Once upon a time, I met a game. She was strange. Her face
looked miserable and she looked extremely gloomy from her expressions. I looked
at her, in fact gazed her and no sooner did she respond. She understood the question
mark in my eyes. Soon she came near me and introduced herself. I asked her name.
No response for a while , I repeated my question in an even polite manner.
There came the answer “I am the GENTLEMEN’s GAME.”. I got amazed, shocked and
even more curious. I requested her to be even clearer. This time she replied “CRICKET!”.
My memory clicked and no sooner did I take to identify her.
I had Goosebumps. In a threshold my passion, my devotion and my love was right in
front of me. My curiosity rose to another level. I requested her to tell me
something about herself. She kept her lips closed for a long time but after a
while the silence broke. She replied “It’s a long misery tale and you won’t have
enough in you.” Her dull eyes provoked me and my curiosity forced me to push
harder. On my strong emphasis, she agreed to tell me the long, twisty tale.
“My name is CRICKET and soon after my birth I was recognized
as the GENTLEMEN’s GAME, however no-one ever knows that how I came into being.”
she said in her dull voice. Uncontrollably, I asked her “How lucky are you? You
reside in the heart of over a million people, people love you, stay around and
feel blessed to do so. They are proud to be associated with you; as a matter of
fact they WORSHIP you.” Before I could go further, she interrupted me and said “I
WAS a SPORT. My life’s aim was to give people joys, pleasures, enhance
sportsmanship, erase the geographical boundaries between the sporting nations
but unfortunately...” she stopped.
Breaking the silence in the hall, I spoke out “You have
given us all those. Why on Earth would you be disappointed in yourself?” She
looked at me with a strange manner. That shivered me, and I could not
understand what was happening. It was hard for me to absorb that what on EARTH
has happened to my love. My body began to shiver in fear if I had said
something that I wasn’t supposed to say. I could see tears in her eyes. Finally
words came out crumbling from her mouth “My earliest memories remind me of
little children, playing with me during the wars and revolts in the days of 19th
Century, for them I used to be a sign of friendship, a source of get-together,
a class of teamwork and a lesson of sportsmanship. Those little children made
me a symbol of peace in a war-some environment. That was my actual place, in
fact the best place I had ever been, inside the children’s hearts, from where I
emerged on the national and international level. I was happy, I was mature and I
felt blessed that I could convey everything of mine to the big boys, whatever I
had to offer in the context of sport, the innovation, the thinking, the even behaviors,
the moralities even my complete existence.”
A silence and then a loud scream hollered the place “BUT
WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME?” My heart came
to my mouth. With tears coming out of her eyes, she cried “Just to determine
who owns the GAME, they burned my body, turned it into ASHES and what comes
worse? The proud owner of the URN rejoices all over the place. Does any gentleman do so? Huh! Those senseless
people don’t understand how anybody can be an OWNER of the GAME? And if anybody
does so, then why would one burn down his own belonging to marks his ownership?
That burn mark is still fresh on my face and hurts every day, every minute,
every second.”
“Those kids embraced me with open arms, they erased the
boundaries of cast and creed from their minds, they were just cricket lovers,
no SAXONS, no ROMAN CATHOLICS, no MUSLIMS, no HINDUS, no PROTESTANTS, no
nothing. They were brothers for each other but what shameful things did the
elders do to me? They used me to establish, in fact strengthen the rivalries. I
was meant to demolish enmity and lay the basis of brotherhood and harmony but
those heartless didn’t even spare me. I was proud to be the messenger of peace
but it was always on the cards that the anti-forces won’t bear me. They tried
and did so but instead of backing each other in the hours of need, the elders
forgot brotherhood, the gentlemen left sportsmanship, they stepped back and
sacrificed my love for their evil purposes. They took me away from my beloved
ones and my lovers were deprived from their die hard passion. I lived in their
hearts and flow in their bloods yet I cannot go to them, embrace them or live
with them. ”
My heart began to fill. It was becoming hard for me to stand
by the harsh tale but it wasn’t over yet. It looked like as if she was about to
disrupt. I wanted her to pause or STOP. I couldn’t take the heart-breaking tale
anymore but my request had pushed me into the damp and now I had to listen
until she spoke out to her full ability.
“People learned nothing from me. When I was juvenile, it was
like a new bloomed flower and I always wished that I would be source of honey
and fragrance or would die out like a bookmark in a scholar’s book but the
HUMAN NATURE used me. Yes! They used me to create money, to earn revenue, to
retain the dominance, to prevail the rule. I was meant to provoke and create
finances for the struggling nations, it was up to me to create finance but it
was the elder’s duty to distribute it evenly for my growth across the world but
they just hoarded money for their-selves, they took the lion’s share and
pretended to globalize the game. Was that anything that I was meant for? Huh!
My eyes watched the nightmare of nations falling but never saw a new nation
emerging on the big screen.”
She continued “Does a gentleman converts the gentleness of a
game into a threat of a death? Does a gentleman uses my entity, my part, my
organ to frighten the batter or does my cricket ball sounds a BULLET to the
bowlers with which they try to fire someone? I never wondered that I might be a
cause of DEATH of young man. The death of that YOUNG MAN kills me every moment.”
With all the power left in her frail lungs she shouted “I
wish if I were never used for mere entertainment, I wonder if I were never
meant for money or finances, I wish if I were never used for a 20 over fun that
murdered my originality, I wish if I could remain genuine, a real gentlemen’s
game, I wish if I could restore all that what I’ve lost. I wish if I could
speak out to the WORLD, loud and clear, For GOD’s sake, for heaven’s sake be a
sportsman-spirit holder, be impartial, praise the best and try to be better,
help each other in standing along or one day, I would be standing with a head
down with shame and embarrassment among all the games in the world. Please
globalize me but do not change me. DO NOT CHANGE ME or I will become a body
without spirit, an entity without feelings and no sooner will I be no more a
sport.”
Tears constantly poured out her eyes, her face as silent as
grave looked at me seeking answers to her questions but I had nothing to
answer. I couldn’t do anything to help her. Silence fell all over the place leaving both
of us speechless. I felt most helpless but it was her who needed to be rescued.
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