Cricket to me

70 runs to win... 7 wickets down... Ankoor is the only recognised batsman on the pitch... Straight drive, punch through cover pull down squareleg... "Ankoorrrrrrrrrrrrrrryaaaa did you finish the page? you are on it since half an hour!!!" That was Mom... The rain interuption, or the should I say the thunderstorm interuption in my close finishing, heroic day dream.The human mind can never be blank, thoughts, dreams etc. always keep it busy. I have played a world record number of cricket matches in my day dreams, scored tonnes of runs and been a hero in each match. Thats how much I love the game.

One major regret I always carried is that I could never play competitive cricket. I am very aggressive by nature and as a kid always adored the way the pakis played their cricket and played it pretty much the same way, with aggression.

I remember a very funny incident as a kid in school when my senior house team was loosing badly and I was just a spectator. I went up to our captain who was fielding at the boundry with a vaseline bottle and asked him if he wanted to use it and that it could help win the game. He was stunned. When I played for my college team I was so chirpy behind the stumps, I used to get warnings from batsman, "match ke baad milte hain".

My day dreams finally got tired of being repeated and so they turned into a reality. I moved to Dallas and through this gentleman at work named Zia somehow got in touch with a Paki team which plays 2nd division league cricket in Dallas. Its a well recognised league and there is much more on offer than I had ever dreamt off. I play for them as a wicket keeper batsman. I am no hero player like the one in my dreams... in fact i have screwed it up in so many situations which I have won in my day dreams. so much so that in between I even quit it, totally. On retrospection I realised I was making the most common human error. Dream, dream dream and when you achieve it move on... take it for granted... leave it, coz its not exactly how the you had planned it, or maybe coz you had planned it wrong or may be too far.
So now I have started playing again and hope that this time around I will enjoy living this dream. That way I can make this a memory of a lifetime.

I meet some great individuals whenever I play a match. We call ourselves as Eagles. All of them have common traits. They are big at heart, very aggressive, hit the ball very hard, dont have a defensive bone, always think positive, bowl and bat their hearts out, never miss a chance to pull someones leg, are never short of a word. They are full of advice and will shower upon you any amount of trust and support if they think you are good, honest and have talent. Amir bhai, Asif bhai and Abdullah bhai are my favourites.