Friday, June 19, 2009

Cricket World Cup T20




It's been a long long time, almost two years, since I have watched cricket.
When I did watch, it was more for the love of watching Pakistan win than the love for the game itself. I have always been interested in Pakistan playing and winning (of course) as compared to enjoying the game.
And why it has been so long.... the last year at Bachelors, which we like to call the FYP year was spent doing a lot of things; studying, making your FYP, job surfing, interviews and of course enjoying the last year, celebrating days etc. I was so busy doing all this that I forgot about cricket altogether. Plus, the last World Cup, with the coach's story and Inzi resigning and Pakistan loosing horribly, didn't help at all. And then when that hectic year ended, another began, and the tempo was lost somewhere. :P
Anyways, so these days, I am not actually free, but I have found my long-lost interest in Cricket... that may very well be because of the fact that Pakistan is performing better. Plus, after every match, team mates discuss the highlights. All this was bound to get me back on my track..
So ta-daaaa I am back!!!!!!

Anyways, so I am not actually here to discuss World Cup T-20, if you wanna do that.. go hang out on Cricinfo... Here we'll be discussing something else... :P This is a trip down the memory lane.. only people who were there with me will be able to enjoy this (of that too there is only a thin chance) :P

So all of this cricket-fuss reminded me of the time when I used to be a die-hard fan and still couldn't understand why there was such a thing as LBW.. :P

Only one of the girls in my class shared my never-dying (which eventually did die.. but only for a while) devotion for Pakistan team, and only one was what I needed.
During breaks between classes, we'll rush to the computer labs, trying to find a free computer, hurridely logging in and then checking cricinfo for the latest updates. But more fun was when we didn't find any free computer, but still we couldn't risk not knowing ball-to-ball details, so we would go and nag others;


  1. We would either find someone with cricinfo open (and there were many!!), we would make sure they happen to come in our route to the door, and give a furtive, non-interested glance to their computers while we were passing by, and there... we'll have our scores.

  2. Or we'll sneak up on our unsuspecting friends, snatch away the keyboards from them, and check the score. And hear things like;

    "Koi kaam nahi hai tum logon ko kya????"



    "Don't you people have TRW class?"



    "Khud ko to kuch karna nahi hai.. humein to project/assignment bananye do...."



And then there was that day, when one of our teachers, who proved to be an even-bigger fan, started discussing a match, giving her comments (and that too like an expert) on yesterday's game, and suddenly one of the guys stood up, and said, with a very serious expression on his face..

"Ma'am mein abhi ja ke score check kar ke aata hoon"

like that was the most important thing in the world to do at that exact moment.. and seriously it was... :) :P


And then came the World Cup... I wasn't disappointed at Pakistan loosing, more disappointed by the way our people were reacting. No matter how important it is for anyone to watch Pakistan win, it's still just a game, nothing more, nothing less.. These are the people who make heroes and they are the ones who perish them.

And I remember.. well not exactly, as I didn't watch the match... the match between Pakistan and Ireland, which unfortunately Pakistan lost, and which was Inzimam's last match.

Back to the present, as Rambler and I were going up the flight of stairs, making our way towards the lunch room and we had an encounter with two ladies coming back from lunch....

Lubrilu:
"Mubarak ho India haar gaya"

And as the match I mentioned above (the one between Pakistan and India), was all that I had on my mind that day, I found the mention of cricket as a great opportunity to let everyone have an insight on my story... I immediately switched into my story-telling mode, not caring at all whether anyone was interested even a bit or not;

"I remember that Pakistan-Ireland match... and can you imagine? I had a mid-term the next day.. and that too of Software Engineering.. Why would they ever schedule papers during World Cup... "

FarQuest said:
"And I know you still watched the match"

Me:
"NO!!!! I studied.. and I flunked... well what else was I supposed to do... Almost everyone failed that mid-term.."


(And I don't know why I would mention something like me failing a paper on my blog.. but well.. I just did. And I'll get people to comment and vouch for 'everyone failed that midterm..' to prove that I wasn't the only one)

The reason I decided to mention this match was that I still remember the only glimpse I had of that match.. Inzimam-ul-haq going back to the pavilion after playing his last batting inning, with tears in his eyes... You put in so much of your time on a game, even if you are playing for yourself, and not for your country or your team, even then.... you deserve a better farewell than Inzi got.. His team mates might have given him a better one.. and maybe Pakistanis did too, and I just don't know of that, but what I do know is that what was happening in those days, our reaction at that time.. well, they weren't good.. :)

And as that was the last match I watched before I lost my interest in Cricket, it's going through my head these days, this match and all the fun we had in uni, the way we died to hear of the updated score. And I thought I should better write a post on it (for the need of having something better to write)

Anyways.. I am back on track.. I have started watching cricket again.. Pakistan is in Finals (YEHHH!!!)
Yesterday, everyone was hugging each other and saying Congratulations like Pakistan has won the final already.. (when it has won the semi-final only, I hope it does win the finals, and then it will be time for celebration..)
And about two to three times, the semi final was discussed by my team-mates.. Sentences like
"Kya awesoommee match tha yaar.."

kept landing on my ears...

P.S:

  1. The first post I wrote on my blog was of Pakistan loosing the match.. :P

  2. The Writer commented on me a few days ago..
    "You can write an essay on anything"

    Though I did not take very lightly to that comment.. but I think I have just proved him right, haven't I?
    Just wrote a mindless post.. on a mindless topic, which was completely OFF the topic... :P :P



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey nice, one you were long over due for an article. And thanks for proving me right. I knew present each and every topic in you own special way.

Though you may thinks the article as pointless, but I see it as very relative. All of us at some point in our lives have gone through more or less the same to get an update on a Pakistan match.

You have should a unique way of discussing cricket, no stats, just good memories and lessons. Good work keep it up.

Looking forward to your next article :)

Intricate said...

@ammadsal
Thank you, thank you :D

hmm hopefully, there will be a few more posts.. :)

Anonymous said...

By looking forward to your next article, I was not pointing to any article on cricket in particular. I meant any article on any topic will be nice to read :) and will help in further understanding the life and times of the author :).

But your comment also gives a mild indication as if you want to leave blogging. I sincerely hope that its not the case.

And thank you so much for the article :P

Ambreen said...

arayy kya yaad dila diya... i swear, 'peeking' into other ppl screens whn v cudnt find any free pc WAS simply fun!!! haha and pretending as if we were just wondering if the person resembles one of our frend from the back..lol as if any of our frend would get a boy cut :P Dammn tht was crazy. :D
and yeahhhh Semi final was awesomee..really really awesome!! just hope it works for thm in finals as well.. :)
Keep it up dear!!

Intricate said...

@ammadsal
hein hein hein? "will help in further understanding the life and times of the author :)."
I feel like a test subject here :P

Intricate said...

@Ambreen..
It did girl, it did.. It worked...
Pakistan WON!!!! Yeh!!!!!!
Shukar hai Allah ka ke jeet gaya yaar :) :)

And yup, we did a lot of crazy things then didn't we.. this was one of the funniest.. :D :D

rambler said...

I posted a comment and blogger phatt gaya :P