Stance! - postponed

Saw a group of young guys in their teens playing cricket in a park. I stood there, with a usual, one hand in pocket and the other holding a cigarette, stance, right at the edge of the park. Almost ashamed to be seen for various reasons. One being, how un-fit I looked as compared to (no, not those guys) myself when I was a teen. Two, of smoking in front of those kids and three, because it was almost an year since I strained any muscle in my body.

The characters were all the same, as we used to have in our time. A have-it-all guy, who always turned up in the park in proper sports kit. Does a decent job as an all-rounder (an all rounder generally opens the batting in gully cricket) and can bowl economic overs.

A nerd looking guy who generally gets all the equipments and tries desperately to earn some respect because he is letting others use his equipment.

A guy who can never connect the bat with the ball and almost never gets the batting, and announces himself as the opening bowler by virtue of law of equal participation. Still with every innings change he fights with almost everyone else, that he deserves to bowl the first over.

One guy who has accepted that his outing at the field will be spent fielding at an obscure position (where only a miscue goes) and in catching practice when his team is batting.

An annoying character who goes about having a go at anything and everything, he knows it all and is an epitome of knowing-and -not-doing. These kinds generally take the keepers position where they can have a well round view of the game and can be heard by everyone. Even to the opposition team who generally hangs around behind the keeper.

A fiery bowler who goes about his bowling as a surgeon performing heart transplant. His moments of glory are countless. He gets the ball even if the 'deserving guy, who dint bat' is shouting at the top of his voice, takes wicket in his very first over and brings down the run-rate severely after an expensive over. Anyone can spot this guy easily, as in how many of those kids are actually performing surgeries out there.

Rest all, either fit into the above said categories or form a massive non-existents. Their presence goes un-noticed every time and they generally are picked up by the team captains to fill up slots.

Watching those kids and identifying the characters took me about half an hour and two more cigarettes.

And then one incident took away my shame and defined the characteristics of those young people in a better light.

One shot, flew over the boundary and into a sewage drain (which act as the ultimate ball gobblers, even if it is a 1ft by 1 ft opening, it will attract the ball in it). In my time, the fielder (one of the non-existent mass) on the boundary would go, dirty his hands a little, if smart, will pull out the ball making a glove out of a carry bag, bounce the ball 3-4 times and the play moved on.

Will complete this, some other day..