I know the reason why we don't win lot of medals in Olympics. I
live in Bangalore, a city 2000 kilometers away from my home Kolkata. I am here to earn money (and respect too) on weekdays and guess what I do during weekends? I play cricket. No others sports, no football, no badminton,
no gymnastics and no swimming and this is the case with the other 20 odd people
with whom I play cricket. Most of them barring a few are from Kolkata (or
nearby areas).
For us abnormal is normal, imbalanced is balanced and everything is cricket. We might play “Home run battle” and “2048” in our smart phones and would spent hours to contemplate our performance to get better on the ground which would definitely take up the extra 2 hours after midnight but bats and balls (not to forget wickets) are the weapons we chose to hold in our hands every Saturday morning.
I like to read books and love to write. I write this blog for a very few people, first is of course me and then comes my friends. I am not the one to be compared to a normal blogger. While they type away every day, I wait for something to really amuse me, I write from the comfort of my home. I procrastinate for no particular reason. As a result, despite the best efforts of blogger.com, it is harder for me to discuss, share, and learn from each other. What follows then are some lessons that I have learned, often the hard way. They may not all be universally applicable but, for better or worse, they are the distilled knowledge of my few years practicing this craft.
My # of page views have fallen, I have not written in many months. The joy that I used to get when I get to know that people are visiting my page had vanished. And I wanted it back, I wanted that happiness, that eagerness to check every midnight how many have visited my blog to revisit me. I had to choose something as a topic to write, I chose cricket, because I enjoy it.
While writing this I had to picture my audience, I knew not many of my readers are avid cricket fan, not many of them would go on till the end, but few would, the interested ones would enjoy while the others would smile thinking of me as a crazy, incorrigible fellow.
As I write this, the 1st qualifier match between KKR (my favorite IPL team) and KXIP in Kolkata has been postponed to the next day, I am warm and comfy (it rained a few hours ago) at my home without thinking of what to do in office tomorrow, Narendra Modi is the new prime minister of India and I don’t have to hear Sidhu shouting in the TV,
"Mujhe pasand nahi ladai,
Mujhe pasand aata hai romance,
Lungi dance, Lungi dance
Lungi dance, Lungi dance"
But who cares, I am now going to talk about the cricket without ads, without any commentaries, without any previews. But yes we do have sledges, the fights, the anger, our after match reviews, we do host our own show 'match ka mujrim kaun', showers praises and accolades.
The constant cycle of death and resurrection plays out in our team's results too. We die some day with a duck in our name, only to find ourself waking up again on next Saturday with new vigor to improve the average. The team boasting of full of top class batsman may fall for a score as low as 50 in 12 overs while bowler who can get hit for 26 runs in an over might take a hattrick.
You must be full of questions, probably more than Arnab Goswami. The Nation wants to know which team? What cricket? Who took hattrick? Okay, okay, enough of riddles.
This team which I am going to talk about is full of studs known as Rockerzzz. Yes, we have a name (and we have a jersey too). And this team consist of more than 24 players (wow!). I won't shy away mentioning the players name but keep in mind to add word bhai after you pronounce their name because I do so as they are senior to me but I would avoid writing it again and again.
Well, it started one day, Shaimir (don't forget to add the word bhai) called me up one day, "Tanzeel, you play cricket right? Can you come over to our place this Saturday morning. We play every week and thought you could be a worthy addition." Well, that was flattery and it was followed by barrage of thoughts , "Cricket!?!?!? mann me laddu phuta?", "Saturday!?!?? that is my sleeping day (yes I sleep till mid-day on Saturdays)", "Okay then I will go for this week and will think about it next week, probably miss it next week". Little did I know that it is going to addictive, people in the ground are going to mesmerize me. They will use their willow to make me their slave (don't take it seriously).
1st Saturday morning: Back in my home city, the biggest ground, the Maidan is just 3 kms. away. We used to get up and reach the field in 10 minutes. But here, to reach the ground at 6.30 AM I had to get up at 5 AM. 23 kms. is the distance that I needed to travel that Saturday. When I reached the ground, I was given a warm welcome (probably it was my first day and I came from very far). I knew several faces but I couldn't recognize the other. Remembering names on the first day is difficult but two of them Kashif and Naushad (add double bhai to these names) were easier to memorize because they were captain and because they kept on motivating their players and/or because they were married :P and because they made me feel at home.
While I was on my way back home, I had already been added to the whatsapp group. Discussion on the completed match was full on, everyone praising each other. Names were still difficult to remember but I got to know from the conversation that there is a top class allrounder named Afsal with full of variations in bowling, there is this proper batsman in Faisal and Anjani, hard hitter in Afzal, Ehtesham and Iqbal, a bowler difficult to hit in Farooq and Shaimir, a fielder worth giving a title of eagle in Imtiaz, etc. I felt happy inside me and thought it's a good start.
It's difficult to pick a batsman or a bowler from people like us. All of us are allrounders and that's what makes our team unique. No matter how you chose a team, how imbalance it might look on paper but on the field the matches will be close. I was once part of a team who defended 70 odd runs in 12 overs but couldn't defend 120+ in 12 overs.
A six would invite everyone from batting team to come on the ground to congratulate the batsman, while small error in the field placement would prompt the company of Tausif, Kashif and Shaimir to get together to discuss for 5 minutes how to place the field and another 5 minutes to discuss how not to waste these 5 minutes next time. A hattrick too would invite everyone to get their photo together.
While we have fielders like Farooq, Tausif and Imtiaz in our arsenal who would not let the ball pass through if it is in their zone, on the other hand we have Faisal and Ehtesham who if drops the catch and stops the ball from going to the boundary is considered an achievement. The batting team shouts, "Make it two" whenever they see the ball running away towards them, the batsman feel comfortable if they have played a lofty shot and these players are getting under it. But their batting covers up their fielding and their efforts are well appreciated. I remember Ehtesham taking a difficult catch for Anil to complete a hattrick. This catch was not easy as it was high up in the air and he had to run backwards to get under it. Faisal is a responsive player, he can make a target of 120 look easy but sometimes fail to chase 70, because like I told you he is a responsive player, he only respond only when his captain reminds him to wake up and start hitting the ball, other wise a perfect opener any captain would love to have him in the team.
We have orange cones (the ones used by players during their drills) that we keep on the boundaries. We had to keep that at the farthest distance possible because the boundaries were affecting the run up of Affaque. He asks, "Shoaib AKhter, who?" There are stories making rounds these days that Affaque missed his schooling because while he could complete his run up, the school got over.
Nobody carries responsibilities on the shoulder better than Misbah. Once he hit a six, everyone knows that a responsibility had been carried out. A hattrick and getting hit for 26 runs is in the name of Buland. I hope he won't mind having two records of totally opposite in nature. The Shaun Pollock of our team Omar Farooq have never let his team down, taking wickets when required, hitting sixes when needed, took a hattrick once.
Afsal is known for his allround abilities. No one can bowl as fast as he could and not as slow as he could, when he comes to bat he changes the equation in the matter of 2 overs. Shaimir comes close to him in competition. Tausif, the hulk, nobody dare hit towards him, there's a legend that he hit Suraj for 5 sixes in an over. Suraj is kinda sorta Piyush Chawla, on his day he can take 5 wickets and score brisk runs while on his off days he might get belted for 5 sixes in an over.
Afzal once took his team to a commanding position, scored a fifty in just under 5 overs. I have never seen someone hit so cleanly. Reyaz definitely took his place when Afzal was took leave for his marriage. Rehan took a step further, his bowling added extra feathers to his cap. Scoring 3 sixes and a four in an over is no mean task, catching inches before boundary ropes is neither and getting angrier is also not an easy job. For Rehan, the angrier the merrier, hahaha. When it comes to catching no one comes closer to Imtiaz, Shaimir might have taken a diving catch at the boundary but Imtiaz took a one handed catch while running and covering a lot of distance in the ground.
A bowler rarely noticed is Rakib da. The bowler from Bengal could have gotten a chance had Ganguly not preferred Dinda so much. But thankfully there's Tausif who manages him so well.
Ameen, the local boy. It's his city in which we are playing, credit goes to him for letting us play. Thankfully he only deceives the batsman with his slower balls. Few additions to the team; Amjad aka Vicky, Sajid, Sumit and Mehran are doing pretty decent. They have played some eye catching performance adding beautiful feather to the colorful wings of Rockerzzz.
Kashif and Naushad are the ones who brought everyone together. Our manager is Salman because he occasionally comes to play. They are the mastermind for this. So, if anything goes wrong you know whom to contact.
We once took part in the tournament and that's how the name Rockerzz came up.
Before I finish off, i have few questions to ask you:
Have you watched cricket more than you have played?
a) Yes, b) No
Write your answers on a papyrus scroll, then bury them in a hole in the ground. Winners will be notified in approximately 2,000 years' time.
What is the meaning of life, please? Does it have something to do with cricket?
I give you the answer as beautifully explained by Andrew Zaltzman, "Life is a journey towards ultimate understanding of the nature of existence and reality. And, since we now have illuminating stumps, that journey is now complete."
For us abnormal is normal, imbalanced is balanced and everything is cricket. We might play “Home run battle” and “2048” in our smart phones and would spent hours to contemplate our performance to get better on the ground which would definitely take up the extra 2 hours after midnight but bats and balls (not to forget wickets) are the weapons we chose to hold in our hands every Saturday morning.
I like to read books and love to write. I write this blog for a very few people, first is of course me and then comes my friends. I am not the one to be compared to a normal blogger. While they type away every day, I wait for something to really amuse me, I write from the comfort of my home. I procrastinate for no particular reason. As a result, despite the best efforts of blogger.com, it is harder for me to discuss, share, and learn from each other. What follows then are some lessons that I have learned, often the hard way. They may not all be universally applicable but, for better or worse, they are the distilled knowledge of my few years practicing this craft.
My # of page views have fallen, I have not written in many months. The joy that I used to get when I get to know that people are visiting my page had vanished. And I wanted it back, I wanted that happiness, that eagerness to check every midnight how many have visited my blog to revisit me. I had to choose something as a topic to write, I chose cricket, because I enjoy it.
While writing this I had to picture my audience, I knew not many of my readers are avid cricket fan, not many of them would go on till the end, but few would, the interested ones would enjoy while the others would smile thinking of me as a crazy, incorrigible fellow.
As I write this, the 1st qualifier match between KKR (my favorite IPL team) and KXIP in Kolkata has been postponed to the next day, I am warm and comfy (it rained a few hours ago) at my home without thinking of what to do in office tomorrow, Narendra Modi is the new prime minister of India and I don’t have to hear Sidhu shouting in the TV,
"Mujhe pasand nahi ladai,
Mujhe pasand aata hai romance,
Lungi dance, Lungi dance
Lungi dance, Lungi dance"
But who cares, I am now going to talk about the cricket without ads, without any commentaries, without any previews. But yes we do have sledges, the fights, the anger, our after match reviews, we do host our own show 'match ka mujrim kaun', showers praises and accolades.
The constant cycle of death and resurrection plays out in our team's results too. We die some day with a duck in our name, only to find ourself waking up again on next Saturday with new vigor to improve the average. The team boasting of full of top class batsman may fall for a score as low as 50 in 12 overs while bowler who can get hit for 26 runs in an over might take a hattrick.
You must be full of questions, probably more than Arnab Goswami. The Nation wants to know which team? What cricket? Who took hattrick? Okay, okay, enough of riddles.
This team which I am going to talk about is full of studs known as Rockerzzz. Yes, we have a name (and we have a jersey too). And this team consist of more than 24 players (wow!). I won't shy away mentioning the players name but keep in mind to add word bhai after you pronounce their name because I do so as they are senior to me but I would avoid writing it again and again.
Well, it started one day, Shaimir (don't forget to add the word bhai) called me up one day, "Tanzeel, you play cricket right? Can you come over to our place this Saturday morning. We play every week and thought you could be a worthy addition." Well, that was flattery and it was followed by barrage of thoughts , "Cricket!?!?!? mann me laddu phuta?", "Saturday!?!?? that is my sleeping day (yes I sleep till mid-day on Saturdays)", "Okay then I will go for this week and will think about it next week, probably miss it next week". Little did I know that it is going to addictive, people in the ground are going to mesmerize me. They will use their willow to make me their slave (don't take it seriously).
1st Saturday morning: Back in my home city, the biggest ground, the Maidan is just 3 kms. away. We used to get up and reach the field in 10 minutes. But here, to reach the ground at 6.30 AM I had to get up at 5 AM. 23 kms. is the distance that I needed to travel that Saturday. When I reached the ground, I was given a warm welcome (probably it was my first day and I came from very far). I knew several faces but I couldn't recognize the other. Remembering names on the first day is difficult but two of them Kashif and Naushad (add double bhai to these names) were easier to memorize because they were captain and because they kept on motivating their players and/or because they were married :P and because they made me feel at home.
 |
| Rockerzzz!!! |
While I was on my way back home, I had already been added to the whatsapp group. Discussion on the completed match was full on, everyone praising each other. Names were still difficult to remember but I got to know from the conversation that there is a top class allrounder named Afsal with full of variations in bowling, there is this proper batsman in Faisal and Anjani, hard hitter in Afzal, Ehtesham and Iqbal, a bowler difficult to hit in Farooq and Shaimir, a fielder worth giving a title of eagle in Imtiaz, etc. I felt happy inside me and thought it's a good start.
It's difficult to pick a batsman or a bowler from people like us. All of us are allrounders and that's what makes our team unique. No matter how you chose a team, how imbalance it might look on paper but on the field the matches will be close. I was once part of a team who defended 70 odd runs in 12 overs but couldn't defend 120+ in 12 overs.
A six would invite everyone from batting team to come on the ground to congratulate the batsman, while small error in the field placement would prompt the company of Tausif, Kashif and Shaimir to get together to discuss for 5 minutes how to place the field and another 5 minutes to discuss how not to waste these 5 minutes next time. A hattrick too would invite everyone to get their photo together.
 |
| Anil with his team after the hattrick |
 |
| Buland with his team after the hattrick |
While we have fielders like Farooq, Tausif and Imtiaz in our arsenal who would not let the ball pass through if it is in their zone, on the other hand we have Faisal and Ehtesham who if drops the catch and stops the ball from going to the boundary is considered an achievement. The batting team shouts, "Make it two" whenever they see the ball running away towards them, the batsman feel comfortable if they have played a lofty shot and these players are getting under it. But their batting covers up their fielding and their efforts are well appreciated. I remember Ehtesham taking a difficult catch for Anil to complete a hattrick. This catch was not easy as it was high up in the air and he had to run backwards to get under it. Faisal is a responsive player, he can make a target of 120 look easy but sometimes fail to chase 70, because like I told you he is a responsive player, he only respond only when his captain reminds him to wake up and start hitting the ball, other wise a perfect opener any captain would love to have him in the team.
We have orange cones (the ones used by players during their drills) that we keep on the boundaries. We had to keep that at the farthest distance possible because the boundaries were affecting the run up of Affaque. He asks, "Shoaib AKhter, who?" There are stories making rounds these days that Affaque missed his schooling because while he could complete his run up, the school got over.
Nobody carries responsibilities on the shoulder better than Misbah. Once he hit a six, everyone knows that a responsibility had been carried out. A hattrick and getting hit for 26 runs is in the name of Buland. I hope he won't mind having two records of totally opposite in nature. The Shaun Pollock of our team Omar Farooq have never let his team down, taking wickets when required, hitting sixes when needed, took a hattrick once.
Afsal is known for his allround abilities. No one can bowl as fast as he could and not as slow as he could, when he comes to bat he changes the equation in the matter of 2 overs. Shaimir comes close to him in competition. Tausif, the hulk, nobody dare hit towards him, there's a legend that he hit Suraj for 5 sixes in an over. Suraj is kinda sorta Piyush Chawla, on his day he can take 5 wickets and score brisk runs while on his off days he might get belted for 5 sixes in an over.
Afzal once took his team to a commanding position, scored a fifty in just under 5 overs. I have never seen someone hit so cleanly. Reyaz definitely took his place when Afzal was took leave for his marriage. Rehan took a step further, his bowling added extra feathers to his cap. Scoring 3 sixes and a four in an over is no mean task, catching inches before boundary ropes is neither and getting angrier is also not an easy job. For Rehan, the angrier the merrier, hahaha. When it comes to catching no one comes closer to Imtiaz, Shaimir might have taken a diving catch at the boundary but Imtiaz took a one handed catch while running and covering a lot of distance in the ground.
A bowler rarely noticed is Rakib da. The bowler from Bengal could have gotten a chance had Ganguly not preferred Dinda so much. But thankfully there's Tausif who manages him so well.
Ameen, the local boy. It's his city in which we are playing, credit goes to him for letting us play. Thankfully he only deceives the batsman with his slower balls. Few additions to the team; Amjad aka Vicky, Sajid, Sumit and Mehran are doing pretty decent. They have played some eye catching performance adding beautiful feather to the colorful wings of Rockerzzz.
Kashif and Naushad are the ones who brought everyone together. Our manager is Salman because he occasionally comes to play. They are the mastermind for this. So, if anything goes wrong you know whom to contact.
 |
| how not to take a catch, circled in red |
 |
| A selfie went horribly wrong |
We once took part in the tournament and that's how the name Rockerzz came up.
Before I finish off, i have few questions to ask you:
Have you watched cricket more than you have played?
a) Yes, b) No
Write your answers on a papyrus scroll, then bury them in a hole in the ground. Winners will be notified in approximately 2,000 years' time.
What is the meaning of life, please? Does it have something to do with cricket?
I give you the answer as beautifully explained by Andrew Zaltzman, "Life is a journey towards ultimate understanding of the nature of existence and reality. And, since we now have illuminating stumps, that journey is now complete."
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