The thrill of playing morning cricket

The last few days have been quite extraordinary. Here I am, still at my insti while many of my friends (and to be colleagues) are having a ball at Sonar Bangla, ITC. It was a huge disappointment not being able to join ITC in June itself; especially when I have been waiting for my job to start for quite some time now. I mean, how long can a person stay at one place doing similar stuff all the year around and frankly speaking, not doing anything at all for most part of the year ? Its not that I have been leading a mundane lifestyle, but I feel a change of place and work would be better for me now.

And in the background of all this, I have started playing cricket in the mornings. It actually began yesterday when I had boozed all night and was thus awake in the morning when some of my enthu hostelmates were leaving for cricket. I joined the group only to make a real mockery of myself barely able to stand on the field. What was fun was the the thrilling finish to the match yesterday, the match being settled in the last over.

That would have marked the end of my cricketing days at IIT had it not been for a lovely junior who came to my room in the morning today at around 6:00 to wake me up for the day's play. A lot of things rolled through my mind then. The initial inclination was to have a nice sleep. I do not have an inkling what drove me to get up and get ready for cricket. I reached the field just in time for the game to start. We won the toss and I opened. The idea was to stick around for the initial 4-5 overs and then start throwing my bat around (It was a 12 overs game). The bowling was preety decent and I was not at my best. Singles came in plenty and boundaries were scarce. When i departed (thanks to an over-timed shot) the score was 25 in 6 overs. It was a good start by all means and we ended up with 63 in 12 overs. We bowled well except for the occassionaly bad over, but it was the sloppy fielding (and more importantly the casual attitude of some of the team members) that led us down. We lost in the last over of the match, by 1 wicket. There were umpteen good deliveries in the last few overs, all beating the batsmen but none uprooting the stumps.

It was always my dream to play cricket on a proper pitch with all the proper cricketing equipment (the head gears, the pads and so on). I have got closer as I am now beginning to play on large grounds with good players. The adrelinine rush while chasing a ball, the eagerness to field well, set good fields; everything is so very thrilling and enticing. More importantly, the last week or so has very enjoyable and strangely, I have not missed not being at ITC. I attribute that to morning cricket, which has added a new dimension to my last few days at IIT (dominated mostly by my DDP, Orkutting and regular boozing). Come 10th July and I shall be joining ITC. Hope I can play some good knocks by then and develop my cricketing skills.