On the last day of the Oval Test between England & Australia.. My colleague – lets call him A, approaches me and says..
“Chakra, are you following the scores mate? How are we doing?”
“Yeah.. I am. England had scored 220+.. Its gonna be a draw and Ashes is for England, for a change.”
“Really? Wouldn’t Australia need to bat again and chase whatever we score”
“There is not enough time mate.. today is the last day and we have a lil’ more than an hour left in the game.. Aussies wouldn’t have a chance to bat, let alone chase & win the game”
“Why didn’t England declare their innings and give the Kangaroos a chance to bat?”
“If they do that, Michael Vaughan would probably be torched alive. Give Aussies half a chance and they would bounce back into the game.”
“But this appears totally unfair. We don’t give them an opportunity to chase our score. They aren’t responsible for the rain, right? Shouldn’t there be some extra time or something like that? If what you say is right and we win the game, I am not happy.. this is unfair.”
–
Next day..
A says, “I just learnt that we won the Ashes last evening”.
“What? The entire country is celebrating and you ‘learnt’ about it? What kind of specimen you are?”
With a sheepish grin he says, “I never understood this game in the first place. Never in my life have I seen so much attention given to a cricketing event.”
At this point, another colleague – B, who is a cricket enthusiast joins the conversation and we all walk towards the canteen, where there is a big screen telly showing the live telecast of the victory parade at Trafalgar Square.
B says, “Look at Freddie.. he is da man.. is that his baby? what a cutie pie”
A says, “Is he a big star?”
“Flintoff is the man of the series.. he played amazingly well and deserves the attention he gets…”
B says, “he has turned out to be a great all rounder..
The turnout was maddening.. some 30,000 people lining up the streets of Central London and by the look of it, it is clear that the Capital has come to a standstill due to the parade.
A is in awe about the proceeding.. “Is Australia that big a team to beat? Winning against them after 18 years must be really something.. how about India? Have you guys managed to beat Aussies like this?”
“C’mon A.. we do it year after year.. though we lost against them last year, we have been beating them to pulp as long as I could remember… only that we end up losing badly when we visit them.”
“So, is England now the best team in the world or what?”
B interjects, “we are nearly getting there.. we are gonna tour Pakistan & India this winter. If we manage to do well there, we’ll be on top”.
“but Vaughan says that we are the best or something… is he just boasting?”
“Forget abt Vaughan… any English player would say that even if you lose.. you guys would never get tired of praising yourself”
B got a bit furious “we are gonna win the World cup in 2007 and you’ll have to eat humble pie dude. England are the firm favourites along with India & Pakistan.”
“You don’t have to be polite.. with their current form in one dayers, India is not a favourite.. but then, you never know what’ll happen in 2007.. 2 more years to go.”
“Thats good for England then… we have eliminated Australia, India’s form is not good… so we just have to beat Pakistan to win the World Cup”
“This is so typical of you guys. I don’t think England can win the World Cup any day, leave alone 2007.. Moreover, you are peaking a bit too early.”
“Did you see the Australian Tourism advert today”
“nope.. What was that?”
“A half-page ad with the photograph of English Cricket team and the caption goes – ‘Only visitors who are not welcome to Australia’ – a timely one.”
TV shows images of English team met by Tony Blair at Downing Street.
B said, “I wish Steven Waugh had been the captain of the losing Australian side.. i wd love to see England beat his team.”
A asked, “Whos that?”
“He is a former Aussie captain.. predecessor of Ricky Ponting.. a legend”.
“I wish I had followed cricket from earlier on..”
“Even then, you wouldn’t have understood a thing.. Football is good for you A.”
P.S: This is my 100-th post in this blog and 532-nd overall!
Lovely dude. Oru nimasham antha ooru canteen’la iruntha maathiri oru feeling. nice one. thothu ponaalei pitch konal’nu solra aalunga
>If what you say is right and we win the game, I am not happy.. this is unfair.тА?
(A’s above comment is too good)
btw, congrats for your 100th post and wish you many more…
100vadhu post vaazthukkal.
. I too have been around with kiriket Jadams like A, but thankfully not in UK.
As B said, this winter tour of Subcontinent is a real test for the three teams.!
unbeaten hundred, eh?
)
seri kai thatrom la? acknowledge pannunga
England winning 2007 world cup? long long way to go.
chakra namalum ‘A’ madhiri ayidaradhu nalladhu. namma alunga adara lakshanam andha madhiri.
Even Iam a novice when It comes to Cricket…I prefer Football anytime!..BTW, congrats for your 100th post!
Nice one Chakra, loved the screenplay.
Congrats on your 100th post Chakra !
I still have a long way to go to emulate your record
Congrats on your 100th blog!!
As PK was mentioning, nambalam ‘A’ madhiri aguradhu romba romba naladhu! ilaina namba aalunga aaduradhu paarthu tension thaan erum!
Congrats on 100th post
And yeah. Formula1 and Football any day any time rather than cricket!
Yeah I saw that Advt in metro. Perfect timing !
congrats for reaching the first milestone in this site….
your conversation and the advertsmt were too good.. hilarious
nooru adichum outaagadha chakradhaan nammaalu
apdinnu solli, cricket pathi konjam knowledge transfer panni irukken…..paappom, en sishyan epdi varaannu?
Congrats!!!! Ennoda pakkathu seat paiyanukku baseball cricket lendhu dhaan vandhadhu (aimnt sure
Congrats on your Ton….
Perfectly enough you’ve blogged abt THE game!!!!
Congrats dude…. Keep up the good inningsтАж One good thing about blogging is that you will always be Not Out. At the max you can be retired hurt and can come back anytime you want to..
Sriram - A is still unhappy that England are celebrating an unfair victory.
TJ - When I was in India, I thought that England – being the home of cricket wd be too obsessed with this game..
PK - idhula enna periya unbeaten vendi kidakku.. anyway, thanks! *duly acknowledged*
A has started learning cricket.. with B & C around him, he feels that he is lost in the crowd!
Krish - Even i am not a connoiseur.. just another ordinary follower!
Uma - danks.
Shriram - that record is not a big deal.. in fact, that is not even a record!
Karthik Prabaharan – in fact, i am not following Team India on a regular basis now.. but the difference is, A doesn’t know anything abt this game. Watching India play, esp. in ODIs have become pointless these days.
Ferrari - thanks to blogging, i have just started following F1!
Subha - i shud ask you this question.. y don’t u send some?
Dubukku - very well timed indeed.. obviously they had planned that in advance.. that means even Australia didn’t have the confidence in their team, which is shocking!
Ram.C – glad u liked it!
Sundaresan - sollunga sollunga… 1000 poi solliyavadhu oruthanai cricket adimai aakiduvom!
Swapna - Welcome here!!
Vasanth - thats right.. well said!
“that means even Australia didnтАЩt have the confidence in their team”
I doubt it da…jeicha onnu thotha onnu ne rendu ad design panni vechirupanga marketing aache kedi pasanga
Congratulatons England on winning the ashes.
Though I am an aussie fan I am happy that this win by England would revive the growth of cricket in England…( Heard that soccer is fast overtaking cricket).
I am happy that finally there is some team in the world who can teach the aussies a lesson or two. Hats of to Flintoff.
mmmm…..how do u remember casual conversations?
Congrats Chakkra..
I feel it is still a record Chakra
I have never seen you write such a long post, mate.
unga ooru karangalukku over nenappu… had Steve Waugh been the captain yet, he wudv whipped England 5-0..:D
Nammalukkum same nenappu only:( Thinking Sania Mirza is the next Navratilova!!:o
Narayanan -
> Heard that soccer is fast overtaking cricket – which place are you talking abt? If it is England, Soccer is THE game here for long!
Surya - theramai daan…
jokes apart.. i put it down in writing immediately after the conversation.. thats how.
Suresh - danks mate!
Shriram -
Venky - this one became inadervently long to my liking!
Nithya - enga oor eh? I didn’t like the way they went over the top after winning just one series… they have a long way to go! Sania-Martina comparison – LOL!
yeah, my hubby Krishna says that he is happy that some team can beat Aussies at last. Flintoff was marvelous! A colleague of mine is also like your ‘A’ – he asks me everytime he sees me during the Ashes season, ‘did England win?’ – come on yaar, its not like football where a team wins or loses in 90 mins!!!