This is not a featured article, the ones which has fact files jumping out of the page to prove the writer’s knowledge of cricket statistics. This is a story, a story of a common Indian girl, who swam the opposite to the waves and fell in love with a person least expected for a girl like her. For whom, cricket has been first love, unlike girls of her age who indulged themselves in the daily Indian drama with names starting with the lucky charm ‘K’onsonant. The girl, while cheering for her country, used to pray under her breath that her favourite got at least a couple of crucial wickets, if not a hat-trick. This is about an Indian girl, who fell in love with Dale Steyn.
During the tiffin-breaks, while most of her friends used to gather around and revise their favourite Bollywood star’s upcoming movies list, she, along with a handful others, would check on the upcoming series, especially the ones of India (and secretly South Africa). She has grown up watching a group of her countrymen don helmets, grab a rectangular piece of thick willow and whack an innocent-looking leather ball all over the park.
One thing, however, she never understood: if the balls were not delivered, the batsman could never bat. Why, then, is it that batsmen always steal the limelight? What amazed her most was how the bowler, running up half the field, could still manage to step exactly where they were expected to, had the ball tipped exactly where he wanted to and at the same time confused batsmen with bounce and pace.
While most thought it was about scoring runs, to her it was more a battle of grey matter than biceps. “The bowler needs to be clever, otherwise he will concede runs and get no wickets” is something that attracted the girl, who was already an admirer of intellect.
That was precisely what she saw in Dale Steyn.
So far, the one pacer she had followed closely was the rarity in India, Zaheer Khan. However, the hub of pacers, Australia, had forever been portraying a picture of fast bowlers being bold, aggressive and passionate. Though Zaheer earned a lot of respect from her with his talent, skills and perseverance, he was certainly not her ‘type’. That one fast bowler she would obsess over remained elusive.
Then came Dale Steyn.
Her fellow cricket-followers in the neighbourhood gathered at her place for the match — or, to be precise — India’s batting. But she also cared for a man in green and gold, who she knew would do wonders, would rip through any batting line-up.
Even now, during the ongoing IPL 2016, she sneaks a peek at the Gujarat Lions’ playing XIs with a hope that he will play. She is hurt to see her lion, once leader of any pack, unarguably the greatest fast bowler of the generation, lose the sharpness in his bite, lose the sharpness of his fangs. It is hard for her to believe that her hero is off-colour for so long. She wants him back in action with his devastating brilliance.
Do I know this girl? Do you know this girl? Let that be a secret.
This article was first published at CricketCountry
(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)
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