As I took a stroll along the beach to beat the summer heat, my eyes captured the view of beach cricket. Excited to watch the mini cricket match, I sat down on the beach sands with perfect picturesque view of the waves and the perfect view of cricket. The soothing sounds of the gushing waves, the sparkle of the waters when sunlight falls on it, the gentle sands like a cushion and the noise of the children playing cricket enthralled me. So I pushed myself comfortable to the ground. The gang of young batsmen, bowlers and more or less all-rounder joined together to select their team members.
An elderly person watching the game was selected as the umpire for the mini cricket match. Two teams comprising of five in each [team1 and team 2] were selected by the team leaders-the team captains [in cricketing terms] and the coin rose in air with the so-called umpire [not of international standards but surely the right person for umpiring those future cricketers] supervising the situation. The team captains need a mention here. They are exactly the contrast of the other.Team1's captain was short and submissive while the other was tall and domineering. The coin sided towards the Team1 and they elected to bat first. The match started not backed by the crowd but by the silent spectator [that is me].
The openers came to bat with one of them being the captain himself. They used a very stylish bat which could be related to a wooden plank. Expecting the captain to play his game, I was glued to the mood of the cricket match. The bowler seemingly very aggressive knocked down the imaginary stumps and was declared out. The players of Team2 hailed the bowler and were enjoying the first break through. The wickets fell in quick intervals [may be the imaginary stumps were the reason for most of the wickets.] Influenced by the recent IPL matches, the last batsman shouting "we are Chennai superkings! It rocks!" stood before those unseen stumps [seen by the players and the umpire alone].
The new bowler tried his hand to pick out the last wicket. The ball came with great speed and hit the batsman's hand. The little player fell down shouting at the bowler and the scenes of fight springing up. The air was filled with noise of the Team1 players taking their turn to give their doze against that opponent bowler. All these reflected the minor controversies happening in the world of international cricket as well.
The tears of the batsman and the word of sorry from the bowler was a typical situation as those catching up the top headlines on news channel. I wonder if these were just imitations of what was happening in the international matches. The teams going logger heads while the umpire looking into the situation and the teams were finally back into the game. The last player got out by a catch and the final score of the Team1 was 15.The team1 captain being once again the opener [but this time he was the opening bowler] was smashed off his first ball to boundary.
The next ball was hit hard that it fell on a car. It was the time for next controversy. The owner of the car entered the field to shout at the player. The other players on the small field trying to escape from the situation just pointed out the batsman. The umpire now defended the boy and cleared him off the blame. The umpire made sure the car was not damaged. The owner of the car just then walked away. I was dumb-struck to know that the umpire was none other than the father of the owner of the car. The small fights and controversies were put down by the great umpire of the game. The Team2 proved more powerful to the team1 and won the match by 2 wickets [out of 5] .The match was over and the memories of the match are still fresh. The influence of cricket and the new IPL fever has made people crazy about cricket. so as the title goes-" crazy cricket or cricket crazy?"
