From gloves to bare hands

Cricket – a game termed as lazy by busy men around the world. Of course, it might be considered lazy for athletes who live on rapid sports like ice-hockey or table-tennis or badminton. In cricket, the ball rests for more time than being in play. Agreed. Cricketers require far less stamina than soccer stars. Right in some sense. So why doesn’t everyone become a master of cricket? Why isn’t Baichung Bhutia or Sharath Kamal or Saina Nehwal as popular as Sachin Tendulkar? Cricket has its own class, its own difficulty areas and creates its own fears in players. One such fear is “the fear of the cricket ball”.

Yes. The fear of the cricket ball might sound ridiculous for the ones who stay distant from the game, but more than three-fourths of the population who play the game in various streets and grounds and terraces and lanes in India cites that as a reason not to raise their game beyond playing with tennis balls. I remember being asked about my capabilities as a cricketer in the organization where I worked, before the captain nominated the playing squad. I, having the fear of the ball, told the captain that I was a wicket-keeper – knowing well that a wicket-keeper would have a pair of gloves to catch the ball with as compared to the other fielders who would need to painfully catch the ball with bare hands. I was fortunate to have been handed the gloves ever since and had no problems with fear having the big gloves to protect my hand. Of course, wicket-keeping had it own difficulties, but I was ready to take it as long as I didn’t touch the ball with bare hands.

Days passed and I continued as a wicket-keeper. Months passed as I moved away from cricket-ball cricket. Years passed and WCC enrolled itself into a cricket-ball tournament nominating me as the captain. Although I was initially assumed as the wicket-keeper, plans changed later on and I had to accept being a fielder. I had to throw away the gloves and go into the field with bare hands. I had to touch the hard ball with bare hands. I had to stop the fluent drives and pulls and cuts with bare hands. How painful would that be???? Oh my God!!!! I’d seen players getting hit on their palms and fingers and shouting in pain. I trembled with fear at that moment. I touched my hands – it was so soft. I had to make it harder. I had to practice harder. I had to catch harder. Even with all these fears, I had to set an example to my team. What more, I had to stand at slips, supposedly the toughest position with bare hands. I’ve seen balls flying over to the slip region, the place where most players get hurt on their fingers and palms. How am I going to catch with bare hands????

WCCs 2nd match - and I was watching the batsman’s blade with full concentration from 1st slip. I had to keep focusing even as the batsman moved his bat to complete a stroke. The ball hit the edge and that was the moment for me to react. Having dropped a couple of catches at slip previous match I had to make it a point to hold on to anything and everything that came my way. I had only a fraction of a second to react to that edge as the ball came flying towards me. I lost the track of the ball as it left the bat’s blade but my concentration converged my eyesight back to the ball that was now already only a couple of feet closer to me at chest height. I raised my hands towards the right side of my chest and the ball pouched in safely there. Ha…. What a moment!!!! The fear of the ball against bare hands was thus eliminated.