A very happily married man-the accusation i face from my wife is that she comes third in my affections after surgery and cricket-and having been married for thirty years she can see through all subterfuges.
                      I  would like to explain my fascination with this strange game-talking first about my credentials-college captain, captain of the district team-yet that  does not make me an expert at dissecting tendulkars technique, nor talk about anil kumbles bowling skill.
                     sitting back and analysing why indians are in love with this game which is a remnant of colonialism-
a game played by very few countries in the world-a game akin to chess-if you consider test cricket-i would like to place my observations on why cricket is the most popular game in india-
                   i would like to confess that my observations are not truly original -they have been influenced by my reading of cricket books-and specially by the observations of ramachandra guha.
      the influence of tennis ball cricket- most of us grew up playing tennis ball cricket on uneven grounds-where the bounce would be uneven-and there would be lateral deviations at the last minute-players like vishwanath and azzharudin are examples of tennis ball cricketers adapting to real cricket-and the ultimate example is mahendra
dhoni ,a total example of tennis ball cricket. a bottom hand tennis cricket technique-and the art of watching the ball to the last minute- to expand this analogy-like football played on the streets of brazil-cricket is the street game of india-and once this fever sets in this game will remain popular-to tell a story which may explain this phenomenon-there is a small clearing in front of my house-where some dalit boys get together to play a fast and furious game of cricket-and one sunday morning watching these boys playing cricket, i was surprised when this 13 year old dalit boy stopped the bowler in the middle of his run up to answer his cell phone.
there are two points i am making here-one is regarding the popularity of cricket-the other is regarding dalit empowerment-and the fact that these boys , whom we would associate with a  mass  game like football -prefer an elitist game like cricket.
the influence of money- there was a news report that yuvaraj might sign a contract for 200 crores for the next 10 years-and that sums it all-which sports body in india has cared about sportsmen and their renumeration except the bcci.
the influence of a system-only the cricket board has a national policy in place where people are nurtured from the under 15 level onwards-ganguly, dravid, laxman have played from that level onwards-pathan ,raina, etc have played for long years together and a system is in place-organised systems are important to sustain a game.
     the influence of winning-national pride plays a key role in a countrys absorption with any sport-in brazil if you do not support football ,you must be mad-in india if you do not support cricket-you must be equally mad-because this is the only team sport where india is winning-indian football is a joke-indian hockey from the previous high standards-thanks to gill and co has an uphill climb to reach previous peaks-chess, badminton, billiards or snooker do not excite the passion of the comman man.
the influence of climbing up the social ladder-palwankar balu-a dalit from hubli who came to pune as a groundsman and who was the first great leftarm spinner for india -in 1911-and who was the representative of the dalits in the first round table conference-his brothers vittal and ganapathi-vinod kambli-solkar-the pathans-cricket is the leveller in india as football is in the rest of the world
              as a cricket fanatic, why should i explain my passion for this strange game-my idea of heaven would be a 
a lush green field-a mild sun warming everyone-my all time favourite batsmen batting-gary sobers and sachin tendulkar-facing the the two bowlers who i felt were the clacissists as regards actions-whispering death-michael holding and bishen singh bedi.
       i must admit i was stunned by kumbles cricketing brain-from being a legspinner-he bowled seam up and almost defeated pakistan-this was the inspiration of this cricket fanatics blog