October 21, 2015

'Anari '. Old man Bhosle said, unwinding Sehwag over tea at Murari Dairy. In bed, through a moony night, has been tossing over Viru. A tiny hurt. His going away from cricket. Never felt like that. Asked me, when was cricket fun, a rum with friends: Sehwag moments. And then the FB post from son Ganesh: My childhood is over. Well, me old age is over. Me cricket is over. .One watched the last IPL for a Sehwag shot; a Sehwag 30 minutes; a second. He is jugaad. A modern young Indian, comfortable in Haryanvi Hindi, prizing Ferozshah Kotla to Lord's, no English hang-ups, chewing Hindi film music, funning India-way; he would have gone into a Test match in a white pyjama and a jibba; it did not matter; Sehwag made his mould; broke out of the Oxford sophistication of Pataudi, a Gangulian bhadralok, brought in the smells of an Indian street; and good, old and loud Indian home. He Indianised cricket, make in India. Balla ball pe lag gaya tho bus...aur nahin tho ..a dry smile, was his cricket. Analysts and better writers like Ravi Krishnan, a clutch of espn essays, know more about cricket than me; point conceded; seen Sehwag many handshakes away on TV screens. Gordon Greenidge and Sanath Jayasurya may not have been in his mind, but they did it first as openers cribbed by conventions; Sehwag was uncribbed. He stepped into the ground, did a half-turn, looked up to a blue sky sun, off to the stumps to take guard,,,any plans?; if the day turned good, good; ..okay, otherwise. He did not like the time when Sri Lanka plucked him out of a Test hundred. When Sehwag nudged a 18-year old Ishant Sharma to bowl the 9 th over at one burst at Perth with the okay of captain Anil Kumble and Sharma danced out Ponting ...9 overs... Ponting lost all the cricket and chicanery he had learnt playing cricket the Australian way ... will stay with me into my next janma. John Arlott in Book of Cricketers writes: Much of the game's richness lies in the depth of its tradition which, though it is such a small corner of the whole greater world, entitles it to its own immortals. Sir John Berry Hobbs is one of them. Arlott me has a second view. Sehwag. No tradition. O kya hai (What's that), he would have asked. Did not build one as Sehwag cannot be xeroxed. Built none. It may not be to the tastes of Englishmen. In Bollywod terms, he was Amar, Akbar, Anthony, a three in one. Yes, an Anari.