The International Cricket Council (ICC) is celebrating its 100th Anniversary of inception, and Tehelka has come up with a Special Issue, which I picked up at the stands two weeks back but got to read fully only now. It’s not really a collector’s dream, but the Opinion piece by Tarun Tejpal (the editor) was nice, he has written about cricket as a metaphor for life.

Now I like metaphors, and cricket not so much. I say not so much because I am often surrounded by people who love cricket so much that if I say I like cricket, there will be a sudden and often acrmonious outrage. Now that, I wont be able to answer when Al-avalathi Shaji asks questions like who was the Indian cricketer who debuted with Tendulkar in 1989 and then went on to act in TV serials, nor would I wake up at 6 AM to watch the third day of a South Africa- New Zealand test match. No I am not designed like that.

Back to the article, its a nice read, here are a few snippets –

As in life, opportunity was whimsical: a player could play an entire five-day match without getting a single chance to put his bat to ball or to turn an arm. As in life, the elements were always the presiding deities: a dying sun could save a match; an overcast morning castle an innings.

sunny

The bowler is no longer Hadlee or Holding. He is just a bunny boy who sets up the sixers that the helmeted batsmen can send flying into stands of screaming fans. In an age leached of all centralities, in which 24-hour news has made everything a blur, it caresses at no memory, merely fuels desire. Millions of my generation can recall, 30 years later, every great innings of Sunny Gavaskar, every great spell of Bedi and Chandra. Not one of today’s will be able to tell you what happened in the match between India and Australia month before last.

The full article is here

and the entire special issue is here bann