Test of character

There are days when you feel - Wow! so many thoughts, so much to write and not enough time to jot down! 

This was such a day which started with a WFH and a test match, with results of the match more eager to jump out of the closet than the actual cricket played. And as always with Harsha commentating there is never a dull moment. How well he described ABD's attacking style with "He doesn't believe in smelling the leather like Amla!"

Sometimes it feels watching Test matches are like hearing two learned scholars talk while the game goes on, at its pace, in the background. So much history, nostalgia, philosophy and ... life! Add to that the excitement of a crucial wicket, changing the course of the game or a determined, nonchalant innings by a batsman, who concentrates like a sage to add every single run.

Everyone loves nostalgia - which is more colorful, with fragrances more appealing to senses, sad memories more brooding, happier ones much more joyous. Coming back to cricket - it was always batsman's game, what with T20's and ODI's and their heavily loaded rules against bowlers, adding to the their delight. So test matches were always the balancing act. Like socialists, toiling hard in their whites, till it patches with gray at various spots (like war medals on their uniform), bowlers generally have the last laugh in this format. With 20 wickets to show for their effort. And in some cases the artistic exhibitions by a crafty batsman, surviving the outburst and showcasing his true mettle.

As you hear the exponents of the game talk about it, you understand how a simple game is so full of sub-plots (again soaked in nostalgia sounds more mysterious, heavier than it would have been when it actually unfolded). And when the ball starts reverse swinging, there is a lot of excitement on and a little more, off the field. On the field, you see perplexed batsmen trying to out-step their adversaries, trying to refuse to dance to their tunes! And off the field, you hear sub-plots - of how bowlers hide the shiny surface to flummox batsmen and how batsmen try to use an extra hand (rather extra pair of eyes from the non-strikers) in deciphering it. All pointing to lot of undercurrents, mysteries on the cricket ground which is not obvious when watching it on TV.

Of course all this comes out when the scholars are as learned, keen, involved and glib-talking as a certain Mr Harsha Bhogle - who prods his partners in crime, observes minor details and then smoothly expresses all these in words. So, next time when you watch a test match you know cricket is more intriguing than a bestseller. You look for telltale signs, compare it with past experiences and add all this to the book of life - your life!