Of Cricket and Superstitions

Being Indian qualifies me as one who has a point of view on Cricket, and why not. In the wake of the World cup victory after all these years, Cricket in India is agog. Mine is not to opine on which player is how good with his skill. I have an observation to share, on Cricketers. No I don’t intend to edify them or guide them to overcome vulnerable facets of their game, I leave that brackish drill to the overpaid coaches.
From my earliest memories of watching Cricket I was fascinated by Cricketers. Their persona, their lucid graceful movements the sheer glory associated with just about everything they did on field. They are such super athletes, especially with the kind of following Cricket enjoys in India. Important Cricket matches effect a total moratorium in India, audience fixed to their seats, watching hoping praying. Every supporter in his own way attempts to create the magical celestial alignment to help his team over the victory line. Not that our players do not reciprocate, they do and they do so in good measure. It is not just the fans watching on television, or in the stadium, but also the players, those exaltations of Indian aspiration in unison attempt to push the universe and its magical forces towards a favourable result.
The common name for these efforts is superstition. Superstition in the modern context is easily dismissed as an emotion attributed to lack of awareness to the conquests of Science and logic. Superstition many believe is an embedded part of the magnificent precinct of Indian society. There isn’t enough intellectual evidence qualifying this assumption as true or false at my disposal, hence I let that rest. Point that I would like to stress upon is that I have witnessed those larger than life Cricketers indulge in their superstitions on field, on camera, in matches. How amazing is that! Growing up with Cricket as an essential part of personality development, that bit sunk in involuntarily and demurely, in me.
Rake your minds to take cognizance of what you have seen. Mohinder Amarnath with his handkerchief; Ashok Malhotra with his trademark bat swirl before tapping into his stance; K Srikanth’s antics with his nose and moustache while batting; M.L. Jaisimha and Farukh Engineer’s scarves; Sachin Tendulkar’s striking white hat on his blue uniform in this world cup; MSD undoing and redoing his batting gloves prior to facing every delivery; MSD’s jerking of the neck to his right prior to every ball that spinners deliver; Srishanth’s fisting, praying, kissing the ball. To top it all, I used to take guard for the leg stick followed by guard for the middle stick. Before facing every delivery I’d draw a long line with my bat from the middle stump to the crease. Why do they do that? Why did I do that?
On the other side of the boundary line, the ubiquitous Indian fan. A frail frame painted in tricolour with Tendulkar anointed on his chest. I bob my head and recollect the image of the Pakistan fan. You would’ve seen him at Sharjah. He was an aging man with a wobbly gait, sporting a green cap. I can’t for the life of me remember an English Cricket fan or an Ozzi Cricket buff who stood out as much, match after match. I may well be mistaken here.

There exists an “unexplained” dimension for Superstition and super faith within us. Few brazenly identify with it and few do not. Those who can link up to it, see it as a source of secondary faith. It is a redundant pool you can draw from when it matters the most. It is our way of telling ourselves “God be with us” rather “May Luck favour us”. This belief, it manifests beyond cricket. I can easily look back and come up with instances when I laid claim to this secondary source of faith and drew shamelessly from it. Why not, I created it, for my personal use.
I remember using the same brand of pens for writing my exams. They brought me the unmentioned Good luck (Reynolds ball point). I also improvised my handwriting to incorporate the intentional italic bend, to bring me luck in evaluation. Well it worked. Always has. I am a qualified Engineer, however unworthy of the sacred Degree and I connect to this super faith thing.
Talking of logical souls connecting to the unexplained phenomena, Aamir Khan was spotted wearing the same T-shirt in India Pakistan Semi Finals and the India Sri Lanks Finals this 2011 ICC World Cup. For those who may not know Aamir Khan, he’s an Indian Actor reputed for his perfectionism and intellect. I did my bit to help team India win as well. I’ll come back to that.
While doing certain things brings luck, I propound that doing certain other things can ring in Bad luck as well. Over the last two decades of me watching Cricket I have observed, Sachin gets out if I watch him bat and India LOSES if I watch the entire match --- I’m referring to One day matches here.
I have been a true blue Indian Cricket fan and an avid Sachin-ist, and have done my bit to him pile up a heap of Centuries in both forms of the game. I have flirted with the idea of discarding my belief of not watching when Sachin was at the crease only to find him dismissed very early or in his mid 80s or early 90s without exception. Similar observations support my second theory too, so I don’t watch the full match. Our recent playoff with South Africa was a harsh reminder for me to stick to my beliefs. I did that with earnest and contributed to India’s ICC 2011 World cup victory.
ICC World cup 2011 Semi Final and Final matches: My TV was switched on for the entire duration of the match, with my family watching Channels that were NOT telecasting the match. I had issued firm instructions for all to abide, after all National pride was on line. I had discovered that I needed to place the TV remote at a particular angle on the right arm-rest of my single seat sofa, and I had to stand in the Kitchen. No I was not cooking, but straining my ears to capture noises from the neighbourhood. I had perfected the art of deciphering the sonorous cries of “Yeah” and “Come on” emanating from Indian households in my apartment building. On hearing one, I would run to the sofa, change to the Cricket channel, watch precisely another delivery and flip back to the inconsequential non-cricket channel. I assiduously kept to this routine, and Lo! India won the ICC 2011 Cricket World cup. I wore the same T-shirt for both the matches.
Now that India has won the World cup, Sachin’s long standing dream has been realised, I can deservedly go back to actively pursuing Cricket viewing. After all nothing betters watching a Cricket match with friends over chips and lager.