The Night watchman

Weather was bad, conditions were overcast. Drizzle was being faded away only due to the force of strong wind – clouds were gathering overhead and making the afternoon seem like dark evening.  There was a silence in dressing room, openers were just going out and everyone was saying their silent prayers for them to just bat through the day without any casualty.

The captain walked to him steadily and said “Pad up Jim, in case of a wicket, you will have to go and weather it out till end of day’s play.’’

Jim was playing in that team as a fast bowler, however he loved batting too – and did not like to throw away his wicket. He was gritty by nature and a team man to the core.  A chance to go out as a night-watchman in troublesome weather was exactly the kind of challenge that he loved to take up, something that is unnerving but exciting at the same time.

Innings started and soon it came out that it was going to be a rough ride. Not only was the weather making it difficult, the pitch was also vicious – lots of irregular bounce and two paced behaviour. It was an openers’ nightmare.  The look on their face said that worst of their nightmares had come true.

Fall of wicket was merely a matter of time; it seemed to Jim, he was all set from the word go to go out there and fight it out for his team.  He had done that in past and backed himself for repeating the feat. As he sat with his safety gears on, the images of that innings flashed across his mind – it is surprising how vivid memories are!

A sudden roar from the opposition team brought Jim back to present, he realized there was an appeal – ball had taken up sharply from good length and put the batsman in awkward position and also took an edge of his glove.

“Take it easy Jim” – he heard as he stood up after seeing the umpire raising his figure to indicate the fall of first wicket.

Jim was a dear friend of mine and I was supporting his team, praying for him to salvage it for a few overs so that umpires can probably realize how bad the lights were and call it a day. There were some fine batsmen in his team and I wanted to watch them bat tomorrow in bright day light. As a fan of the game, sight of glistening red cricket ball under the sunshine was one of the finest views I had cherished – the overcast conditions were ruining it.

Just as I saw Jim walking out, a fantastic analogy struck my mind of how much I shared with him at this particular moment.

Indeed, being fan of Indian cricket at this point of time is akin to be a night-watchman. The dark secrets of corruption, poisonous accusations of conflict of interest, politicization of the game’s governing body, suppression and misrepresentation of facts from various entities leave us all in a very fragile state – just like that of a night watchman walking out to fight out on a difficult wicket and weather conditions.

My prayer is as much for myself as it is for Jim, I hope we both bat out this tough time safely without any further damage so that we can see that red cherry shining under bright light in days to come!