged bunch of joker-cricketers, who had the wit and self-deprecating-humour to call themselves a cricket-team and would enter into all the big tournaments in the area. The fact that they haven't won even a single match played till now, wouldn't discourage them one bit and they have attributed it all
to the Shani Bhagwan's influence on the "Ayyappa" deity and always resolve to break one extra coconut before the next tournament. For the interest of those of you, who are less spiritually-inclined, one could attribute their shocking defeats to the dearth of players. Players...Mind you..not talent; Their skills hovered in the acceptable Good-To-Average zone, but on any given day of the match, they would struggle to piece together all the 11 members of the outfit and hence would have to scrounge the by-lanes for any Gali-cricketer, just to make up the numbers.
"And, so U people, who are so appreciative of my talents in any field, would have understood that this is where I enter the story. I was eyeing the Gali-cricketer slot."

Forgot to add an important piece of information, there was a cousin of mine in the playing 11. But I was too arrogant to sneak in through the back-door and wanted to earn my place and how I did!!

I,the undisputed king among the babies-in-nappies-turned cricketers, relentless pursuer of ambition by trodding on the dreams of the toddlers. Many a times have i enjoyed lofting an 8-year old would-be-Shoaib Akthar's yorker into the stands, especially if there was an "Ayyappa"- member passing by. You should understand i was 14 years old at that time and was mature
enough to go and console the kid if he started crying for his missing rubber-ball.

Anyways,my perseverance was rewarded and I was picked by Ravi for the first time for the 11th man slot. Ravi was the Captain of the 'AYYAPPAS' and was nick-named Mr.Sweep.

"Why, you may ask? Was he the fore-most exponent of the sweep-shot in the entire Mattancherry town? "

Well..He was not the foremost exponent..but the funniest to boot.The thing was..Whenever he tried his trademark shot.he would sweep the entire circumference of the ground with his head, while the ball knowing not what to do, would be casually resting between his legs.

"How does he manage ? You may ask.."

He does all the right things like...he would get down on his knees promptly....would wait for the ball to turn right across him...and then, just when u think he is gonna make it...at the last minute he would turn his head in the direction of the intended sweep-shot and thence, forget the ball, he would have no idea as to where even his bat is.Howmuch ever he tries.. he couldn't stop his head from turning before he hit and we couldn't stop laughing at the sight of
Ravi looking at the Square leg umpire with a sheepish smile on his face and the ball still lying b/w his legs.

Coming back to the story.. So I was picked as the 11th man in the prestegious "Ayappa" line-up. But, little did I realise the trap I was walked into. 11th man in the Ayyappa's lexicon doesn't mean that he is a bowler who cannot bat or a pinch-hitter shoved away down the order as a secret weapon. The 11th man was just "11th" man..He is there because there has to be a 11th man and hence here he is...the 11th man. He would field the whole day (at Third MAN BY THE WAY), wouldn't get a chance to bowl and ofcourse, wouldnt get a chance to bat, if the top order lasted the full quota of overs.
I suffered this ignominy for four consecutive matches; fielding under the scorching sun, running up to the bowler at the unlikely event of him taking an opposition wicket, padding up all the batsmen, carrying drinks ( water..dude) to the batsmen and etc ..etc. All these four
days, I never got a chance to hold the willow in my hand and ofcourse 'AYYAPPA' deity still had the SHANI and we lost every one of them.

This went on for some more time and we now fast-track to one particular match , where we were set to the Play the Anjanaiyyas. Now..here we had a decent rivalry working..It was a fight for honour with them..for, they were our next-door neighbours in the demography of Mattancherry and thence, we had the Australia-Newzealand thing going. If we had cared to look at the Track-record, it was a 5-0 drubbing favouring them, but ofcourse..
"AYAAPPA' was under the SHANI .

But this time around, the chances looked a bit more realstic, for Ravi had taken ill ( prob neck sprain) and he had been advised to play his sweep-shot in the confines of his bed. The scene started looking rosier, when we managed to rope-in a really serious player in place of Ravi.

But, none of this helped early on, as the match started as usual, with us losing the toss and with it our balls too ,as their batsmen made us,hapless fielders, wander the lengths and breadths of the ground looking for them. They posted a formidable target ( the specifics..I do not remember) ,which we were asked to chase down.

But the biggest portent for the day was yet to come. Somebody had chanced a look at the Spiritual Calendar and announced " Ayyappa deity has passed through the shadow of the Shani bhagwaan and all is well now". Hearts leaped at the possibility. Chests pumping, we set out to chase the target down. Even if we were to lose, we would lose with all guns blazing.

And in the impending rush of the things, little did I realise that my fate too had casually taken a stroll with that of the Ayyappas, right under the Shani Bhagwan's eyes and was now happily resting its ass in the penumbra of Glory.

We didnt have to wait long for our first gun to fire and how it did?

The replacement for Ravi, went into the crease and decided to win the match for us, all by himself. Boundaries flowed out of his bat and fifty came in no time. His first six went out of the ground and everything , even an Ayyappa win, seemed a possibility. But it was not to last for long and with 100 runs still to go, he threw away his wicket. A mini-collapse followed and the script that we wanted to re-write seemed to be reserved for another day. Three wickets fell in quick succession with few runs added.

Then came the next twist in the tale and it caught, yours truly , blindfolded in the spotlight.

As the fourth wicket fell, the stand-in captain called on his next batsman to pad up. Stand-in captain or not, My cousin suddenly got up and said " Let Shyam pad up". Balaji, who was the stand-in captain, blinked twice before turning to look at this scrawny little kid looking at him with an expression that was straight out of a deer-caught-in-the-headlights Lexicon. I
don't know whether I looked scared at the sudden turn of events or excited at the sudden opportunity that was thrust in front of me. Either ways,i just remember Balaji nodding his assent and then someone padding up a thin shivering leg , and all the
time I was cursing my cousin,straight to HELL.

I had never been so scared my life as I was, when I walked to join my partner at the crease. The sight of their fast-bowler gearing up at the end of his run-up, the sound of the ball thudding into the wicket-keeper's gloves,the sound of their offspinner's ball hissing as it turned square: they all came out of the remotest corners of the brain to haunt me. I had never expected to face them ever and here i was, with a willow in hand. doing just that.

Well so be it.. with nothing to lose, u can never lose.

I went to the crease..took my guard..tapped a few imaginary stones in the middle of the pitch.took my stance..spat out my fears on the pitch...and then, closed my eyes.

Rest, as they say is my history.

By the time, I was walking back from the pitch with an arm across the shoulder of my non-striking-cousin-of-mine who was shouting " Brothers! We did it", Ayyappas had won their first game against Anjanaiyyas and I had started beleving in astrology.

Gopal! My sweet lil cousin of mine! You gave me , my first moment of Glory.


*Title: Courtesy Ramachandra Guha