Left Handed Compliment

 

The “glorious uncertainties of Cricket”, is how the victory of the underdogs, normally described in Cricket parlance. Indian Cricket team seems to have discovered quite a few tricks over the years and have more often than not turned the tables on their more fancied opponents. We did it in West Indies 50 years ago, when a diminutive Sunny Gavaskar led the charge and humbled the mighty West Indians in their backyard with a stupendous 774 runs in just four tests with a double hundred against the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai…. They carried the form to England and trumped them too same summer. But somethings are too good to last and 1974 Indian tour of England was a disaster, with India being bundled out for a paltry 42, subjected to a humiliating 3-0 whitewash. 46 years later, Down under, dismissed for 36, we were all reminded of our miserable performance in Lords years ago. In fact there was a popular what’s app forward, that Sunny Gavaskar took 60 overs to score 36 runs in the First ODI World Cup, Yuvi took 6 balls to score those many in the 2007 ODI World Cup and Indian team managed it collectively in Adelaide in 2020.

Rising from the ashes, the Indian Cricket Team just proved all the Cricket pundits wrong and left them with eggs on their faces at Gabba! Guess what... it is the Left handers who have clinched it for us. Left handed batsmen enjoy a special status in Cricket, actually Left handed people by and large are supposed to be more talented, be it art, sports or in general. Actually to be honest I am a little prejudiced being a Left handed batsman myself, not that I have been much of a cricketer just school level. But in India of the 70s and 80s every kid was a cricketer at some level or the other while most of us were restricted to the typical Gully Cricket with balls varying from Tennis balls to rubber ones and at times even make shift cloth balls. Some of you may be amused or rather wondering what this cloth ball is all about ...well the strips of waste clothes, typically worn out vests, socks were bundled together and stuffed into a cloth bag with a round shape, it worked especially when these balls just did not hurt anyone nor did it cost a packet.

Gully Cricket did not have any need for stumps at any of the ends, no pads or guards and there were no stipulations regarding the number of minimum players, even two were a quorum! Funnily, although I am a right handed person, I started to bat Left handed. I have often wondered whether it was deliberate or just one of those things. Actually in early seventies, Salim Durrani an all-rounder who was a Left handed batsman was known for his swashbuckling batting, despatching the ball into the stands on demand. Then there was Alvin Kalicharan a stylish West Indian Left handed batsman who personified elegance and class, so may be to emulate them I batted with left or may be just to be the odd one out, you know, to be different, stand out from the crowd. I wonder how many of you recall, the catch phrase of “Maggi Hot & Sweet Ketchup” ad which featured Pankaj Kapur and Javed Jaffri, where Pankaj Kapur used to answer Javed Jaffri’s query about how this sauce different from any other, with just “It’s different!”.

Be that as it may, my Left handed batting did provide me with an opportunity to represent my teams as an Opening Batsman just to keep the opponents in a perpetual quandary with the left right batting combination. As viewers would recall Sachin and Saurav Ganguly proved to be ideal foil as openers in One Day International Cricket matches. So no left handed compliments for the lefties, who have been proven match winners over the years. This feat has again been demonstrated in ample measure by young and talented Rishabh Pant in Gabba and again in Motera; more recently by Axar Patel the left arm off break bowler who simply wrecked the English side at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. While the right handed ones can plod on and even seek refuge behind Sachin but the the Lefties were always the more stylish batsmen for every Sachin there was a Brian Lara. The walls would be right handed but it is the Yuvis, Pants and Sauravs who have regaled us with their flourish with the willows. May their tribe grow and entertain us ever more…