Do you ever remember your practice matches? We do remember one of our practice session.
A word about my local cricket team, ppcc (PattaParanmbu Cricket Club). Being a very small team we never won a title. but don't underestimate us. We were a regular visitors to semi finals. Once organizers recognized us as the best(fighting) team in the tournament (which was not a scheduled award). Major teams nearly smelled the taste of mud while playing with us, several times !!
We have no star batsman...naa bowler. average age of the team :17. no giant figures. Still we won matches !!! How!!! We play offside well :-) none of our opponents aware about this fact. They keep on bowling offside. we enjoyed it well. Who will dare to bowl leg side if the batsman confidently fencing even offside balls.
May be we have got courage or you may say winning equation from this particular practice session.
Our home ground is pretty small, so that we could play only one side. Yeah...we choose to master offside. On a fine evening, Varghese-our manager cum player, brought a new bat !!! wov...but it was a bit heavy one compare to our normal playing bat.
We started a 10 over game with 6 member team on either side. We won the toss and elected to bat without a second thought. Of-course ..new bat... new start :-)
First ball, the batsman couldn’t move his bat. I was on the non-strikers end and wonder why ?? the ball was not so fast. Second ball kissed the bails off !!! 0 for 1 (0.2 overs)
Third ball takes the middle stump :-( 0 for 2 (0.3 overs). Here comes our best batsman cum captain with determination not to donate his wicket for a hat trick. 4th ball, beats the bat but luckily missed the stump. I was wondering, what happen to Danex, our captain. It is not easy to beat him. He looked at his bat unbelievably, twisted the bat once, took his guard and practice a bat movement for the previous ball. 5 th ball, he had tried to cut it to the square, but ball came into rest on keepers gloves. 6th ball, pickets his off stumps !!! ohh man. Now we are in trouble. 0 for 3 (1 over)
Now it was my turn; exchanged my old bat to new; draw an imaginary half-circle on my front; ready to play front foot. A kind of defensive mode ! Danex gave me a warning to study the bat. Yeah..it is heavy ! but is it that much to worry about ? I didn’t get what he was said.
First ball, felt like a lollipop, decide to cut it to the fence. But … beaten !! haa ..why more to explain, on the third ball, I was caught behind :-( There is ghost in the bat !!! we couldn’t turn the bat when we require it. Score board: 0 for 4 (1.3 overs). 4th ball, haa Josmy arrested the ball by his bat. And he rose his bat and waved like he got a century ! A huge clap from the pavilion. He was the first batsman among us who at least touched the ball ;-) 5 th ball, he was caught and bowled by Anoop. Score board: 0 for 5 (1.5 overs). Hence score board was zero, opponent allowed to bat our lastman on his demand. Yeah..he want to face the ghost in the bat ;-). 6th ball, he smash the ball with full confident. All are searching the ball on boundary line. But keeper happily showed his inner glove. It seems ball was laughing at us. Last man also couldn’t live more than a ball. Scoreboard: 0 for 6 (2.1 overs).
We were too ashamed of ourselves; no team ever all-duck on this ground. We have got a new record. We know…just one single is enough to finish the game. Or at least a wide will kill us as well. But Danex’ captain-mind arose like a phoenix bird.
If the ghost is there in the bat, it will be still there !!! If we were all-duck, we can kick them all out for same score. This is our ground !!! May be we can not win… but we can make a tie !! fight !!!
Yeah.. he is correct. Why can’t we try for a tie. If one worse thing happens to us, why can’t we give the same fate back. Danex toss the ball towards me. Me !! first over? I was doubtful. He whispered – “No wide”.
He set two slip fielders, assign himself for close fielding, and one near to the bowler's end. No boundary line, no gully !!! All set … Batsman stretch his body in an outside half-circle and hold his bat horizontally; kind of warning to Danex that he is going to smash the ball… a kind of silence spread over the field. Everybody can hear the beats of their heart. Tick tick tick… I looked at my captain… He shout in an aggressive sound “Off cutter buddy”, it was just to threaten the batsman.
That moment I started the lineup and as he shouted …an off cutter.!! Within a split second, batsman smash the ball; but it just kissed the bat and a great catch by Josmy, our safehands. Then everything else was history in our home ground.
Second ball, pickes the leg stump, 5th ball... an off stump, 6th ball a plum return catch. Score board : 0 for 4 (1 over)
Next over: Danex took the ball, assigned Josmy to close fielding, 2nd slip moved to 1st slip, me on gully and the fielder nearer to bowler's end moved to square boundary. Nobody questioned him why he require a gully and a square boundary. His first ball picked an off stump, second ball to the close fielder. That was a terrific catch too.
Score board 0-0. An unbelievable tie!! All duck !! unforgettable innings.
End of the story: we never use this bat again for our tournaments, but we used to master the off cuts using the very same bat. Yeah…it was equivalent to face a terrific off-cutter.
And I would say Rahul Dravid has a lot of things to learn from local team captain. He should learn how to inspire his team members, how to adapt into the situation, and how to inject confidence and fighting mood to the bowler.
The best part I am enjoying in Bangalore is Football only. Once, I was a proud player of Red FC in Chennai. Here, only the name has changed…Jun FC. The passion, aggression and enthusiasm remain the same. We play twice a week on a semi grass ground.
Today, when we reached the ground we saw a bunch of teenagers occupied half of the ground. They impressed us quickly…hmm... they play pretty well. Since we didn’t have enough players to form two teams, we made a proposal for a match with those teenagers.
"Ok Uncles we are ready", they all were game for a match. Ha ha ha. they reminded us of the fact that we are getting old! They were right in one way. We are a bunch of 7 guys with an average age of 27. And, they all were around 15 years old.
Playing with a group of teenagers of same enthusiasm and unlimited energy was not so easy. They have proved it. After 15 minutes the ball possession was 15%- 85%. They rushed to our goal post regularly with their entire team (leaving the Goalkeeper) and in the same pace they returned to their posts as the ball moved.
They might have found it difficult with our heavy bodies so, they couldn’t charge us anyway. They were helpless with their 45Kg weight against our 80-100Kg and with considerably strong build. Yeah… We could control 6 of them but, other two were very fast. Moving like a rocket...running like a bull... changing the direction like a rabbit.
They really made us feel that we are getting old. Though we managed to tie the scoreboard with 3-3, their game was wonderful.
The next week, we faced them again. This time, we showed them what is the meaning of maturity and experience is. We were sure that we can not beat them in the speed. So we played with a good game plan. We wore the jersey of Argentina. Quick Short Passes!!! We frustrated them a lot with this trick. We raid their goal post through out the game. 12 shots to the target, Converted two of them. Again a tie with 2-2. but this time we stand with our head straight :)
9 or 10 years back. Two weeks to go to the entrance exam.
"I won’t let you play football in this tournament", Appachan (Dad) showed a Red card to George before the kick-off of the Parish-football-tournament itself!!! He didn’t want George to get injured before the exam. We were in short of players. But he was not convinced with any of George’s arguments. His Dad was very strict.
So George was so sad and was forced to wear the dress of assistant coach and it was very easy to handle the team because half of the team was his own family members. Anthony elleppan
(George’s Uncle: Coach/Mid-fielder, Gincettean (elder cousin: Defender), Georgettan (elder cousin who grabbed that name before ‘George’ the author: Fast Forward), Raju (his brother) (Does he know the game?!! ;-): Defender. Joseph (George’s childhood friend also an awesome Goalkeeper in the parish itself)
On the tournament Day morning: George also followed the team to the ground for giving moral support. Slowly ground filled up with supporters of both the teams and other parish people which included his father's friends who knows him very well, though he doesn’t know many of them.
Match started. Since Goal keeper was strong enough so that he managed to save five sure goals in the first 10 minutes itself. The opponents were the runner's up in the last tournament. And they have three excellent players. So, we didn’t put much effort to get the first goal on 12th min. 15th min there came the second goal. So tension mounted on our side and Coach-cum-midfielder-cum-Uncle gave an action to George to play and he will take care his father. Though confused on the first moment, the pressure and the energetic atmosphere made George to replace his brother.
"ente st.thomas punnivaalaaa...kappathu (grace to St. Thomas)”.Somehow we managed not to get any more goals till the half time.
Before the beginning of second half, we’d put up a game plan. The whole plan depended on Georgetten our fastest forward and shaju, the midfielder. But the game plan was interrupted. The opponents know Georgettan very well and their game plan was to mark him with an extra defender. And Shaju was misplaced himself in between the game. So Anthony mappila himself became young at the age of 35 and took control over the ball. He gave a short pass to George who was the only unmarked person at that time.
George received the ball and moved up through the left side. And he managed to dribble the mid fielder and gave pass back to Anthony Mappila. Quickly he returned back to George where he was in position to shoot the Goal for 100% sure.
Only Goal Keeper and Goal post…. He kicked the ball a little bit forward to get the enough momentum to shoot. Suddenly the angry face of his father came to his mind. If he scored a Goal definitely his father would know somehow. He got confused. So he moved a step forward towards right.
"adi eda (shooooot)", Command from Anthony Mappila...
But George was still confused and moved further right and realized that it was a foolish move. Now, Goal keeper has a half chance to block the shot from that angle. Their defenders were flying towards George and one just reached to George. Tension mounted upon both sides. Quickly he came back to the game spirit and He didn't wait further… turned to left and an extremely low ground shot to the left corner of the post.
Goal !!! George wide spreaded his hands on the triumph but immediately closed his face and sat down. He knew that the punishments were waiting for disobeying his dad.
"Kallakeeda kutta (Well done my boy)", appreciation from the coach and he could easily read George's mind. "I'll take care of your father", he gave guarantee. At last we received two more goals happily from the Champions of the tournament and packed back to home.
George was not interested to go home immediately. He was searching for a lie to convince his dad. He realized that punishment for a lie would be severe than disobey. So he went home and planned to hide all broomsticks. Yet he didn’t. If his father failed to find any broomstick and he will take a patta-vadi (heavy stick) from somewhere nearby. It would be much worse.
As soon as he reached home he lied down on the bed and pretended to be fast asleep.
"njan venda ennu paranjittum nee kalichu alle (Did you play without my permission ?!!)", His father was a bit angry. But his voice was in a low tone only, which surprised George. Anger was only in words; not in the tone. Did Anthony mappila was able to convince him ?!!!
"Actually..." George searched for words and avoided a chance for lie. He perfectly knew that his father respect the honest reply.
"Umm...", surprised reply.
His tone can be read as this.
"Neeyathu purathu adichu kalanjirunnekil ninte katha njan kazhichenne". If you didn't score that one... you might be 'killed' by my hand now.
----Footnote----
My unit again appeared for this tournament for the second time. And they didn’t even remember the legend who scored one and only one goal for the team. May be they thought about avoiding my travel from Chennai to Thrissur and back. They might not be aware of how much I was interested in playing against the same team now.
This time too, we lost against them for 2-1. The goal was scored by Githin, a 15 year old boy, son of Anthony elleppan. Surprisingly Anthony mappila also played for the team, second time. He is in his mid 40s.
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Do you think this one was a long post? ha ha …actullay I cut to half after my editor’s expert advice. Still, if you have no other way to kill time, read the first comment, The original post.
Stunned to see your brutal heading 'performance'. In a second how could you become a devil?
Though I was on Italian side, I wished for French victory (for a moment) !!! …I would like to see you in dressing room watching your team carrying WC. That punishment may not be enough. Saala.
I am too sad. another Burden of a fan :-(
I am already declared that I am a (born) Argentinean fan. One reason might be Maradona and his magic performance stuck right in the heart. Other reason is their fair play and the beauty of their pass. Is that Burden?
Not exactly, but I hate to see Brazil winning. I hate to see they playing well (ok leave this WC). I hate to see all other good teams. I always wanted to see Argentina on the winning side!!! Is it not a burden?
Yes. I failed to see the good game by others. I always tried to find mistakes of Rolando (I hate him from the very beginning of his career since he is scoring (just) goals. Though Ronaldinho was my favourite player, I am trying to compare him with the cool minded Argentinean play maker Riquelme. I like to watch only Messi, not interested in Rooney. I like Maxi Rodríguez not C. Ronaldo of Portugal. I don’t even bother about Totti and tony of Itali. I like Argentiean defender Ayala not Cafu; just because he is playing well!!! It is a question mark against my sportsman spirit. Is that not a burden?
I like to call Brazil as a gang of Old men. See this mimicked poetic line to explain above said. Vayasanmar oru koottam niranju brazilil.(they proved it in this WC too). I spend enough time to demotivate Brazil fans trying to find out the mistakes of Brazilian waves.
In the first QF, Argentina lost against Germany. Though I was afraid of it before, the match result pushed me into absented mind of next day morning. Is it not a burden of fan? I have no idea How to defend Rave, a blind Brazil fan. Many time I argued with him in a single point.
“Brazil might be a group of Great Players, but that is not a big thing until they played well”
“Yaar Brazil is like that only. They will play well only against good teams”
“Why can’t they play well against other teams?”
“Even without it Brazil can win”
…it goes on like anything… as face to face debate …as long mails… as forwards … as chat box..
Is it not a burden of fan?
Even sometimes I afraid that this fight might affect our friendship badly. Somebody… somewhere is playing and we are scarifying our friendship !!!. Just for no reason. Ohh Man.
Ok see the other side.
After Argentina lost I thought that it was end of my WC!!! But it was not. Actually my WC starts from that. I didn’t feel bad about Germany. Argentina played well, but not good in Penalty. German goalkeeper, Lehman was good enough to beat two Argentinean players.
I was not interested in Italy since they narrowly escaped from Australia. But even without that penalty Italy could have defeated them in extra time. They played well against Ukraine.
I was able to enjoy Portugal’s fight against England. I hate England’s irritating defensive play. So for a moment I supported Portugal. Ricardo’s 3 saves in Penalty was marvelous.
Before Brazil VS France match, let me introduce my family. My brother, Raju, is a Fan of small small teams. In his words he took enough pain to make Ukraine upto QFs. Now he is on France side since they are small compared to Brazil? My father, A Brazilian fan.
My mother supports India ?!!!
“Mom, India is not playing in WC”, I tried to convince her that we were not even qualified to play in WC.
“So what ? it is not my fault. It is yours, youngster’s, fault not to make India in WC”, she became ‘philosophical’.
Entammo Pidichathinum valiyatha Alayil (1),Hence I step backwards.
I am a neutral viewer. To Support my brother I reminded my father about 98 Finals. I reminded him that
After first 30 minutes of that match, I watched Zizsu’s magic performance and gave a warning signal to my father.
“ingane poya
He seems cool, “Yeah, I too doubt about
Look at his reply… he was in a bit tension while I was cool. See this is the burden of a fan.
Even I feel a bit sad to see the last Latina American country’s exit from the tournament. But I enjoyed
Now waiting to watch The Final: Italy Vs France
I doubt about
If Zidane misses the ball …
Footnote (1):
Pidichathilum valiyatha alayil:
It is a mallu phrase to indicate that more troubles ahead.
Background: we killed a snake and found a snake hole nearby.
We are expecting a snake of same size inside that hole.
Unexpectedly it might be a bigger one.
Argentina lost against Germany :-(
End of my World Cup 06.
a.k.a Birth of an Argentinean Fan 
20 years back. I was a 2nd(or 3rd?) standard kid.
"Common wake up", my 'father khan'(*) screamed at around 2AM (or 3AM?).
"Hey, what are you doing in this night?"
"I told you yesterday that today you will have to wake up early"
"Really I don't remember. what’s so special ?"
"Today Argentina is playing against England"
"Let them play… what is to me?"
"You forgot! Need I rewind everything? I told you about Maradona right? If you are going to miss this match, it would be a great loss. Maradona is a great footballer like Pele. And he is in great form…"
"…Common… Gincettan, Joemonchettan everybody is there… Wake up"
I was not interested to disturb my cool slumber with sweet dreams of playing with Boris Becker and Stephi Graph. We were playing against Becker and almost on the verge of victory. Graph is a good supporting player …you know ;-) Dad disturbed that dream. Umm… However, I accompanied my father to Valiya-thalam, biggest room in the home where we kept our TV.
My uncles, cousins… everybody was already there. But a few were near to TV doing something there. A few were sitting in the sofa and giving ‘instructions’. One guy was standing outside; visible from the room. He was screaming something looking upward. I wondered what my cousin was doing out there. Everybody was making comfortable noise.
"John ...",A weak but clear voice from the corner.
Pin drop silence...
"...why are you late. I was waiting for you. This TV is not working", ohh my Grand father was also there in his easy chair.
"Appa(in uttermost respect), I did a round of check yesterday. it was working fine. May be wind is making problem...I'll check it.", my father (*)
He went outside and screamed "Who is there!! ohh pauly !!.. eda... do not put that antenna straight to that mango tree .. a bit up and move left of that tree. it should point to between that mango tree and coconut tree.. did you put ?... nge?(what?)...nga(ok)... Gince (my cousin sitting near the TV) ..is that working...better ??? ..ok..Pauly ... move that a bit up... Gince..is that Ok now?". Though the picture and sound is not so clear we were ok with that.
The game had already started. A few of us were Argentina fans, a few were Brazil fans (my father belongs to this league), a few were Germany fans and a few were on Spain’s side too. But I couldn't see any England fans. So, all eyes were set on Maradona. For the argument sake one of my Spain fan uncle turned to English side. I was surprised that … was this shortest guy Maradona (the great)!! But I astonished by watching his thighs. hammo!! it was as big as little 'george'. His speed has impressed me a lot.
A few minutes later I saw side-referee was waving a plate with a number and one guy with that number ran towards him. What happened to him? "Will referee give him any punishment? What wrong he did?” little George enquired his father. He told “Coach is replacing that player, he might have felt that that player was not playing well”.. Yeah, he was correct that referee changed the plate with another number and that player got into the ground.
The first goal itself made all of us cheer like we being Argentineans. They screamed "Goal...goal", I couldn’t see that goal very well. But I also joined the party. "Kathayariyathe Aattam kanuka" (watching Kathakali without knowing the story).Other players were running towards Maradona spreading their hands to celebrate the goal.
"Shut up...". My grandmother, "...why are you making so much noise in the night. if you want to watch the game..keep quiet..otherwise leave the place." My grandmother woke up.
"Amma, Maradona scored a Goal". For a moment she might have got angry for Maradona. She became cool, however. She was a woman with sports (wo) man spirit.
A winner of 100 meter race, in high-school-district-level. But she didn't know Maradona though she was indeed happy to see all her 'aan tharikal' (male offsprings) were assembled to watch this game. While she entered the room, my uncle exempted himself from sofa to thara (floor) and she comfortably occupied the place. Suddenly somebody jumped into her lap calling "Ammamma (grandmother)"; her grand-daughter, my cousin. "ohh you too Meril" grandmom was surprised to see her enthusiasm.
Discussion about the first goal went on for a while. Why England players had appealed against the goal? What was the wrong in it. "Did Maradona play offside?" My uncle expressed his doubt. (14 hours later TV news declared that was a Goal by the Hand of GOD!!!)
Game went on and was interrupted for a few minutes by an Argentinean player-change. A new young player, No:28, jumped into the field. He looked too small. Camera focused on him. Oh man… it is me. George +10 Argentinean players that includes Maradona the football magician. wow !!! I was running towards Maradona spreading my hands and jumped into his waist.
"Goal ..what a goal ..", Dad shook my head and I woke up. Maradona scored a second goal. I had missed that goal too.
I had not realized that I failed to witness the Goal of the Century!!!
Did you miss it? Watch the last goal of this clip.
Surprised to see my post title? Here is the Adidas TV commercial; Jose +10, worth watching.
side-notes
* - It’s my freedom to call my father by any name (even in front of him and his brothers). But...
Some factors motivate your Life. Maradona might be one of them. Watch his talent
The face snap itself shows his gigantic talent. Maradona remains cool penetrating 6 defenders. The last goal in this clip was scored in 1986 World cup Quarter Final (second goal Vs Eng) still considered as the best ever goal in the Century!!!
First Goal in that Quarter Final was also notorious as ‘Hand of God’.
Somebody had sent this link to Football alias and the results were awe-inspiring.
This clip attracts new players too. I don't know how long it will continue.
Hopefully it will continue at least for the next two months (World cup effect).
The guys started scoring a tones of goal; previously it was like 0-1; 2-1; maximum 3-3
nowadays it is 5-3; 6-6 and even the scoreboard goes up to 5-8!!! that itself just in the first 30 minutes of the match.
I think we should watch the defenders techniques to cut this down :-)
Want to watch other players in the world? They are also not bad. Click
I have a question in my mind. Who will win this time?
I vote for Argentina, this name stuck in my heart after Maradona.
And I hate Brazil and their yellow dress :-(
it started again after 5 months. wake up in the morning is the nicest thing to do in a Day. you will get a lot of time to spare. to read news paper. to do some kind of exercise. want to study something(who will do !!!!).
Most important is we can see our roommates !!!! :-) start chit-chat on the morning itself. Plans for the weekends ! Movie reviews ! what so ever coming into your mind. My roommate, SMT, is a communist. So topic might be related to that ... it will travel across the world... religion ... and what not !!!!
Back to football, As Usual we gathered near our tea shop and a plain 'T' to start with and marched towards the ground. Everybody was tired in just 10 min and continued for 35Min. This time pretty a few new joinees in the group. I don't know how long they will play. Anyway it is good to see around 12 guys to play around.
And of course, lime juice at the end; without it, it will not be an end !!
It will take a long time to build an image and load it into router. So thought to upload these images to blog.
We play 3 times in a week. that too in morning 6.45 to 7.30. Everybody in this photo are regular players. missed out 3 more people.
standing-from- left:
Shiyas, Suresh, Shaji (my roommate), Manoj, Sarath
myself, Binny , Raveesh
Most interesting part of the game is the freshness of the morning !!!
most of us are lazy to wake up. but after a warm up all are ready to fight.Everybody is aware that we need to work after this game. So nobody dare to play foul game or deadly fast game.
After the game we march to juice shop near to Binny's room for a lime, and it is just not a lime juice, but a heaven !!!!
Foot-note: Even if we fail to play on a day, we never forget to have a lime juice