10/10 what a fitting date you have chosen to announce retirement, 10dulkar!
Unfortunately, with your retirement the last link to my childhood and teenage now stands broken.
I suddenly feel that I am in 30s , am a father, pay EMIs and work to save for retirement.Guess I'll not be able to relate to 1990 born new age T20 Gladiators now that you are gone.
Like many other friends and cousins , I grew up to understand my world and Cricket along side you.
When Javed Miandad hit 6 of the last ball, I saw the anguish on my father and uncle's face. Don't think they ate food before bashing Chetan sharma to grave. That day I understood for the first tome that there is a country called Pakistan and a loss against them was blasphemous. Sadly there was no one in our team who could answer them in their tone. Kapil dev , Gavaskar, Vengsarkar were gentlemen. They were good but they lacked what pakistanis had in abundance. The aggression and fire -to match them eyeball to eyeball.
That day you danced down the track against Adbul Quadir and took him for 28 runs in an over in some exhibition match. We all knew , now we have answered Javed Miandad and all those who burnt India flag in the stands.I was too young to understand how tough compiled 119 at england , 114 at Perth and 148 at sydney were. But I was happy
that you are accomplishing something what those uncles were not able to.
Yes there was Mandal commission and Babri Masjid , but you ensured that people still have something common to discuss.
We carried pocket radio at school to listen to your heroics against Pakistan in Sharjah Cups. Once (Khalid Ashraf are you reading this ?) our Math's teacher had seized the radio set but returned it as he was saddened to silence when he heard that Aquib Javed had Skittled out the whole team in one spell.
Fast forward to 1996, when the class Xth board exam coincided with Wills World Cup, I used to take frequent breaks just to confirm you are at work. It was an insurance cover to go back and study as everything is safe. Ofcourse, when heath streak yorked you at 3, my english paper suffered.
The sahara cup (4-1) , Class XII results,Dessert storms of sharjah cup, The Titanic scene, IIT JEE coaching ,streakers during India SA match, every thing is so much overwhelmingly overlapped. Thanks to you.
Graduation came and went. Quite fittingly between two world cups. Sandwitched between your 140 after returning from father's funeral and 92 against Pakistan in that seemingly impossible chase at centurian.
Jobs, projects ,client, outsourcing, TL, PM new characters and vocab came to my life one by one. So did cricinfo and those illegal streaming links. Perfect tools to remain abreast with your exploits. As long as you were playing, I felt the same enthusiasm as I had in early 90s listening to radio or while standing outside some TV shop during the days when Doordarshan was giving way to ESPN.
At times these days when the TV broadcast shows age of players as they come to bat. It reaffirms the fact that the whole generation has changed i.e., All my childhood heros are gone. No Kapil, no Wasim , no Kumble, no Srinath no waugh brothers, no Lara, just nobody whom I loved and followed, play now. But before I feel sentimental enough to switch channels, I see you whack another ball down the ground for four and suddenly I see myself back to my old days. The very reason I watch you play.
Now that you have announced retirement this automatic trip down my childhood memories will soon be a thing of past.
I just hope Leander Paes still has few years in him. Hoping against hope I know.
Follow @tellalok
Unfortunately, with your retirement the last link to my childhood and teenage now stands broken.
I suddenly feel that I am in 30s , am a father, pay EMIs and work to save for retirement.Guess I'll not be able to relate to 1990 born new age T20 Gladiators now that you are gone.
Like many other friends and cousins , I grew up to understand my world and Cricket along side you.
When Javed Miandad hit 6 of the last ball, I saw the anguish on my father and uncle's face. Don't think they ate food before bashing Chetan sharma to grave. That day I understood for the first tome that there is a country called Pakistan and a loss against them was blasphemous. Sadly there was no one in our team who could answer them in their tone. Kapil dev , Gavaskar, Vengsarkar were gentlemen. They were good but they lacked what pakistanis had in abundance. The aggression and fire -to match them eyeball to eyeball.
That day you danced down the track against Adbul Quadir and took him for 28 runs in an over in some exhibition match. We all knew , now we have answered Javed Miandad and all those who burnt India flag in the stands.I was too young to understand how tough compiled 119 at england , 114 at Perth and 148 at sydney were. But I was happy
that you are accomplishing something what those uncles were not able to.
Yes there was Mandal commission and Babri Masjid , but you ensured that people still have something common to discuss.
We carried pocket radio at school to listen to your heroics against Pakistan in Sharjah Cups. Once (Khalid Ashraf are you reading this ?) our Math's teacher had seized the radio set but returned it as he was saddened to silence when he heard that Aquib Javed had Skittled out the whole team in one spell.
Fast forward to 1996, when the class Xth board exam coincided with Wills World Cup, I used to take frequent breaks just to confirm you are at work. It was an insurance cover to go back and study as everything is safe. Ofcourse, when heath streak yorked you at 3, my english paper suffered.
The sahara cup (4-1) , Class XII results,Dessert storms of sharjah cup, The Titanic scene, IIT JEE coaching ,streakers during India SA match, every thing is so much overwhelmingly overlapped. Thanks to you.
Graduation came and went. Quite fittingly between two world cups. Sandwitched between your 140 after returning from father's funeral and 92 against Pakistan in that seemingly impossible chase at centurian.
Jobs, projects ,client, outsourcing, TL, PM new characters and vocab came to my life one by one. So did cricinfo and those illegal streaming links. Perfect tools to remain abreast with your exploits. As long as you were playing, I felt the same enthusiasm as I had in early 90s listening to radio or while standing outside some TV shop during the days when Doordarshan was giving way to ESPN.
At times these days when the TV broadcast shows age of players as they come to bat. It reaffirms the fact that the whole generation has changed i.e., All my childhood heros are gone. No Kapil, no Wasim , no Kumble, no Srinath no waugh brothers, no Lara, just nobody whom I loved and followed, play now. But before I feel sentimental enough to switch channels, I see you whack another ball down the ground for four and suddenly I see myself back to my old days. The very reason I watch you play.
Now that you have announced retirement this automatic trip down my childhood memories will soon be a thing of past.
I just hope Leander Paes still has few years in him. Hoping against hope I know.
Follow @tellalok
