Sports: Pastime, adventure, occupation, essence or all?

The memories go back a long time as far as sports is concerned. The day that I got a brand new cricket kit some 30 years ago, is still one of the best days I experienced. I remember Papa had bought me a maroon helmet, the colour that West Indies players don in Test cricket. It was a prized possession of mine and I used to think of myself as the right-handed Brian Lara when I took stance. It is another matter that I was an ordinary batter and bowled slightly better.

The emotions, however, which are associated to sports are immense for any child. For me personally, they take me back to a time where I managed to derive joy out of little things in life.

Joy is that one pristine feeling that sports brings in life, whether Kabaddi, Kho Kho, Cricket, Hockey or Chess. The emotions, skills, temperament that you develop while playing these sports in your childhood help you deal with professional and some personal problems ably in future life.

Sports is the essence of life

Bracketing sports as pastime, adventure or occupation is difficult to say, in the very least. It surely is the essence of our lives whether we play it, observe it or dream about it.

Society has always admired people who earn their livelihood, respect, love and goodwill through conscientious efforts. People who have done well in sports at any level also need to be appreciated for their just efforts when they put their heart and soul for achieving great goals in life.

In essence, sports provides a means to a better life and this should be the mantra for any aspiring professional sportsperson. By providing an impetus to their life, they help people associated with them to also see a better world. The sports managers must also remember this aspect while charting out their careers.

Aspirations when combined with dedication achieve better results

The above mantra may be assumed to be the guiding principle for sports managers. If they are able to inculcate this value into their proteges, wards or team members then they are sure to achieve a sense of job satisfaction combined with organisational and overall growth. In a team sport, of course, the value of achieving victories also assumes importance. The sports managers could learn in this aspect from team captains and their insights or experiences in these matters.

In the times that we are living in, the importance of proper healthcare has also assumed importance. The sports managers’ focus on players’ health is more than what it used to be in the past.

The Good Samaritan fans

Sports is a field which could really help the people who play or watch it overcome their fears. While no one could forget the Sri Lankan cricket fan Percy Abhayasekhara and how he waved the Sri Lankan flag at the venues there whenever his team plays a match there, no one could also forget the Indian cricket fan Sudhir Chaudhary who paints his face with the Indian flag and keeps on waving the flag through the day at venues where India plays a Test match.

Of course, the old-timers talk fondly of Percy and the new generation is in awe of Sudhir. Victories achieved by teams mean the most for such fans and tears in their eyes are the greatest earning that any sincere observer of the game can think of achieving. The performances of players and the exacting stiffness of sports managers may be important but they are not the end all and be all of professional sport. The value that such committed fans bring to the table are remarkably noteworthy and appreciable.

The essence of sports is really beyond my limited knowledge to be explained in more comprehensible terms and I hope people of the future generation would remember the values, sacrifices and dedication that sports followers also brought to the table apart from sportspersons and sports managers. Their hearts were not only immensely invested but their labour of love, blood and toil in aspiring for the best for their idols also spoke and will continue to speak volumes.

Cricket minus game dynamics = pure joy

Beyond the realm of the apparent lies the world of happiness and solace. The moment I saw that little angel on the Karnail Singh Stadium during the Group A Ranji Trophy 2018-19 game between Vidarbha and Railways, I felt a certain sense of elation that any soul wanting and longing eternal joy would have.

The serene settings of the Karnail Singh Stadium amidst the ruins and newness of New Delhi are as oxymoronic as literary liberty would allow it to be, yet it has an old world charm which lends any game of cricket the vital coat of authenticity that it commands at times. The third session of the first day of the group game was on between the aforementioned sides. Railways pacer Manjeet Singh and off-spinner Madhur Khatri were operating in tandem and were trying their level best to dislodge a potentially formidable partnership between the Vidarbha duo of Akshay Wadkar and Mohit Kale. The two of them had stitched together a worthwhile contribution of around 90 runs after a minor collapse had struck their team in the earlier session where they had lost three wickets for 15 runs within a matter of 7.2 overs as Vidarbha slid from 89/1 to 104/4.

The cricket was mildly intense and the terrain quite old-worldly as discussed above in terms of charm - a handful of spectators thrown around with officials, groundstaff and players all going about their business with a lazy slumber which one would expect is easily induced on a winter afternoon in Delhi.

Untouched and unaffected by all these pretensions or seriousness of an inflated sense of self-importance that cricket could very easily induce, a little angel in the form of a boy of around 5-6 years of age emerged out of the Athletics enclosure of the stadium on to the outer cricketing turf of the stadium. There was a group of mynahs which were going about having fun on the grass and to my wondrous surprise, our little angel was playing the chidiyabaaz to the flock, shooing them away. Absolute joys of childhood! Lo and behold! And yet before you could say these words, our angel disappeared as soon as he had emerged leaving behind a joyous memory one could cherish for ages. The best things in life come for free afterall and yes cricket was freed from its trappings that day for me in a sense, reminding me of my own co-operative ground and its sparrows.

Srinath's gems and a tragicomedy from the 1996 Cricket World Cup

Bowling is my first love, as far as my memory serves me right, and Javagal Srinath is my perennial favourite amongst the flock who traded the art of bowling at the highest level. The sleek, wiry, open-chested action of Srinath, which gradually made way for a slightly side-on variety as years went on, produced some memorable rapids which still strike a cord in the heart somewhere.

One could recall many gems from all his performances in India and abroad, but there are two deliveries which stand out in ODIs for me - the yorker he bowled to Keith Arthurton at the WACA Stadium in Perth in the famous tied one-dayer between India and West Indies and the away-cutter which got him the wicket of the legendary Brian Lara at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior in the World Cup tie between the aforementioned teams.

The slight contrast that I was referring to in the first paragraph about his action could be vaguely observed in the two deliveries referred in the second paragraph. The amazing swinging yorker that rattled the stumps of Arthurton at WACA surely was magical but the away-cutter he produced against the legendary Lara was equally effective, albeit aided by some poor umpiring from Khizar Hayat.

Brian was facing up to Srinath that day in what were dry conditions at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in the first day-night game at the venue. He walked in to a standing ovation from the Gwalior crowd at the fall of Sherwin Campbell's wicket who had played on to an ordinary delivery from Srinath in the fourth over of the game. The respect that the southpaw commanded in India was partly because of him being a worthy parallel of the young and ferociously talented Indian batsman of the day, need I say the name? Well, of course, Sachin Tendulkar. Both were on an upward curve of their careers at the time when the 1996 World Cup was being played.

Srinath produced a good delivery which moved away from the left-hander after pitching on his leg stump, just back of a length - a classic Srinath in-dipper which became an away-cutter for a left-hander. Lara played the ball in his trademark fashion with a high backlift where his bat came from the first slip and then jutted close to his pad with the full face on offer. The ball, however, missed everything that Lara offered and struck his back pad and went to keeper Nayan Mongia, who pouched it easily. The Indians went up in appeal in unison and umpire Khizar Hayat obliged, reluctantly albeit. Sunil Gavaskar and the late Richie Benaud were on air at that time and sounded unconvinced and rued the dismissal of the classy batsman while acknowledging the gem by Srinath.

Credit must be given to Srinath here because he too conceded that the ball had hit Lara's pad and not the bat in a TV interview years after the match, cheekily adding however that the 'benefit of doubt' went to the fielding side. He returned impressive figures of 10-0-22-2 that day in an Indian victory.

It’s not just about cricket – How Ranchi shaped the journey of its favourite son

When Pan Singh Dhoni migrated from the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand (then Uttar Pradesh) to Ranchi for joining ranks at MECON as a pump operator, he would have not thought how immense his decision would be in the years to come. When his third child was born on July 7, 1981 in the MECON Hospital, the very child held keys to a bright future which went beyond the four walls of his own house. He was christened Mahendra Singh Dhoni and we all know the kind of glory he brought not just for his family but for a wider family of Indians, just about 1.3 billion in numbers.

Dhoni was admitted to the DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, a school which was a stone’s throw distance from his father’s company-allotted flat. What stood in between his home and the school was a patch of green that would help him shape his destiny on the cricketing fields in the years to come. This patch of green was called the MECON Stadium which had a centre cricketing pitch and four stands at the corners of the ground to make it good enough for State Ranji Cricket, inter-district and inter-school cricket in the winter season.

Dhoni used to attend school from 8 am in the morning to 1.30 in the afternoon. After that, he used to scamper home for a quick lunch accompanied by a glass of milk. This was followed by a quick revision of the concepts and lessons he learnt at school that day up to around 3 pm. MECON Stadium and the adjoining school ground used to be his calling place after that where the young kid used to do goal-keeping in the myriad football games that used to take place there.

It was the school PT Teacher, Sri Keshav Ranjan Banerjee who turned our rising goal-keeper into one of the safest hands behind the cricket pitch as a wicketkeeper in those years and we all came richer for it. The young Dhoni’s game was characterized by a Yeoman’s spirit and refreshing edge which is a rare talent found in few kids. The school teachers of DAVJVM could recount many of his exploits on the field with the mischievous act of breaking window panes of the school classrooms which stood nearby. The six-hitting capability of Dhoni was exemplified by his strength of arms and able help from his best friend in childhood, Santosh Lal. It was Santosh who taught the young Dhoni the basics of the now world-famous Helicopter shot. Pivoted on the front foot and taking the bat in a 270-degree arc towards long on, this shot not just aided Dhoni in making his rise first from club cricket, district and state cricket but also helped him score the winning runs in the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 against Sri Lanka.

The youngster of DAVJVM who plied his art with elan in the MECON Stadium came of age in the years to come and first represented Bihar in the Ranji Trophy in 1999. We all know about his travails up to his eventual selection for India in 2004 when he worked as a TT in the Indian Railways and played in myriad tennis ball leagues around East India. And when he did make his debut for India, we as cricket fans around the country drew immense inspiration from his exploits as a wicketkeeper-batter and his role as a leader of men who led us to wins in two World Cups in 2007 and 2011, and a Champions trophy in 2013.

The soil of his beloved Ranchi which shaped his career and will always breathe for its favourite son couldn’t help but be happy with Dhoni’s rise through the ranks.

When the paragon of concentration equalled a world record amidst the ruins at Kotla

The key to growth in any field must be reserves of concentration that an individual possesses. The paragon of concentration in Indian cricket, former captain and opener Sunil Gavaskar, showed the value of this quality on many occasions around the world. Sadly, I have never been witness to his methodical batting as far as live action goes. From my limited knowledge of his innings spread across the 1970s and 1980s, his 121 off 128 balls against the West Indies at Kotla in October 1983 holds a special place in the heart. The West Indies were certainly at their prime in Test Cricket during that period if you go through the record books.

Sunny Paaji stood tall against the likes of Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Winston Davis and Wayne Daniel and played some exquisite drives and other shots en route his 29th hundred (then joint highest along with Sir Donald Bradman) off just 94 balls. Marshall bowled a lot from around the wicket and Gavaskar had his pulls and hooks ready to the recipe on offer. It was also Sunny's 12th hundred against the West Indies, a staggering 41.38 % of his centuries' tally till then. He himself has always rated his century against England at Old Trafford in 1974 as his best effort. However, the 29th one was special for the fans because of the fact that it equalled a Test record that day and the former India captain was probably entering the last phase of his batting career. Dilip Vengsarkar was an able ally to Sunny Paaji as he mustered a dogged 159 to help India to a first innings score of 464 in what was the second Test of the home series against the aforementioned opponents in the winter of 83-84.

The nearby ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla also houses a fine specimen of Indian metallurgy, i.e., the Iron Pillar which was brought here from neighbouring Meerut in the 14th century by Ferozeshah Tughlaq. It has been witness to many turns in history apart from the small matter of being witness to some great cricketing moments which include the most Test centuries record milestone achieved by Sunil Gavaskar in 1983, and then by Sachin Tendulkar in 2005.