Oh no! Not again!
I thought I had beaten the bogeyman once and for all. But here he comes again, worming his knobbly fingers into my hair and into my life until he gets a stranglehold on me.
Way back then it had all started so innocently. Just a little taste. See, it's good, it's fun. Have a little more. Wheeeeeee!
It took over my weekends, from dawn until dusk, and then spread insidiously to my weekdays as well. Whenever an opportunity arose, I was hooked. My social life fell to pieces, because I never had time for anyone or anything else - everything was completely focused purely on this pleasure.
Then I got a job which exposed me even more - imagine an alcoholic becoming a waitress at an upmarket restaurant. Which is where I met an enabler who pushed more my way, which I greedily lapped up, panting for more. And I switched jobs - from the frying pan into the fire. Imagine the same waitress now becoming a bartender at an Irish pub.
It was all I ate, walked, breathed, slept, dreamt for five years, before I stopped, cold turkey.
After a while I could stand a little tentative exposure. Sure there was some interest, but not the driving, all-consuming need. I knew to keep my distance, not to get hooked again. And to be honest, there wasn't much opportunity.
And then opportunity, ample and grinning, knocked, beckoned, hollered at me. I tried to fight it, honestly I did. I walked past, I only glanced. If I had to sit down, I would do so for a disciplined few minutes and then leave, even while it tried to entice me back.
And then the few minutes stretched into a few tens of minutes and then hours and hours and hours until a whole week went by without my knowledge.
My name is Sivani, and I am a cricket addict.
Why oh why did we have to buy a house and get a satellite dish?
(For those of you who know cricket: I started out by scoring league matches on Saturdays from 8 am to 6 pm, taping the one-dayer at home. On Sundays I would watch the Sunday one-dayer, and then follow it with the first innings of the taped match. Mondays would be the second innings - that's if I made it to bed on Sunday!
Then I became official First Class scorer.
Then I started in a job* that enabled me to travel with the international teams all around the country.
*details withheld to preserve some privacy.)
Comments (9)
Oh Sivani, you make me laugh! Hasn't there been some great cricket recently? At least the England / RSA test series is back in the one day format - I follow per internet as cricket hasn't exactly set the German TV viewing population on fire, can't imagine why not.
I tried to explain the therapeutic appeal of cricket, she looked even more askance than when I tried to convince her to watch some rugby
Posted by Huwge | January 31, 2005 7:58 PM
Posted on January 31, 2005 19:58
My sympathies... Husband is from Barbados and a recovering cricket addict himself.
Posted by anan | February 1, 2005 12:46 AM
Posted on February 1, 2005 00:46
Hi, Sivani!
Two of my friends from India suffer from your very addiction, one from the north and one from the south; it may be all they can agree on. All I can say of cricket addiction is that it is not given for us uninitiated-types to comprehend it; it is ours to merely understand and support.
Posted by Chrysalis | February 1, 2005 5:45 AM
Posted on February 1, 2005 05:45
I have never seen a cricket match, always wanted to, but just hadn't been exposed to it and now I am afraid to see one. I mean, what if this happened to me. Here's your brain. Here's your brain on cricket kind of thing. Very scary.
Posted by Mary | February 1, 2005 3:59 PM
Posted on February 1, 2005 15:59
Have you seen the movie "Lagaan"? I loved it, and I don't even know anything about cricket.
Posted by judyanne | February 1, 2005 4:52 PM
Posted on February 1, 2005 16:52
the first step back is always the hardest
Posted by briggy | February 1, 2005 10:47 PM
Posted on February 1, 2005 22:47
I find cricket rather boring. Especially watching on TV. But I did once enjoy watching a local "Sunday league" match at a small ground in the neighbourhood in the summer. It was a very sociable thing - and the players were all dressed in traditional white - and the grass was nice and green. That was cute.
Posted by Jag | February 1, 2005 11:39 PM
Posted on February 1, 2005 23:39
Thank you all for the concern and support.
Mary, the movie JudyAnne mentioned, "Lagaan" is a great one for getting an inkling about cricket. Set during the time of British Rule in India, a village is told that they can avoid paying taxes if they can beat the British tax collector's team at cricket.
The problem is the villagers know nothing about cricket, so they have to get someone in to teach them.
It is a great movie at any level, and then you add cricket to it to boot!
Chrys - I'm glad you realize the gulf that exists between North and South India :-)
Huw - yes, that's the tough part. Sneaking by with a game lasting a couple of hours versus one lasting several days... The up-side is that if you find a devotee of cricket you know it must be someone prepared to make serious commitment to something.
Anan - oh gosh, Barbadians can be scary about cricket! If he moved in cricketing circles in Barbados within the past 15 years we might even know some of the same people :-)
Jag - one of the mental "snapshots" I carry in my memory of the first summer I spent in England (because we didn't stop to take the picture) is of a village match continuing at 7.30 p.m. on a field where one corner sloped up alarmingly, like someone picking up a blanket. There were at least three trees dotted within the playing area, and everyone was still immaculately dressed in pristine white - no diving around for them, I guess.
Briggy - you're so right. Surely there must be a way for me to integrate it into my life in a constructive way?
Posted by Sivani | February 2, 2005 3:54 AM
Posted on February 2, 2005 03:54
You could try to convince a local baseball team to start using wider bats ... and stumps ... and 5-day long matches ...
Posted by Em² | February 2, 2005 11:19 AM
Posted on February 2, 2005 11:19