Hope is a good thing !

“Hope is a good thing perhaps the best of all good things and no good thing ever dies”. This monologue from the great ’94 scene of Shawshank Redemption symbolizes more than just an ideology. It gives a concept to live with a hope, a reason that the future awaits you in a pleasant mood and promises more than what you could ever expect.

But the movie fails when it comes to the Indian minds, the story of a prison-break might not be so appealing to the local audience here, still we live with a hope and of course the credit must go to our greatest religion, the one we all follow without any barriers of caste, creed, religion or race, CRICKET. To those who disagree, mind you Cricket more than just a sport, it’s the harbinger of cheers and hope in a dull and gloomy ambience when the path looks tough and victory doesn’t seem to be in light, it’s the game of cricket that teaches you something deeper, the hope is left till the eleventh man rather the last ball.

The victory against Zimbabwe in ’83 world cup teaches you the reason to hope. When you have lost half of your side with less than 20 runs on the board, obviously it doesn’t look good. But this gentleman (Kapil Dev) goes out and plays his greatest innings, 175 not out, and finally goes on to win the cup. The first edition of T20 world championship starts on a gloomy note for the Indians. First match washed out, second bowl out and finally an all out against the proteas. But then comes up a heroic act of a 6-6-6-6-6-6 through the bats of our beloved Yuvi and we start craving for the cup and we did win again.

 Its a miraculous game and we do expect miracles. Its not about dogmatic beliefs but the faith that we have engrossed in our hearts and the respect for the game that makes us believe that even Laxmipathi Balaji can hit a Six on the last ball and win us the game. We learn to hope the strangest of things to happen and when they do, our faith wins. The 2002 natwest final stands just another example to the list of many others.

But, what makes me hope again so much for cricket. I lost all interest in the game with the diminishing form of the GOD (10dulkar) during the last few months. Still when I read about the 300 ball per hour net sessions followed by a marvelous Ranji century, my dil mange more of Sachinista effect. The upcoming Ind-Eng bout might be the last time we would ever see the legend on crease again, but the hopes are high and the GOD will deliver !