Amusing Superstitions in Watching Cricket!

When we were school students the Television was not there in our regions, and so, nothing about ‘watching’ cricket. Those days we caught up with the radio whenever India were playing, I remember lying awake the whole night till daylight, particularly when the matches were going on in the West Indies; and those were only the five-day Test matches as the shorter formats were also unknown except for our gully or home cricket being always limited-overs encounters. And we were free of any superstitious beliefs because listening didn’t necessarily involve them. It’s only when we started getting blessed with the live telecasts (early eighties in India) and began watching our favorite players in action that such superstitions began to emerge. Perhaps watching it live made the exchange of vibes or thoughts between us and the players possible with what you call the body language behaviors of both sides affecting the prospects, somewhat. And in came the superstitions, beliefs or say superstitious beliefs and biases/prejudices that mostly govern the rabid ‘home-side’ supporters. That day I was watching a Test match between India and England when all the memories regarding those rushed back, after a long time.

The first and foremost belief/superstition/prejudice was: based on circumstantial evidence we were of the firm opinion that when India were batting, the moment we got up from our seat and went out for some time or even went for a leak very much inside home one or two Indian wickets fell invariably—we cursing ourselves for the indiscretion while coming back to watch the horrid results. This ‘belief’ began to act so severely in our minds that we sat stuck to our seats till India finished their innings—in the process holding up biological needs, ignoring mother’s directives and other related issues that never failed to cause a lot of irritation around. However, we were sure that such ‘waves of irritation’, though essentially negative in nature, were not going to impact our batsmen adversely. And exactly the opposite was true, again based on ‘forensic’ evidence, when the opposition was batting—meaning if we sat stuck as in the Indian innings no wicket would ever fall and if we got up for a break one/two wickets fell invariably. So, during those periods we used to move around like free birds!

Although I don’t know much about astrology or astronomy and less about numerology, the numbers began to dominate our beliefs/superstitions/prejudices at a later stage, and unfortunately that streak still continues, at least in my personal case, notwithstanding the momentous fact that by now I am an ‘elderly, wise and experienced’ individual! How do we get the ‘concepts’ about all those special numbers? Well, maybe we’re influenced by some elaboration, talks, discussions or internet ‘insights’ over the years! For example, the number 13 is always beheld as the unluckiest number, even though numerology may say a lot of good things about it.

My ‘forensic’ evidence always shows that whenever an India batsman, particularly in case of the stalwarts like Virat or Rohit (not to speak of the greats of yore), reaches the individual score of 13 he succumbs to that piece of sheer bad luck, most often than not! It applies to the team score too, in fact, all other numbers that I’m going to talk about apply to both individual and team scores and that of the opposition players/teams as well. While I sit on as if thunderstruck when my favorite player fails to evade number 13, I sit up with delirious anticipation when players of the opposition do so! As per my ‘evidence’ the number 63 and 111 are even more dangerous and near-fatal! When a cricketer or his team reaches 63 some great tragedy is about to befall them, its effect being more ominous if he or the team stays on that score for one or two balls more or till the next over. Ditto for the number 111! And when both the episodes of 63 and 111 happen for a team, that team is bound to lose the match, as per my evidence again! And these are applicable for all playing teams.

You’d hardly believe me that once in a holy place I refused to take a very nice double-room offered by a good hotel, because the room bore the 111 number! And I caused undue hardship to my poor wife as she had to trudge along with me in search of a new hotel! But what to do? Maybe I thus prevented some absolutely hazardous bit of misfortune befalling us both if I had okayed the room. I know this much that astrology always suggest measures to get rid of probable misfortune and like the protective spirits/angels who are always with us to safeguard our journey of life as against the evil ones that want to harm us at every possible excuse. Such ‘Good Vs Evil’ battles are being constantly fought over every one of us like a balancing act, including the cricketers that some of them of their teams may be enabled to escape from the numbers as mentioned.

Although I cannot help but being number-conscious I don’t capsize to their hold of my mind, and I always hope for a clean way out. Now, number 4 is considered to be influenced by Rahu, number 7 by Ketu or number 8 is supposed to be governed by Saturn and the summation of numbers that result in these numbers; but they don’t always harm you, they may in fact do tremendous good to you if you happen to be looked upon favorably by the concerned planets. I don’t want to go for more explanations or justification or whatever. The moot point is that these number games or most of the superstitious beliefs we hold as far as cricket is concerned are always amusing and even humorous. Besides, who has the time nowadays to sit glued to TV sets (or even head-phoned mobiles for that matter)! Because you have to work, nah? Our cricketers earn millions of bucks all the time, and this obvious fact makes us lesser mortals work harder, right? So, as I mentioned I was amused that day by those memories. You should be too!

Social Media Visibility @ZERO!

Well! What the heck! Invisibility is infinite because our own God Himself is invisible! Some scientists say that even ZERO is a concept akin to being infinite! Therefore, both ways, it’s only great to be invisible! While God hides Himself behind whatever you don’t need to know, He has created the humans that are immensely visible; once you’re born as one you cannot hide anywhere in the universe until you drop dead in which case you’re either burnt to ashes or buried under, making you finally invisible as far as the ‘real you’ is concerned, because you continue to exist virtually in family albums and the social media, and if you happen to be a huge celebrity you continue to have an extremely dominant virtual existence till perhaps when earth itself gets obliterated. However, problems are more obnoxious when you and other ordinary mortals like us are kicking alive! Even if you wish to disappear instantly from all human views, like Sita in Ramayana did, you fail to accomplish that. In this digital world God has given us the great gift of the virtual existence like the one where He perhaps exists too, not for nothing. Here, you are empowered to do what you wish to do with your unwelcome physical appearance and other related attributes, not instantly, of course, but over a very short period of time. Yes! You can really make yourself disappear!

Now the question comes as to why you should want to disappear yourself from your very own fellow human beings! In mean virtually! Well, for that you’re quick to blame only them, because actually your fellow human beings is the primal cause. Moving on with the modern times and to keep yourself in circulation you do join the virtual world—the social media platforms you know. There you show your face, pen down your thoughts and tagging along other virtual creatures too. And most of you do quite well. But alas! Other fellas cannot tolerate your getting noticed and so, they turn themselves into fraudsters, hackers, cheats or whatever of that ilk to steal your profile from no one else than you only, steal everything possible of your enriching virtual existence and move on as perfect parasites, at times, achieving much more than the real you ever did! And then there come the dangers—looming insecurity for all your material wealth, for your pace of mind or for your possible loss of reputation, apart from the identity theft.

It is indeed hard to understand why God has gifted the Artificial Intelligence or AI tools to humankind at this vulnerable juncture, because, apparently, it immediately helps the fraudsters, cheats or whatever of that ilk to make your life worse! They can now be the real you, for all surreal and virtual purposes! Perhaps He wants to make your proposed ‘disappearance’ act fast-tracked. Obviously, the IT giants, the top CEOs or the industry tycoons would only sing hoarsely in praise of His gift! Why would they bother themselves for ordinary mortals like you? They wouldn’t stand to lose any of the customers either, because the real you will have to go on purchasing the essentials for your physical mortal cocktail existence! A bit complicated, you know!

Anyway, we can really fast-track ourselves too in the disappearance act thanks to all the gifts! Virtually, mind you! Maybe, God had sent the Pandemic to get us involved more intimately in the virtual world so that when the time comes we should be ready for the all-important act. Following your tragic example, this namesake writer has also decided to disappear himself from the virtual world—instantly from the main social media platforms and gradually from the other related terrains. Of course, he will always stick to his books or writings even if those are suffering from as much loss of visibility as his invisible self, and for that simple reason only he continues to write today here, particularly for you! The writer has still kept one platform, because there he has just a solitary follower there which fact would greatly discourage antagonistic-fellas from adopting, adapting, impersonating, taking over or whatever as well as safeguarding him from related dangers.

Let there be light, and there was light. Let them disappear, and they disappeared. God can be omniscient, omnipresent and so on, but He too has to adapt Himself to the changing times. Right? 

Two Memorable Tests and Two Young Matchwinners: Joseph and Hartley!

Shamar Joseph, 7/68

We have been treated to two nail-biting test matches on the same day (yesterday being the fourth day of each), the 27^th of January 2024, which is, to say the least, is terrific news for the future of Test Cricket, coming right after the two-day humdinger between India and South Africa in Cape Town. In both the Tests the host nations, Australia and India respectively, lost to the visitors on the day as mentioned, largely thanks to the captivating bowling performances of two young bowlers—fast bowler Shamar Joseph for the West Indies and orthodox spinner Tom Hartley for England. While Joseph was playing only his second Test, Hartley made his Test debut; both of the age of around 24, being born in 1999. Both of them captured 7 wickets each on the fourth day as the host nations were chasing the targets set. The Australia-West Indies test match was the second and last of the two-match Series played in Brisbane with the Aussies leading 1-0 while the India-England match was the first of the five-match Test Series in Hyderabad. In both the matches the first three days witnessed ups and downs. Electing to bat first at the Gabba the West Indies batted fairly well putting up 311 runs in the first innings with Starc and Hazlewood capturing six scalps; Australia replied with 289/9 conceding a marginal lead, thanks to Alzarri Joseph and Roach taking 7 of the wickets; known for their historical batting collapses the West Indies fell for just 193/9 in the second innings, setting a moderate target of 216 runs for the Aussies to get. As a further setback for the visitors Shamar Joseph got injured while batting after Tea on the third day; while no fracture was detected in his toe he was in great pain and was nearly ruled out for the fourth day.

Australia resumed batting at overnight 60/2 on the fourth day and seemed to be cruising at 113/2, needing just 103 runs to get with Steve Smith in full command and 8 wickets standing. And in came the limping Shamar Joseph and created history. Despite his injury he bowled mightily, reaching 150km per hour. Immediately he uprooted the stumps of a set Cameron Green for 42, then he clean bowled Travis Head for a duck, and then Marsh, Carey, Starc and Cummins on the trot. After Alzarri Joseph captured the 9^th Aussie wicket in the form of Lyon, Shamar crafted a historic win for his nation by dislodging the stumps of Hazlewood as Smith remained not out at 91, unable to force the winning runs. The West Indies won by 8 runs and delivered another Gabba defeat to the mighty hosts since India did to them in 2021. This is also a tremendous boost for a struggling cricket-nation, the West Indies, to stage a revival. Matchwinner Shamar Joseph ended the Series with a total of 13 wickets, helping his team to share equal Series honors with the hosts.

Tom Hartley, 7/62

The fourth-day drama, meanwhile, continued in Hyderabad as India started chasing the rather tricky target of 231 runs, set by England who defied the Indian spinners in the second innings to amass 420 runs, thus overcoming a huge deficit of 190 runs. Electing to bat first England made only 246 thanks mainly to the Indian spinner trio—Ashwin, Jadeja and Patel. India replied majestically with 436 runs. In fact, the hosts enjoyed the upper-hand and were in command of the match throughout the first three days. The morning session of the fourth day changed that with the England sheet-anchor Ollie Pope going on rollicking to amass 196 invaluable runs and also managing to get good contributions from the tail-enders including a sound 34 by Tom Hartley. In view of the fact that the pitch was deteriorating with the ball turning, bouncing and yet keeping low, the failure of the Indian spinners to utilize it fully was a bit perplexing, and this gave some sort of hope too for the Indian chase of 231 runs with the home crowds roaring in support. Besides, the England bowling was not much to write home about—Hartley punished heavily in the first innings, Wood and Leach not remarkably effective and only Root was showing some spin promise. However, the England spinners had different ideas this time around and were raring to go, Hartley in particular.

Joe Root opened the bowling attack as his spin was quite impressive in the first innings. Since the first over, the Indian batsmen, the supposed masters of spin, got hooked and intrigued, unable to take advantage against any of the spinners. After a relatively good start of 42 runs with Rohit stroking well the phenomenon of Tom Hartley emerged on the scene. First, he had Jaiswal (15) caught behind by Pope and then he consumed India’s expected mainstay Shubman Gill for a duck, reducing India to 42/2 now. Rohit fell next at 39 to Hartley and India at 69/3. Root then joined the show and captured the prize scalp of KL Rahul (22) while Hartley took Patel at India 107/5. The run-out of Jadeja, arguably the best fielder of the team, was a disaster for India and Leach made it worse by taking the scalp of the last recognized Indian batsman Shreya Iyer. India were tottering at 119/7 then, and it was all but over. Hartley proved consistently heartless for India as he cut short the growing partnership between Bharat and Ashwin, the last hope for the frustrated fans, by consuming both of them. Nine down now, Mohammed Siraj suddenly enlivened up the fans by making a few lusty shots around. Hartley ended that too having his 7^th catch in form of Siraj. England won by 28 runs as India folded up at 202 runs—a sensational win beating India in India and being the first visiting team to reverse a deficit of 190 or more.

Under the aggressive captaincy of Ben Stokes and with his team leading 1-0, the five-match Test Series is set to be gripping and absorbing. The next Test starts from 2^nd February in Visakhapatnam. In the remaining Tests too, there are no big metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai or Bengaluru as venues, and this, I think, further heightens the unpredictability and excitement of the Series. It could be anybody’s game in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi or in Dharmsala. Again, good for Test Cricket. More than hundred thousand people enjoyed the match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.