by Vasundara Salgado
Sri Lankans are a jolly lot. My, do we know how to have fun! Case in
point - Cricket Matches. I don’t know about you, but I live, breathe and
swear by cricket! That’s probably because my whole family’s been that
way forever. Have you ever been to a cricket match? Personally, I feel
that if you haven’t been to one yet, you have been missing out on a big
chunk on the ‘living’ aspect of life, being a Sri Lankan at that. Not to
sound the big aachchi-amma that I may come off as right now, I admit
I’ve only been to a grand total of two.
But the third and fourth are just around the corner- so yey! So,
staying on course - Cricket I think, is a great universal binding; like
a good old strap for keeping people fastened together and focused on at
one thing at any given time.
Although there are the few who don’t ‘get’ cricket, the horror,
everybody understands the sheer power it has that brings people
together.
We, out of all people, should know that. It’s beautiful, how
regardless of race, religion or belief that our countrymen, women and
kids are able to embrace a common interest, share a love that we may
lack in our other parts of day to day life.
What with the pace of our lives today, we all cannot flock to
stadiums and watch it really, really ‘live’, because well, we cannot
have everything we wish for, sigh. But, it’s still fun being a part of
the action, anywhere you may happen to be.
 Come rain or shine our folks brave otherwise impossible conditions to
get home soon to catch every second of it, or if stranded under any
circumstance, gather around electronic shops, the little kade’s with
their radios on or even at a random barber shop which could have a tiny
little TV perched on a top corner and nobody can really make out
anything but still, nobody out of a dozen or so gathered would budge an
inch.
People would have small pocket radios switched on at office and lunch
hour would be a tad longer than usual. For the ardent followers of
cricket, bathroom visits or other random ‘going to check the new stock
lot’ etc, visits would be more frequent.
In a more evolved stage, we have cricket alerts on the phone, albeit
the high charges (well, for people like me), and for the professional
executives upwards who dare not risk the finger-pointing and being
accused of ‘following cricket and not the new client!!’, we have live
updates from the websites that pop-up in handy, almost non-visible tabs
that for sure people three yards away can’t see.
School vans, and buses would have the match commentary turned on and
everyone will be paying attention for a change.
Train-folk will form little cliques and listen to the radios some few
good men carry and elbows hitting will be forgiven and forgotten as soon
as the next boundary is hit. Good times.
The entertainment! Papare breaks out and people in the stands hop
about and try out new dance moves! The chanting, from the mild rhymes to
the ones that set the more cultured ones hopelessly giggling, the yells
to support the team, the odd mock-authoritative shouts to set a new
fielder somewhere that doesn’t exist will leave the average foreigner to
either enjoy the atmosphere they obviously don’t share at such an
encounter or frown at the frisky people causing the din-whichever they
may choose to see. Which, really doesn’t matter because everyone’s
joined in the never ending party and well, because almost everyone will
be half deaf after the match.
And then oh the reactions! We Sri Lankans can be extremely expressive
when we want to be.
We have a range of outbursts when it comes to cricket; the shouts of
joy, cries of outrage and the mutterings of disagreement. It doesn’t
faze our lot that the people that really matter in the game - the
players, obviously - cannot hear them. Good thing too, at the rate of
differing opinions on the field plans, the order of the batsmen
according to the situation and to the moans, ‘why do we have to go with
this bowler, why not the other one?’ to the delivery the bowler should
have put, we would at least need another 11 extra players on the field.
But at the end of the day, win or lose, we have a great time.
Well, maybe not when we lose, but hey, we still should realize that
one side should lose. (But don’t dare say this out loud, there will be
another outburst on how it all could have been prevented, if only ‘this’
player wasn’t playing.) Even though there are the few that walk off when
it is apparent that we are losing, what I love the most are the people
who still wouldn’t give up until the last moment and keep on praying,
evoking all gods from all possible religions.
It is truly wonderful that when we lose, people still stand up to
clap for and cheer a team which, still put on a show, a team probably
then preparing mentally for a rough day the day after to face all the
criticisms and insults that will be, undoubtedly, hurled at them.
How much of a gorgeous country, a set of values, a sense of pride and
above all, a sense of ‘fun’ we’ve been endowed with as Sri Lankans come
into play when we all as a team, physically and mentally, march on to a
stadium to play a good game of cricket.
Let it live, love it fully and even though you are not required to
learn all the fielding positions (I being such a girl call places “that
‘slip’ on the other side” and cannot even begin to spell a googley(?)
and still hasn’t grasped what ‘mid-on’ is) have fun being a part of it
and soak in the oneness, the one passion, the togetherness of one
country. |
