Tea & Dark Chocolate

This is what I had to write on Oct 07, 2006, during the Champion’s trophy, on my first blog. The blog is not accessible for public anymore, but I thought this post is sure worth a second mention. I also checked that I had got 31 comments for this one then (quite a feat for a blogger of my stature, yes I am bragging! :)) Pardon the English and the tone of it (it sounds very juvenile to me now :)), but do read on to see my love for the game. Or should I say, ex-love! :) When India lost the match against West Indies (I am not even sure it is WI or not also!) due to the Duckworth Louis(pardon the spelling if it is wrong!) method, I could see everyone talking about that whereever I went for 2 full days. Then when Sachin hit his 40th century, I could see rejoicing right from the cafeteria to the ghar-ka-building... Good people.. enjoy at India's victory. But please... dont talk to me about it. Mereko koi farak nahi padta hain... I am a total ignoramus when it comes to present-day-cric...

Suddenly I realized that the end of this World Cup is actually an end of an era for my generation. Yes, most of us have seen Sachin's first ever cricket match. Almost all of us have seen Kambli cry like a girl as Kumble walked on grimly in 1996, and the apologies by the crowd at Eden Garden right afterwards. Or the test series in West Indies where Kumble had the bandage and yet played thus winning all our hearts. Or that series in Barbados where Laxman was the only one to make a double digit score. Or see the bad boy Ricky Ponting grow on to be the shrewd man and captain his side. All of us remember that Kumble, Warne and Murali were truly the best of spin the game can see. All of us have seen Shoaib's fastest ball or have seen with grudging wonder when Afridi made the fastest 50. We all loved Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana's game, and prayed at a point that we never have to play SL! Who among us has forgotten the WC match in Bangalore which saw Sohail act like a jerk and...