IPL Diaries!!! – By Chetan Narula.

A Road Less Traveled.

This is one of the few articles that I have written in first person. Ever since gaining experience in my magazine Cricket Today, I have moved away from giving first person accounts, but 3^rd May 2008 was such a day in my life that needs this description.

Almost five years ago, in October 2003, the New Zealand cricket team was in India for a two Test match series, followed by a tri-series also involving Australia. The second test match was played at Mohali from 16^th to 20^th October. I was in my second year in college. By the way, I was doing my Mechanical engineering.

Coming back, it was probably the only weekend that I stayed in hostel during my college days, given that my college was just 200 kms away from Delhi, and not counting any exam days. But even on this weekend, it seemed as though time had stopped in the hostel. Not a soul stirred and it was too damn difficult to even see Saturday go by. And then, like a bolt from the blue, I realized that since I couldn’t go home now, I could still travel 200 kms in the opposite direction and see a cricket match in a stadium for the first time in my life. The decision had been made.

And so, I got up at 5 am the next morning. Put on the India t-shirt I had bought for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, and suddenly it hit me that this is what I had actually bought the tri-coloured piece of cloth for, especially since I had watched the world championship from the confines of my drawing room. With my ‘roomie’ in tow, we traveled by bullock-cart, tractor, truck and bus to reach Chandigarh by 9 in the morning. This was the easy part, for we didn’t have tickets.

Now cricket is a religion in this country, and wherever the Indian team (the demi-gods) is playing, it is but obvious that the crowds will be in a huge number. And so they were. Getting to the ticket window would have lost us about five hours and seeing the rush, it was obvious that it would have proved futile in the end. Not to mention the Punjab Police were getting ready to lathi-charge the maddening crowd. So we tried a more ‘Indian’ way to get in. Bought two tickets, in black, for two hundred bucks. Now, they were five day tickets, which are available for 50 bucks apiece. But even at that price it seemed a bargain.

So far luck had been with us. We got there in time, got the tickets early and at a reasonable price. And we went in, reaching our seats in another half an hour. New Zealand were batting, trying for a healthy lead against the homeside. I saw my hero, Sachin Tendulkar, fielding near the boundary. But unlike others, instead of calling out to him and trying to get him to wave back at us, I simply stood there watching intently, taking this moment in, realizing this was a mere mortal, and not a ‘God’ as we make him out to be.

It was that moment in time that I wondered aloud, as to how will I be able to bridge this gap between a commoner (me) and this God, yet ‘Mortal Genius’. I had already decided that after my engineering, I was going to pursue mass communications and be a news broadcaster/anchor. But somehow it dawned on me that this wasn’t going to be enough, or what I actually wanted to end up doing.

India batted soon enough and Sehwag lit up the day with an awesome hundred, two towering sixes amongst the 130 runs. But the highlight of the day for me was Rahul Dravid’s defensive play. Daryl Tuffey was charging in at full steam and bowled a good length ball. The response was rock solid, the ball hit his bat and like it had literally hit a wall, it just fell to the ground at the batsman’s toes. A truly wonderful moment.

I, however, returned with a heavy heart as Sachin didn’t get a chance to play. Plus the ever poking question as to what to do about the thoughts I had earlier. On the way back, my room-mate stayed back and I took the journey alone, which gave me a lot of time to think. Some facts dawned on me, that I had been watching sports intently now for the last few years. Sacrificing studies, bunking college, returning home mid-week to catch the world cup, incurring the wrath of my parents, still watching cricket everyday, football & David Beckham every weekend, and F1 & Ferrari every alternate weekend. I was eating, drinking and breathing sports action on television, literally living sports. It was then that I decided to make sports my livelihood.

As I mentioned 3^rd May 2008 was a memorable day for me. This was the day that I covered my first match as a sports journalist, and that too at the same ground where I had made this decision, watching Kings XI Punjab taken on Kolkata Knight Riders. The same road was traveled as it was five years ago.

Just that the entry to the stadium, and for that matter, the entire experience was different. The Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali has forever, etched a place in my heart.

It felt as if I had finally reached somewhere in my quest, during which I have been lost many a times, not knowing what to do. Sitting in the press box, I saw that there is a new dawn on the horizon but as I look onwards, I do realize one thing. I have miles to go yet before I finally get to sleep.

Note: For the record, we re-sold the two tickets for 100 bucks that day in 2003, to two guys who wanted to see the last day action. I still wonder how many times those two tickets changed hands during those five days.