Batsman with an overseas hunderd

As a kid playing cricket fanatically, making it to the state team, and subsequently to the top echelons of national team used to be a constant dream across my childhood. Getting selected was so overestimated that I even made plans to settle in Sri-Lanka after someone told me that it was just as big as the state I represented – and hence my chances of making it to National team there, might be higher. J

Watching cricket on television was never limited to just the live telecast, its repeat version or the special shows. It extended to re-playing  - that one shot, taking that one catch or bowling that Yorker which you loved over and over again in one’s mind – of course with oneself as a protagonist!
As understanding of the game increased, the childlike fanaticism gave way to a bit matured – though still mad – love for the game. And then the inevitable happened – with advancing age, stage, number of subjects and end-term exams my association with cricket ended. Like the love affair of tender age, it was destined to die pre-maturely – and was perhaps even visible clearly to all except me.
Years post that saw sporadic but short lived interactions with the game. A match or two every six months, either for the college, class or just with friends on weekends. There was, of course a high point again when during MBA our class won an interclass championship! A few strokes from that tournament are still so vivid in my mind as if they were played yesterday. Years of job proved to be rather like draught. Few exciting moments from net sessions done over the weekends, one lost match – where I had hit a straight six, and quite a few dropped catches that I can’t forget.
At a point when India’s performance abroad was really under scanner from all corners, performance outside the subcontinent stood out as a yardstick that truly differentiated true batting talents from bullies of flat tracks.   Fast forward to present – I moved to Denver for work, after spending first few weekends in shopping for groceries, visiting parks, library etc. I finally found a contact detail for a local cricket club. From last week, after submitting its registration form and receiving acknowledgment for it life has changed a bit. US is not a cricket friendly country, or at least the city where I live, it seems not to be very popular – no sport shop sells a cricket bat or equipment, only a few store managers even recognized it. Cricket Season’s start is at least- four months away and I am not yet even on that team – still an idea that I could possibly – get to play a match and then go on to make an overseas hundred warms a heart in a unique sort of way!!
Dream usually starts with a fall of wicket after which I would walk out to bat, with team a bit under pressure. Slowly but surely runs start coming in, square cuts stand out and the end is always filled with a couple of lofted shots!
None of the particulars from above mentioned dream, starting from my presence in this country to be actually able to play the games and performing the way I would like to, are anywhere close to reality right now. At a time of writing this they are just figments of my imagination. Yet it has been one of the favorite indulgences, to think of it!!
Well-aware that these games, if at all I play, will have no record anywhere except for that in my mind and perhaps that too would only remain selective in really long term – thinking about it actively excites me, motivates me to run 30 minutes a day and most importantly helps me go to sleep with smiling face. J

Do you have any similar experience, where things that are visibly trivial – as trivial as an unrecorded, yet to be played cricket match in a city where hardly anyone plays this game, mean so much to you that they make a part of some of your most favorite dreams?