The Void Left Behind By The Cricketing Era Of The ’90s

They have called it a religion. Is that why it is becoming something that only some fanatics devoutly follow it now? Every other sport known to us has been either liked or completely disregarded. But cricket perhaps is the only sport we love as much as some of us love to hate. Nevertheless, it certainly has always inspired immense and intense emotion in us. And unquestionably, it is that game, of which we have made the maximum number of customized versions to suit ourselves.

We play it with a tennis ball, plastic balls and paper balls, using wooden planks and writing pads as a substitute for bats. We play it in the open grounds, in closed gullies, in boxes and in closed rooms. When we get tired, we play it in the video game format and on mobile phones. And, hell, we even played it in our textbooks using the page numbers as runs scored (remember book cricket). We have loved it and lived it. Then why is it now that our love is fading, as the jersey of our heroes became darker through the years?

No, We Do Not Love It As We Did

Remember the times when there was one ODI match and we talked about it until the next week? We watched it from the opening ceremony, through the pitch report and right to the presentation ceremony. You would then remember running to take a tinkle in the break and rush back in front of the television, tumbling over the sofa as if your pants were on fire, only because you could not afford to miss even a single ball.

Undeniably, you don’t remember doing that lately because you are treated with two T20 matches within a single evening for more than two months of IPL every year, apart from the regular and more frequent tours of our team. I wonder if it is because we have so much else to do now that we cannot afford to completely watch even a T20 match, leave alone a Test match. We instead settle for the second innings or the highlights next morning.

The Journey And The Heroes

Arguably, our current team led by Virat Kohli is the best performing team in Indian cricket history. We see them on the field and we know they are here to win. But back in the day, we all know that it wasn’t always a happy ending for us. We have had our hearts broken several times and then mended again, in cycles. It took a lot of years and tears before the tables turned. And it took the efforts and the lives of the legends in building Indian cricket brick by brick to the marvel that it is today. This certainly is a huge reason why we regard the journey so much and are so emotionally attached to it.

One contribution that I consider most vital and timed is, the aggression instilled in the team under Saurav Ganguly’s captaincy as he led the team to win the Champions Trophy 2002 and to qualify for the 2003 World Cup Finals. How can we not miss the explosive opening of Virendra Sehwag, the class and contributions of Rahul Dravid & VVS Laxman, the reverse swing of Zaheer Khan, the yorkers of Ajit Agarkar, the dedication of Anil Kumble and the knocks of the man or should I say the God himself, Sachin Tendulkar! I repeat the title crossed over from Game of Thrones –time took them away from us, and the Kohlis, Pandyas, Dhawan’s together could not fill the void they left behind.

Remembering The Golden Era

Don’t we all have those favourite moments and memorable incidents of the 90s and 2000s cricket? It may be Anil Kumble’s 10 on 10 wickets in a single match or Sachin making only 5 runs yet coming back to bowl the last over and winning it for us, or the popular ones like Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh leading India to victory in the Natwest final or Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s matka (gamble) of Joginder Singh’s last over in the T20 World Cup Final 2007.

How many of us jumped from our Sofas and screamed as Ganguly caught Sayeed Anwar at 194 runs? And how can we ever get over Yuvraj Singh spanking Stuart Broad’s all six deliveries to the maximum and Sachin Tendulkar finally hitting his double century. We still are fans of the out-of-this-world fielding of Jonty Rhodes, the pitch-perfect line and length of Glenn Mcgrath, the rocket speed of Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee, the all-around performance of Jacques Kallis and the remarkable spin of Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. We remember the quirky double handed action of Debashish Mohanty, the nervous 90s jinx of Sachin, Ponting’s rumoured spring bat in the 2003 World Cup finals and Mohammed Kaif’s unbelievable fielding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbv5BN2VtIo

The Summer Of 99

It was late May 1999 and India was playing Sri Lanka in the World Cup. I got back home from school, travelling in the auto-rickshaw (in the scorching sun), to see Saurav Ganguly hitting the front foot sixes to long on. My cousins came over and so did my neighbour and friend Naseer, who did not have a television set at his place. They were welcomed by sugarcane juice, which Dad had brought while coming home from work early (for the match) and his favourite pakode made by mom.

Doordarshan was the favourite as it had Hindi commentary. Ganguly hit a sixer as my cousin Mujju bhai went to the washroom for a leak. So we shut him inside until Dada finished his 150 runs. I guess this is story sounds familiar story to you. You know it ends by you spending the entire evening in high spirits and ebullience. Life was much like the ad between overs then – the Suzuki Samurai “No problem” ad.

So, with this article, I leave you with “Dil Mange More” moments of cricket, hope you enjoyed remembering the good old days.