Over the course of my career spanning 20 years, I have had to endure a number of injuries. Among these, two stand out. On 13th March 1996, I was in Class X, preparing for AISSE Social Science exam, which I had to write the next day while India was playing Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in 1996 World Cup semi-finals. Things were going exactly as planned, our bowlers got the SL openers early and their team was restricted to a gettable total. One moment Sachin was toying around with the SL bowling and then next moment everything came crashing down!
People say that Kambli cried that night. I didn't see him do so, How could I? when I was in tears as well! Tears make you blind. I stopped studying and retired to bed early. But I couldn't sleep. The exam that I was to write the next day was seldom in my thought. My irrational mind came to a rational decision that night, "to mark out Jayasuriya as the *fall guy* for India's loss!" That was my first major injury. From that day, I hated Jayasuriya and hated the team he played for. Such ferocious was this hatred against him that I failed to appreciate/see the other good players in the SL team. Hate too makes you blind. So when my friends discussed the brilliance of Sangakkara's batting. I had nothing to offer. I would either shrug and change the subject or just nod along deaf to what was being discussed. Over time, India managed to get better of SL and was beating them more frequently, but my scar had not healed. Every time I saw Jayasuriya bat, the scar re-opened and this continued until Jayasuriya retired from International cricket!
Digital satellite television started to become popular in India in late 2006 and early 2007. I was one of the earliest adopters of this technology at home. I did this mainly because I wanted to enjoy the 2007 world cup. There were quite a few advertisements on watching 2007 WC matches ad-free and with multiple cameras on TataSky and I just couldn't resist the temptation. That brings us to the second injury. On 17th March 2007, India played Bangladesh in their first match of 2007 world cup. I wouldn't bother to recollect or narrate what happened that day. They are painful. This time though my rational mind couldn't come up with any irrational choice as the "fall guy"!
My retirement from active fandom coincided with Rahul Dravid's retirement from International Cricket. People say that taking your mind out of something will definitely help you in overcoming pain. But that really didn't work in my case. I actively followed football for some time, but this pain from the second scar showed no signs of receding.
My *second coming* to active cricket fandom happened thanks to my son. He literally forced to me follow cricket in 2015 and now during the just-concluded Asia Cup. Watching India play Bangladesh, the old scars were re-opened. Seeing Dhoni strike those massive sixes in the penultimate over and demolishing Bangladesh and winning the Asia Cup for the record 6th time, I thought I would finally see closure on the second injury. Time heals all wounds. But not this one. Not yet.......
