Even though the British went out of India before 62 years, their game Cricket is still there in almost every Indians heart. It might be started as royal rich men game, but rapidly it reaches even the remote cook village of India where even proper electricity is not there. Cricket is existing as a bonding force to unite the people of India. This game make the Tri-Colour to fly high on different stages(grounds) throughout the world.
In this blog i like to share or recollect my cricketing memory which still there in my brain, as ever green moments.
It was happened while i was studying second standard i think so. It was a very early morning, rain fall sounds and Frogs quarrel were disrupting my sleep, my eyes opened lightly with out my willing. In that unconscious sleepy mode, I sensed that so much illumination in that dark single room(Hall) of my home. It was a Black & White Dynora TV which producing that illumination, my appa watching the cricket match. I still remember that scene of one short but giantic man holding the bat. This was my first cricket scene which is there in my memory. I don't remember anything much about this match, but i think this was a 1992 cricket world cup match which held in Australia because in Aus only matches started in early morning at Indian time, also only world cup matches were telecast in DD during that time. But I am sure on one thing that the short but giantic batsmen is Mr. DAVID BOON. Whenever i see him now in any interview or in any old match highlights my brain automatically recollect this wonderful memory.
I can recollect the clear pictures of the cricket matches from 1996 World cup which was held in India, so all the matches covered by DD and also so much hype for the tournament. During that time i was in my sixth standard. I can remember "India Today" magazine article in which they previewed about the each team strengths and weaknesses. They made an interesting and funny comment about Indian team that India's strength is "Sachin and Kumble" and weakness is "remaining Nine" lolz :P.
Tournament started. India's first match was against Kenya on one Sunday. On those days i went to dance class on Sunday. I tried my level best to cut the class but my father told that Kenya only batting first so u go to class and comeback and watch the Indian innings. I remembered that Kenya scored 199 runs. Sachin chased brilliantly and scored 127 runs with out losing his wicket.
Second match for India was Day & Night game with strong Westindies team. That team filled with full of heavy weights like great Lara, Captain Richardson, young Chandrapaul, fast and fury pair of Walsh and Ambrose along with Bishop. But Indians bowled well and restricted Westindies for a small score of around 175 (couldn't remember exactly). Indians Chase again led my our Master Sachin, but i remember the WI wicket keeper Browne dropped the lolly pop height catch of Sachin at the earliest stage of the innings itself. Sachin used this opportunity to full extent and scored 70 odd runs and finally got run out but not before taking India to comfortable winning position.
India went in to the third match with the confident of two wins, but against the better opponents Aussies. Again it was a day and night encounter. I didn't watch the first innings because of school, but back to home before India started their innings. Aussies posted the good score around 260. Cute Mark Waugh scored brilliant hundred. Once again it was Sachin chased the score rather than saying "team India" chased. Sachin was unstoppable and taking India almost to victory, but unfortunately he stumped by Healy by the bowling of Mark Waugh. He scored 90 runs, but after his dismissal, its only formality for Aussies. They wiped out the Indian lower middle order in a fraction of time and India lost by 15 odd runs.
Next match was against the minnow Srilanka. Yes we as a school students thought Srilanka was a minnow and its just like a another Kenya kind of match. This match was held on one Saturday and i was in my school ground to play cricket. It was a drizzly day and we played cricket in that wonderful climate in our beautiful school ground and asked India Vs Srilanka match score once for every hour in nearby home. Sachin once again played master knock and scored his carrier best score of 137 runs also Azaruddin scored 70 odd runs and India posted a very good total of 270 odd runs which is the match winning score during that era. But it was Jayasurya and Kaluwitharna show. This pair introduced the concept of demolishing the bowlers with in the first 15 overs. They did that on the Indian bowlers on that day, especially on Manoj Prabhakar. Ranathunga and Tilakarathne played an anchor innings and won the match for Srilanka. Whole India stunned and we understood that srilanka is not a minnow anymore.
So after two consecutive loses, India face Zimbabwe in a do or die encounter. India batted first and first time Sachin failed to deliver in this tournament. He bowled by Health Streak (one of my favorite Zimbabwe player), but his childhood friend Kambli played good innings and scored almost run a ball century and secured the berth for India in Quarterfinal.
I remembered the chat we made in our class about the India's opponent in quarterfinal, we had childish kind of cricket knowledge at that time which really make me to smile even if i remember now. We also thought that Jayasurya had Spring inside the bat hehehehe. Some of my friends in the class actually spread this story and most of us believed too at that age lolz.
Finally we came to know it is India Vs Pakistan in quarterfinal. As my history book and surrounding people taught that Pakistan is the enemy for India, this match created more interest and anticipation than other matches. I watched the full match. Sachin started slowly along with Sidhu. I remembered Sachin try to cut the ball for a single towards the third man and got inside edge and bowled. Sidhu played well and score 90 odd runs and Azar played fast innings but dismissed by a brilliant catch taken by Rashid Latif behind the stump. Then Jadega came in and thrashed the Pak bowlers all over the park of chinna swamy stadium at Bangalore. The highlight of his innings was the way he smashed Waqar Younis out of the park. India posted the very good score of 287, but Pakistan chased well. Amir Sohil and Sayeed Anwar thrashed the Indian bowlers and score 80 odd runs in just 10 overs. Amir Sohil hit the boundary of venky bowling and with egoist smile asked venky to saw the ball reaching the rope in a flash. Just after that delivery, Venky bowled one full toss but Sohil missed that ball completely and his stump rolled over. Now with aggression Venky asked sohil to see his stump roll over. Amazing moment, Whole crowd charged up and the atmosphere was electrifying. After this Indian bowlers charged up and picked up wickets in quick intervals, one excellent caught and bowled by Kumble is still there in my memory. India reached semifinal. Whole India celebrated not just because they qualified to semis, they celebrated because they beaten Pakistan (foolish people including me hehehe :P).
India faced the surprising package of the tournament Srilankans in semis on the very big stage of EDEN GARDENS. Nearly one lack people witnessed this match on the ground and millions and millions of people off the ground in front of TV screens. Srilanka batted first and dangerous pair Sanath and Kalu opened the innings for srilanka. Javagal srinath open the bowling for India and he picked up both the openers very cheaply. Kalu out for duck and sanath gone for just 1. Also he pick up tall and beard Gurusinha for just 1 run. Almost all the Indian fans decided match was over and India surely be in final, but little Aravindha played cameo innings and scored fast half century. As usual Ranathunga played an anchor innings and Mahanama and Tilagaratne scored useful runs and they reached the reasonable total of 251. I had a hope that India can chase that because we scored 270 odd runs in league match against them. As usual Sachin chased the score for India and he reaches half century and looking good to make an another century but unfortunately he stumped by the wide delivery of Sanath jeyasurya. Just after that Azzarudin caught and bowled by Darmasena. Majerakar and Jadega bowled by Sanath in quick sessions. India suddenly became 98 for 1 to 120 for 8 :(. Calcutta crowds disappointed lot and they start to throw some bottles and other things on the ground. Surely one of the sad moment of Indian Cricket history. Kambli and Kumble on the crease at that time but match stopped and srilanka declared as Winner. I was not at all able to understand what happening there while seeing in TV, but i started to cry after seeing Vinoth Kambli cry. My father asked me to switch off the TV and sleep. It was one of the long night for me:( India dream of winning world cup second time came to an end at Edens. I didn't watched the final at all that took place between Aussies and Srilankans.
That time there was some gossip that India deliberately lost the match because of the terrorist threat to Indian players. Final was held in Pakistan. Some people went more and told 11 dead body boxes were prepared for Indian players to welcome them if they came to Pak to play final (substitutes escaped :P). Of course all these were just gossip.
The series i remember( telecasted in DD) after 1996 world cup was Titan Cup. The special thing about this tournament was, Sachin's maiden captaincy tournament. This was tough test for Sachin because the other two teams in that Tri series are Aussies and South Africans. Another best thing about this tournament was Robin singh did his debut in this tournament against Aussies. It created more hype in my home because he is from Madras. I remember his performance in that match, he didn't clicked well in batting as he came to crease late, but he bowled well. In first over itself he picked wicket. I think he picked up two important wicket in that match and i remember one in that was Stuart Law. India and South Africa reached the final and India won at last. Thanks to some good bowling by Kumble and some excellent catching and fielding by Robin. I remembered that the crucial partnership between Richardsan and Pat Symcox while chasing the Indian target was broken by Kumble. Sachin lifted that Titan maiden trophy as Captain.
After this period only, the era of Dravid and Ganguly started, even though they made their debut well before. Both introduced in one England series, but i didn't watched this series in live because it was telecast in star sports not in DD. Especially Ganguly admired many at that time by his all round performance. I watched some matches in my neighbor home which was held in Toronto versus Pakistan. India won the five match series by 4-1 and in all the four matches Ganguly emerged as man of the match winner. He batted as well as bowled really well in that series. Ganguly almost overcome Sachin at that point of time, Sachin also suffered lot because of captaincy pressure at that time which affect his game.
During 1997 India celebrated the 50th Independence day and as a mark of that India conducted one tournament "Independence Cup", but i remember India just won only one match in that series against Newzeland. In this series only Anwar scored that world record score of 194 against India at Chennai :(. Sachin was captain the side at that time. On chasing Dravid scored his first Hundred of his carrier. No one was there in my home that day, i remember that i watched this match alone with frustration. Finally Srilanka taken the India's independence cup to their home by beating Pakistan in final. But India revenged this by beating srilanka and taken their Indepedence cup to India latter. Pakistan also conducted one independence cup. I heard this tournament final match commentary in Radio. It was a tight match India needed something as 5 runs from 3 balls i think so. Indian Off spinner Rajesh Chaugan hits a huge six of the bowling of Saquline Mustaque and captured the Pakistan Independence (Cup) lolz. Among all this independence cup tournament Bangladesh Independence cup was highlighted one. India chased the world record score of 314 against Pakistan. Ganguly played a master innings of 124 runs and Robin Singh scored a wonderful knock of 83, but it was Kanitkar at the end who sweeps the ball of saqline to boundary and taken India to world record history. This man Kanitkar played for India nearly two years after this match because of that single boundary he scored hehehe.
Sachin was not in really good form when he was captain the side also after India losing the home test series against South Africa, many criticism raised and Sachin frustrated and resigned his captaincy. After that Azarudhin again taken over the captaincy from Sachin and Gaekward taken over the coaching from Kapildev. During this time only we bought colour TV in my home. The first series i watched in that colour TV(this TV only still running in my home for last 12 years, importantly this is Indian make CROWN TV, but unfortunately that company is not any more) was a tri series between India, Australia and Zimbabwe. India did well in league stages but lost in final against Aussies. After this India did well in home series against Pak and did well in many sharja tournaments and went in to 1999 world cup under the captaincy of Azar but failed to deliver. Sachin, Ganguly and Dravid played some good innings in patches in this tournament but losing the league match against Zimbawave costs India more in super six stage and India out of world cup.
Only the console thing was India defeated Pak in super six.
After this only that controversial south African team led by talented Hansie Cronje came to India for test and one day series. Match fixing allegation arise during this series and Azhar sacked from team and Ganguly taken the captaincy. After this series many player like Azhar, Jadeja, Nyan mongia sacked from the team. Ganguly lead the young Indian team to Nairobi for a mini world cup. Era of Yuvaraj and Zaheer khan actually started here. Yuvaraj brilliant 84 against Aussies and Zaheer's wonderful yorkers gave the new dimension to Indian cricket. Credit should go to Ganguly for molding many raw talents as yuvaraj, zaheer, kaif, Harbajan and more. Irrespective of good show by an Indian team in this tournament we lost to Newzeland in final. Chris Cairns single handedly did this for them by scoring brilliant century. Also a home series versus Australia reveal the Ganguly's aggressive captaincy to world. This was amazing series which was held when i was in my Higher secondary. At the third day end India was scored 200 odd runs and lost their important wickets of sachin and ganguly after Australia forced India to follow-on. Laxman was on crease at 106 and Dravid was on 6. All cricket experts said that Indian defeat is almost certain, but my heart said that there is something going to happen tomorrow, so i was put the leave for school and sit in front of TV from first delivery. Laxman continued from where he left on the previous day and Dravid started slowly but gradually came in to nice shape. I remembered apart from two close lbw appeal from the bowling of Ricky Pointing just before the lunch session, the both played really well and many records broken on that traditional Eden stage. Next day it was Bajji who ran through the Aussie batting line up. People may say that India won this match because of the individual brilliancy of Laxman, Dravid and Harbajan. Of course no one can deny this, but at the same time it was sachin who picked up three important wickets in that last session of the fifth day. India won this series by a margin of 2-1 which was one of the great moment that almost change the approach of Indian cricketing style.
Many important as well as many interesting series happened after this. The Era of Shewag, Dhoni and others, the successful campaign by the Indian team in 2003 world cup(again of course its Sachin stands tall for India once again), Series win in England,West Indies and in PAK, first test match win in South Africa hehehe, Some great tournament in Australia against Australia, T20 world cup championship and so on. Also some poor performance as 2007 world cup debacle and some controversies as sacking the seniors from team and so on.
They hype about cricket is huge nowadays and coverage by media is extra ordinary and some time it is too much also. Whatever the present status of cricket, the past was memorable and sweet for me personally. I really hope that i will tell the same even after the many decades from now. At that time current present era will become past. I am eagerly waiting to see how the cricket will get transition especially after the impact of many innovations and new formats like T20.
Thanks for reading this friends :)
