We saw it, we felt it, we know it.

For the ‘past few weeks’, we have seen a lot of people mention about the ‘past few weeks’. Yes, it has affected the game and yes it was a major loss to everyone involved. But, it was heartening to see how most of the media, general public and cricketers dealt with the situation and how everyone emphasized the need to move on.

Apart from that, an uncomfortable feeling grew in whenever there was a mention about the bowler. There were lines like:

‘thoughts are with him’

‘hope he recovers from this’

I understand the concern here, but honestly felt this is not what that person would like to see out there in the social media or in the mainstream media. We all know it wasn’t his mistake, he knows it wasn’t his mistake, the batsmen knows it wasn’t his mistake. Then what was the need to go on and on about it by writing countless pieces and sending out thousands of tweets (Yes, his name was trending on Twitter). If there was a genuine concern or a need to comfort him, it should have been addressed personally and not through the medium where the whole world can see.

We all admire the boy’s courage and the ability to bounce back so early and sincerely hope he is left alone for the rest of his career without anyone reminding him about that fateful day. (I hardly think so, but hope is the only thing we have in this world)

Now, that is almost done and dusted. There is one more ‘thing’ which demands immediate attention and that poor ‘thing’ hasn’t received any support* over the ‘past few weeks’. In fact it is being treated like a criminal that has no place in the society. Let me begin by case with a small story.

It was the summer vacation and after days of begging and fasting, I finally got my parents to enroll me into a cricket coaching camp. It was a big thing back then for a middle class family as the kit alone costs more than a thousand bucks. First few days of the camp, we were asked to run around the ground and then the next thing would be to practice the forward defense for the rest of the session. Like a dance step we had a count for doing it.

  1. Stretch your right leg as far as you can (I am a left hander)
  2. Bat and Pad close to each other
  3. Meet the imaginary ball right under your eyes
  4. Smother it

After doing this for a week, we were finally given a chance to implement it in real time. Each one of us will get to bat an over on the condition that we should play only the forward defense. After waiting for another 15 minutes, I finally got a chance to play proper cricket with my new bat (Enough excitement, even though it’s just the forward defense). Everything was going according to plan until the penultimate ball. The forward defense has become a subconscious thing by then, so when the ball was delivered, the mind worked like a computer and started to stretch the leg forward. But the poor mind noticed the change in trajectory a little too late. By the time the adjustment was made, the ball was well on its way to hit the balls. CRACK was the sound it made (Yes, I was wearing protection and no I didn’t wet it) and the next moment I was down on the ground wincing with pain. They carried me over to the corner of the ground with my voice echoing all around the place. There was a pricking pain coming from inside and when I removed my pants and checked, the box was broken to pieces. That was it, the shouting changed to uncontrollable weeping. Not because it was embarrassing to get hit in the unmentionables or not because ‘if not for the protection there would be no reason for me to use a protection in the future’. It was because I should again beg my parents to get a new box and the fear that they wouldn’t allow me to come back here. The poor soul didn’t see the bigger picture of the hit, but it also didn’t know that the ‘Short of a length ball’ is what that caused so much humiliation, pain and fear. The mind failed to realize that the short of a length ball is menacing, it is fiery and it is the method of showing aggression to an innocent part of the body. From then on the mind should have actually feared that particular delivery, it should have struck fear every time that ball is bowled in a competitive match, it should have later asked me to write blogs about it or tweet about it. But none of those things happened, it was like any other ball and I started playing cricket the same way as it was before.

 

We have seen discrimination in everything, from race to religion to caste but never thought we would do that to the length in which a ball is bowled. The actual reason for both the incidents is very obvious, the timing of the shot was wrong, the mind should have realized it sooner than it actually did. One was fatal, the other was not. If it was, would we be blaming the length in which the ball was bowled?

From the moment we started playing cricket, we knew that bouncer was an integral part of the game and it is within the rules to bowl one and it is important to be prepared for facing one. There is no need to sensationalize every time one is bowled or every time a batsmen is hit. Freak accidents occur in every walk of life, this was one such and the pain was felt throughout the sports world. We all prayed and supported the concerned family when it required the most and now is the time to move on.

Head always thinks itself as the most important part of the body and that is why anything which is aimed at the head is termed as more dangerous than others. But when heart mixes with that thinking in the right proportion we would see a rational point.

PS: This write up is simply the extrapolation of shouting SILENCE when we want people to be quiet. The irony is part of it.

*Just as I finished writing this, it has received a well deserved support from the best fast bowler himself.

-Murali Mohan.S