Saturday, November 22, 2008

sparrows , mynahs and cricketers


hi,
Well here I am, writing again. I guess that some things just don't die , they might fade way though.
The day before , I was in my nets coaching, and a guy called Arjun asked me why , some players are so good at cricket and why others were not?. I was stumped to say the least, I could speak on talent , genes , slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, enhanced rate of neuron firing leading to faster response to stimuli and all, but there was a catch, this guy was all of 8years old, and a philosopher in the making.
He aspires to be a wicket keeper and one day as I was making him do some drills with an agility ball, he missed some , stood with his hands on his tiny hips and asked me a question! How any years have I been coaching? I replied 19! He asked me again. Have you ever seen a ball that will bounce off at tangents in a cricket match? I was stuck for a plausible answer.
And now here he is with this question!
I took a deep breath looked around and saw a sparrow and a mynah. I asked him ,How awkward that sparrow is walking?He agreed, noting with glee that it looked like a dignified old man running after a bus. I shooed it and and Mr sparrow flew up. Wow , such elegance , such poise and grace.I asked him do you notice some thing? He said NO! Then the resident mynah started it beautifull song , I asked him to listen, He said wow!
There it was the answer to his question, I told him that not all sparrows are good runners but they are experts in avionics and the even though the mynah was not so hot in looks but his voice was tops .
Same way , some one must be good at cricket but bad at singing and still others good at writing.it is for each one to find out where his talent lies and endeavour to polish it till he or she becomes the gem, he/ she was designed to be by god.
Each child is a gift from god, special, with talents none else has. He or she should not be enticed, cajoled of forced to take up sports , profession or life styles which will kill the genius in them.

SO LET SPARROWS FLY, MYNAHS SING AND TALENTED CRICKETERS FLOURISH.

Speaking of talent, talent with application, dedication and single minded pursuit of excellence will produce results . look no further that Sambasiva Sharma. I remember, years back as he was struggling to come through the U 19 ranks. the state chairman of selectors telling me " This Sharma will never play quality cricket". But he believed in himself, his family supported him, he trusted me when I told him to switch to opening from middle order,most of all he worked hard. Look where he is now, the only player to score two centuries for kerala in a single match.

HATS OFF TO YOU "DEAR SAMBA" KEEP PUSHING AND AS I TELL YOU ALWAYS , "WHAT EVER HAPPENS . DONT LET GO!'

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Y THIS SILENCE

hi all,
Its been quite some time since i felt like writing, cause the passion and love I had for this game slipped in to a coma on the 26th of October 2008, at the scenic Infosis grounds Mysore on being operated upon (lobotomy) by the eminent English and Australian bred surgeon Kerala cricket association authorities had brought over to revive cricket in this beautiful state.

He convinced me that my passion and enthusiasm for this game was misplaced and that i can never ever aspire to coach as I have not, in his words "played at the highest level". so here I am wondering why I have wasted such a large amount of my time . and what hurts most was that there was no one to put in a word for me.

"wasted, wasted"
I have wasted a decade in this futile pursuit in this state where there is ,
no honor for being true to your profession,
no compassion for the honest trier
no virtue in being honest and truthful
no one to support
and all to point fingers
"wasted wasted ! a decade wasted