The day before Diwali in the year 2007 witnessed an India-Pakistan cricket match on PCA ground, Mohali, Punjab. The stadium was packed to its capacity. It was an added treat for the crowd and they were enjoying each moment of the match.
But far away from the crowds of Mohali, I was walking back from the NIT, Calicut canteen to my hostel room in Chattamangalam, Calicut, Kerala after having a good lunch. The distance between the canteen and our hostel room was nearly 2.5 Km and because of lack of transport facility daily we used to walk that distance to have our food. I think we made quite a record of walking in the 6 months we stayed there. It was a hot and humid afternoon and while I was walking back to my hostel room, I saw a small black and white TV on the verandah of an eatery, very famous among NIT students. It was broadcasting live action and some people were eagerly watching. The security guard of ICICI bank ATM which was next to the eatery was sitting on a chair and was enjoying the match. India was batting and it was spearheaded by none other than the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Some days back he declined to captain the Indian test team. He was batting on 70 and literally the Pakistani bowlers were running for their life. I sat on the verandah to watch the match and within few over he raced to 97, dejected Pakistani captain handed the ball to his main fast bowler Umar Gul, who prevented Sachin from scoring his 42nd hundred in the previous match. The first ball was bowled and it was sent to the third man for 2 runs. Sachin was on 99. The crowd was on its feet and the crowd not more than 5 men gathered in front of the small TV set. The commentator referred to the statistics which said that Sachin missed the magical 3 figure run after scoring 90, 21 times. And for the last 4 times he missed the ton by a single run. The 4th ball of the over was bowled and Sachin kinked it to the wicket keeper and was out caught behind. He was surely dejected as well as the crowd who were cheering for him went silent. The crowd in front of the TV disappeared and getting the cue I preferred to resume my walk back to the hostel.
It was a long walk back to the pavilion for Sachin. The next day papers may publish headlines that, “Ghost of 99 hunts Sachin for 5th time.” And experts may say different things and analyze his performance in technical terms. In the VIP enclave of PCA, Mohali sachin’s wife Anjali, their son arjun and daughter sara were watching the match. Sachin has 41 centuries in his name in ODI cricket but couldn’t convert 5 more much earned 99 in to 100 for a single run. This is a dilemma he has to live with for the rest of his life. Everybody in this world lives with a dilemma. But in my opinion the greatest dilemma of the world is that seeing your dreams getting scattered like a pack of cards because of the smallest mistake you have ever done in your life.
What goes in your mind when you are playing at 99 and everybody has high expectations from you? When Sourav Ganguly retired from the test matches he was out a first ball duck in his last innings of international career. But when he entered to the test arena in Lords, England in 1995 he made his presence felt by a splendid century. The next day newspaper gave a headline “Hundred to Zero; the journey of Maharaja Ends”. When Inzimam-ul-haq retired from the test cricket he was stumped out in his last innings and was only 4 runs short of making highest run in test cricket for Pakistan after javed minadad. When don bradman played his last innings he was out for a duck just a boundary short for making his average 100. Mohd. Azharuddin played 99 tests for India after being labeled with match fixing allegation and banned for life. Cricket statistics has lot more information about such incidents and I just referred to some facts that I remember.
It always hurts when you can’t get the desired result despite you are so close to the target. That 1 mark which costs you a 2nd class, that 1 run by which you missed the century, that 1 min which changed the course of the hockey or football game. So close yet so far… this is the destiny…
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