I'm game

I know it's weird to talk about cricket when the World Cup football is going on.

Which is why I'm gonna do it.

Besides, I'll get to football in a few paragraphs.

Since I was a kid, the only game I have ever been obsessed with has been cricket. I have never had any interest whatsoever in watching football. Or any other sport for that matter. My closest association with sports was going to my sister's school for her annual sports day and watching her in awe as she took the winner's spot in many many sporting events. Though both of us were considered all rounders, but we had our own things. Yup, nerdy behaviour, music and tomboyishness were my thing. Sports, art and elegance were hers.

She was my sports idol. So much that even when it came to watching sports on TV, I followed what she followed and liked what she liked. When she watched Wimbledon, I'd watch Wimbledon. One fine day, she woke up and started to follow badminton. I took suit immediately. Though I did wonder at many points in my childhood, why she couldn't make up her mind about one sport, stick to it, and stop confusing me.

Maybe that's why I don't like football. Cos my sister never followed it.

Cricket, of course, is different. Like they say, it's not a sport in India. It's a religion. Pre-natal knowledge and interest in cricket is something every Indian has. I still remember the India-Pakistan matches that my sister and I used to watch when we were kids. Mom would pop in and out of the kitchen wearing her maroon and beige apron and holding a spatula every time we screamed.

"Kya hua kya hua?? Sachin hit a six? Sachin hit a four? Sachin got out?"

These are the only things she'd ask. For her, once Sachin got out, the match was over. She'd disappear into the kitchen and not come out, even if we screamed. She'd only come out when it was time to peel the two crazy sisters off the TV screen and serve us food.

India-Pakistan matches had a special significance for me. When you are in love with almost every player in the Indian team and have a crush on almost every player in the Pakistani team, watching an India-Pakistan match can cause quite a turmoil in the mind and the heart. But of course, like they say - true love always crushes the crushes. :D

I remember this particular neighbourhood next to ours, which had a lot of Pakistan fans. They would save firecrackers from Diwali for the India-Pakistan cricket matches and light them whenever Pakistan won. Sometimes the matches would go on till late, and Dad would promptly issue his "Go to bed. NOW." orders to my sis and me, and we'd go to sleep, knowing that if we manage uninterrupted sleep, we would know the next morning that India had won. But if we were woken up by loud "Kaboooom" sounds in the middle of the night, Pakistan would have won. So we would wish for a peaceful night, so we could celebrate the next day.

Whenever I'd go to my grandma's place in the summer holidays, I'd whack sixers with the plastic bat and ball that my little cousin and I played with. We had a rule - if you hit a sixer, you have to find the ball. If you can find it, it's considered a sixer. Otherwise, you're out.

I graduated to gully cricket soon, and sometimes upon vigorous begging, the bhaiyas in the neighbourhood would let me field. But every time I'd ask to bat, they'd say, "Paagal hai kya? Ladkiyan batting nahin karti!" ("Are you crazy?? Girls don't bat!") It took me a few years before they finally gave up and allowed me to bat.

I don't know what happened over the years, but I feel like I'm not a cricket fanatic anymore. Maybe it's the fact that cricket is not so big in Singapore. It's not the same as in India. To me, the heart of cricket is in gully cricket, in the electronics showrooms with the crowd of people outside watching the match, in the common TV set that hangs from a tree in some village in India with the villagers gaping at it, in the radio sets we used to smuggle to school just so we could keep track of the score, in the furious calls to friends, "Did you see that??? Kambli was SO not out! That @#$%&*^% umpire..." and "OMG, I am crazy about Shahid Afridi, but I want him to get out for a duck in the next five minutes."

It makes me sad that I don't feel that spirit anymore, or the fire that I had within me whenever a cricket match was on. A few years ago, I took leave from office to watch a cricket match. My colleagues still find it amusing. But that's been about it. I've pretty much been out of touch ever since. Earlier, I would watch matches that India was playing. I couldn't be bothered with the other countries. But these days, even if India's playing, I only find out when I see the results in the newspaper the next morning (if they bother to publish cricket news). Sigh...

In the past few days, I have been swamped with football talk from colleagues, flatmates and friends, and a slight interest is creeping in. I recently also found out that a football game is only like 2 hours long (yes yes, I did not know, laugh at me all you want). So if I could stay glued to the television for an entire day, watching people throw 300 balls, many of which do not even find their way to the bat, I can surely watch a bunch of guys in shorts running around on a field trying to get to a bigger ball for 2 hours. Just to see what the big deal is really.

Luckily for me, I will start off on a great note. My good friend Bananapen has invited me to her beautiful new house to watch tonight's game on her beautiful new (and may I add, HUGE) TV screen. And I will stay up with a bunch of football fanatics (who will explain things to me) and watch the game from 11 pm to 1 am. And if it is as addictive as people make it out to be, I will come back home and watch the 3 am to 5 am game. Even though I have no idea who is playing the second one.

I think I'm game. Finally.