Preferred sport as a child- Playing cricket

 Preferred sport as a child- Playing cricket

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When India won the world cup in 1983 under the able leadership of Kapil Dev, Cricket started spreading like wildfire in and around my hometown Mysuru city. It was cricket and nothing but cricket on the streets of Mysuru , While growing up I saw almost all parks and fields taken by our seniors who used to play professional club cricket on allmost all the grounds.

With some of our senior friends, I always used to go to club matches to watch the game. Sometimes I used to carry bats as a pillion rider in bicycle or Luna moped to various grounds ( AkkamaNi ground , Bhootala Ground , Sharada Vilas School Ground, Saint Joseph's ground, Exhibition ground opp Mysuru Palace, Manasa Gangotri grounds near SJCE , Mahajanas grounds etc ) Just going with our senior friends was so much fun and thats when I learnt the game of cricket watching them play from our dressing room ( outside of 60-70 meters ground usually under a tree is what I mean by dressing room  )

I have done scoring assignements for few matches for club teams called CCC ( Chamundipuram Cricket Club ) and LCC( Lakshmipuram Cricket Club ) .

When India toured West Indies in 80's there was no TV back then but listening to commentry in the radio itself was so thrilling experience. I miss radio commentry these days for sure. Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth used to open the innings for India.

Coming back to our matches in the playgrounds, If someone from playing 11 is missing on the day of the match they used to give me a chance to field for that missing player as as substitute until that person shows up and thats when I learnt the skill of a cricket fielder. I learnt throwing the ball to wicket keeper each time I field. In one of our club matches I was very quick in throwing the ball back to keeper on time to get their prime batsman out , lot of senior folks admired my effort as I still remember that incident very clearly even today.
This is in Sharada vilas playground and thats why this venue is very special as this has opened up to get into the game little more deeper from that day onwards. As a result of this ,opportunity came to me in the subsequent match. I was one of the playing 11 in a team, I was asked to go at number 10 and got an opportunity to field the entire length of the game in forward short leg or short mid on .

Fielding helped me so much to learn the game watching others play from the center. Me being the die hard fan of Ravi Shastri back then I used to practice bowling like him , tossing the ball up giving the loop and pitching it up to the batsman and mostly relying on ball to do the rest .

There was never a spot for batting as our team players were hungry to bat up the order and the team was loaded with good batsmans too. Those days everyone used to take the bat and run to bat up the order whether they are good or not good, some used to fight to play up the order. I never used to get into discussions but happily chose to bowl and field as I had no choice, It was inevitable.

Growing up in Basaveshwara Road/ Ramanuja Road and playing with friends from neibhouring houses were mostly prominent back then.

When TV came to many houses during that period it was such a great feeling to get up on the day when cricket matches were there on TV. Pretty much 9-5 glued to TV watching ODI. Opportunity to listen to Harsha Bhogle each time was so thrilling for me, he used to cover the game so very well ,even today I do not miss whenever he is in the commentry box covering India matches.
I would never get tired listening to his commentry skills or watching him conduct cricketing program/Interviews in TV , such is his influence on me in cricket.

Reduced over game was popular even in 1987 in Mysuru and thats when I first padded up to face the fast bowlers on the mat in Sharada Vilas Grounds . Whenever we lay the mat and play during our school days, Our Sharada Vilas friends by name Nagaraj and Raghavendra used to bowl real fast and ball used to whisle past me with a swing , Getting behind the line of the ball is an art, a slight mistake in judgement to face the swing -usually get hit on the body or gone nicking the ball to the wicket keeper or slip cordon , thats when I came to know how hard it is to face the fast swinging ball as openers.

Why did I wrote so much ? I recollect all these wonderful memory when I played the game with friends 2 weekends ago.
Holding cricket bat /ball and playing in streets , light poles as stumps - Oh boy, I love this sport.