My cricket versification

Before passing the SSC exam (then Matriculation) in 1962 and getting admitted to Ananda Mohan College, Mymensingh, I had no interest in playing cricket. Rather, I was a footballer. Playing football was my addiction. Neither I was not a so good nor too bad in playing football. As cricket was being played in my school, I also played the game for a while. But I got very few opportunities to bat as everyone wanted to bat. I was forced to bowl more, fielding as well.

Once I was hit by a ball in the knee while playing without pads and armguards. I was lucky that the ball didn't hit a little higher. Since then, I stopped playing the game. After the incident, I lost interest in cricket. Rather, I choose football. I have described my everlasting interest and love for football in my book 'My Childhood'. I used to listen to football commentary on the radio then. Kolkata's Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, and Dhaka's Mohammedan and Victoria were my favorite teams.

I got the opportunity to listen to the running commentary of cricket for the first time after I got admission in Ananda Mohan College. We had an oversized Murphy radio in our college cafeteria. My college cricket fans used to sit on chairs surrounding the radio and had tea-singara-cigarettes, and listen to the cricket commentary. Six has not yet been introduced, there was only boundary. The commentators in Boundary Hall would also speak excitedly, and the audience would clap along with them and burst into joy. Seeing their joy and excitement, one day I also pulled a car and joined the group. There was no ODI or T20 cricket then. Cricket meant Test Cricket. A Test match was going on between West Indies and Pakistan at that time. Perhaps that test match was going on in Barbados, West Indies. My new life started by listening to the commentary of that test match. The addiction of cricket consumes me as a giant python slowly devours its prey.

It was in 1962 that I sat down to listen to cricket commentary, till today I could not leave that chair. From 1962-2023, in the last 61 years have passed, my addiction to cricket has increased but not decreased. Cricket has also undergone a lot of transformation during this period. Since 1971, one-day limited-overs cricket (initially 60 overs and later settled at 50 overs) and later T20 cricket were introduced along with the five-day Test Cricket.

The final match of World Cup Cricket 2023 has started a little earlier. Australia won the toss and sent India into bat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India. I thought India would bat if they won the toss. I didn't think Australia would win the toss and send India into bat. I think Australia made a mistake. India is the best batting line-up of this World Cup. I think Indian batsmen will build a mountain of runs. I don't think Australia will win this World Cup by chasing that mammoth run.

Author: Poet