Is it already 2011!

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 were shocked when Prasad gave a fitting reply?
Or how Manoj Prabhakar sealed his own fate by gifting away runs? Or how we had to bear Jadeja for just that one match just coz he made 45 runs?
Haven’t we all smiled seeing Dada throw away his shirt from the Oval?
Remember the lanky boys Vettori and McGrath debuting?
Or the fateful match for SA where they had to make 22 runs off one ball?
How many of us could forget how hard it got for Kapil towards the end of his career to achieve that record of 434 records?
Did you guys forget how Wasim Akram told Afridi ‘dimag kharab hain?’ after he dropped Sachin’s catch?

We didnt have IPLs or 20-20s. Instead we had boring test matches and interesting 50 over ODIs. There was no overdose of cricket. All we had was a beautiful game, and tons of memories associated with the good, bad and great boys of the game!
True, we are growing old! :)

[I was in 10th class when the 1996 world cup matches were going on, and we were asked to write an essay on Indian Cricket for English exam. For a mere 5 marks, I remember I filled up as much as 5 pages, all about the beauty of this game with glorious uncertainties! From the time this WC has started, I have not been able to forget this incident and how much cricket meant to me back then!
And as I saw Murali make his final victory lap in Colombo today, I could not help but thinking about the good old days of cricket, the days I enjoyed so much!]

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