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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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Life with William: He's gone cricket crazy by CAROL ALOYSIUS First it was the Indians vs Sri Lankans cricket match, next Pakistan vs Sri Lankans, followed by England vs Sri Lanka and then Australia vs Sri Lanka. In between these international test matches there has been a spate of local Big school matches, the Joe-Pete and the Royal-Thomian being the two main crowd pullers.
What with being glued to my TV for the best part of the morning, William is in no mood for his usual household chores. He has even started creeping into my neighbour's house for a sneak view when I demand that I have at least one hour to watch my own favourite TV programme. And, during those rare moments when he does condescend to cook us a meal, he puts the radio at full volume to listen to the commentaries, getting into a sulk when whoever he is siding fails to score a run. Little wonder then that our conversation these days is just cricket - and more cricket... Not that I am a great cricket fan or even familiar with the subject. But these days I could probably roll off the names of most of the cricketers with the same ease as William whose constant mentioning of them has ingrained their names in my memory. Whether they are our own local cricketing greats like Marvan Attapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayewardene and that bowling maestro Muttiah Muralitharan or Indian cricketing giants like Saurau Gangooly and Sachin Tendulkar or even Pakistan cricketers with tongue twisting names like Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saqlain Mushtaq or their South African colleagues such as Andre Nel and Paul Adams and West Indian giants like Brian Lara and Australian spinners like Shane Warne and Stuart Macgill or England's Nasser Hussain, William can not just rattle off their names pronounced correctly mind you, but tell you the strengths and weaknesses of each of these cricketers - a knowledge he has gleaned after carefully scrutinising them playing on the TV or by listening to the cricket commentaries over the radio. As if that is not enough, he is now counting the days for the up and coming Test and one day International series between the two Asian cricketing giants, Pakistan and India, who incidentally are his favourite cricketers. Having been to India once upon a time long ago, and spent two years working for his former boss, returning when he couldn't stand the sweltering heat of Madras, William became India's biggest cricketing fan. So much so, that when Sri Lanka's cricketers were pitted against the Indian cricketers sometime ago, he would sulk and go on strike whenever the Indians failed to live upto his expectations and the Sri Lankans fared better. " Where is your sense of patriotism"? I would ask him when he refused to cook one day when the Indians were being thrashed by the Sri Lankans. His terse reply was "This is not about politics Nona. This is about cricket. You can side anyone you want without it back firing on you!". Which reminds me of the number of bets William has been taking these past few weeks on the possible outcome of each of the matches. Together with his friends Dias our former cook, Piyasena our gardener, Simon a former driver, Siva and Gamage (neighbours), William has set up his own betting club, the earnings of which go mostly into his pocket. They meet in the afternoon or late evening in my old garage at the back of the house when they compare notes and depending on the outcome of each match cut their losses or gains, enjoy a cup of tea supplied by William gratis and return home. William even boasts of suitcase full of flags of each country that regularly plays against Sri Lanka at the international test series. At each test match he takes out the flag of the country currently playing the match and waves it around madly, with Socks our half blind old dog joining him barking loudly. Now that the cricketing season is in full swing my family has virtually given up savouring any of William's gourmet dishes and more or less resigned themselves to eating the inferior dishes I have been forced to cook for them while William sits glued to the telly. I tell myself that soon the cricketing season will be over. Until then for William at least it will be Cricket, loverly cricket. |
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No wonder my old faithful Man Friday, William's head is in a spin these
days as he rushes from the TV to the radio and then to the newspapers to
lap up what's new in the cricketing world.
