The Commonwealth of Cricket

I came across this amazing discussion as part of Manthan’s web talks on topic called “The Commonwealth of Cricket”. It’s a talk between Naseeruddin Shah and Ramchandra Guha. Ram, a well known historian and Cricket lover has written extensively about Cricket and has also been a regulator (BCCI head) briefly.

In this talk he shares very interesting anecdotes, unknown stories and thought-provoking perspectives on Cricket.

I must admit that I mostly don’t watch cricket now. Not IPL and not any other format. I don’t even follow the news. However, at one point in time till age of 15-16 or so I was following it in big way! And this talk brings back memories of many things which I had read and watched during that period.

I particularly liked Ram Guha’s argument that we have or grow up with two kinds of heroes – the ones that are contemporary (and hence more closer to us) and the ones that are eternal, or timeless…they could be from any era. And our memories or association with them varies based on these two categories.

It resonated with me a lot, because that’s exactly what I had told my friend few years back. For example, I did not belong to the era of Sunil Gavaskar, Amitabh Bachchan, R.D Burban or Bjorn Borg/McEnroe. I watched them and liked them but it was much later. On the other hand, I grew up with Sachin Tendulkar/Rahul Dravid, Aamir/ Salman/Shah Rukh Khan, A R Rahman and Sampras/Agassi. And since I grew up watching them and seeing them become legends my memories of them, or association with them is very different than those from previous era – who were already legends when I first got to know them. Also, because we cherish our childhood associations much more, I could not connect in the same way with Dhoni/Kohli, Hrithik/Shahid/Ranvbir/Ranveer, Pritam/Vishal-Shekhar, and Federer/Nadal/Djokovic…because they arrived when I was in my twenties.

Anyways, do watch this interesting conversation if you liked Cricket before year 2000.