SUJI: A life that was MNR

Technomania

Come January, and it’s cricket mania that takes over. It’s a strange phenomenon that grips everyone-without exception. A heady mixture of high voltage cricketing action under the lights, in the basketball court, matches won by the skin of the teeth and intense crowd involvement. The board of selectors “You must be joking pal! Just go around to the nearest chai shop and rope in nine guys and presto! You have a cricket team of your own, fighting fit for the TECHNO TROPHY the most popular sporting event of the college. Call it ‘Titans’ or ‘Jumbo Baazigars’ or ‘program C’ – any name you wouldn’t want your mama to give you. So you didn’t make it into any of the fifty odd teams? Welcome to the Professional Cheerleaders’ Association, where you can hoot yourself hoarse!

With anything down the leg side in a match of just ten overs being called a wide, the emphasis is not flair or technique. If you can get the ball to hit your bat and scamper across the pitch you’ve got it made in Techno man! So you think you are going to step back and pull the bowler for a six? Forget it pal. Anything that’s above the boundary fence is out. The only thing you can do is hit straight and hit hard.

It’s 8 p.m. and the mess is the last thing on anybody’s mind. With five runs to be made of just two balls, you can almost reach out and feel the tension in the air. As the bowler starts his run up the power fails. Moments tick by as the bowler mutters not-so-pleasantly under his breath and the batsmen pace around to keep their rhythm. The generator comes on to loud cheers from the crowd as things get underway again.

The next ball is of yorker length. It takes an outside edge and rolls to point. The batsmen exchange a quick glance and dash across for a single. The fielder takes a shy at the stumps, and breaks them as the batsman lunges to make it into the crease in time. The cry “HOWZZAT!” rents the air as three hundred pairs of eyes fasten on the umpire. But all he does is raise his hand to pocket his coin and shake his head in disagreement. One ball left, and it boils down to the man at the crease, as he takes his guard.

As the bowler puts every ounce of his energy behind the last ball, it looks as though he’d rather run the batsman down with a truck. The batsman steps forward and drives the ball past a diving extra cover for four runs. With that there occurs a cloud-burst of spectators who throng the field to hoist him on his shoulders, the undisputed man of the evening …

With the damages as low as ten bucks a head, you have close to 500 people directly involved with the Techno Trophy each year. The adrenalin, of course, is free.