padams, jimmy padams

This one's for the cricket fans. And not just any cricket fans, but the ones who actually follow the game in its longer format aka Test Match Cricket. I'm a HUGE cricket fan. Those who know me know this well. The one song of my band that gets regular radio play is "Cholo Bangladesh" which i was inspired to compose when Bangladesh beat Pakistan in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. 

I was introduced to the world of cricket pretty late in my life. I was 20, in my 2nd year of college, and i had a lot of free time on my hands as all my friends had gone to study abroad. I decided to invest a lot of my free time in watching cricket. It started with the 1996 world cup, which was spectacular for the wonderful aggressive cricket played by Sri Lanka, and then in 1998 i started playing the game myself. I had left the stage behind where i could get coaching and play any serious league so i settled for playing with my cousins and my new friends in Bangladesh. 

Pretty soon we had a healthy cricketing life. Every weekend we were at the field batting and bowling. It didn't matter that i couldn't bat or bowl, what mattered was that i gave it my all. And slowly and surely, i started learning the art of the game. I was never one of those dashing batsmen. I think there are only 3 innings (test and 1-day combined) when i successfully flashed my blade. Otherwise i was the slow and steady type. Very little talent but lots of heart. And so i always loved following the players in international cricket who were also great strugglers. And Jimmy Adams, left-handed batsman and former Captain of the West Indies, struggled with the best of them. 

The recent Test series between England And West Indies has degenerated into a run fest on flat and insipid wickets. A far cry from the bouncy and hard pitches of the West Indies of old. But the West Indies team boasts the great Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the newcomer Brian Nash, whose playing styles suited the flat pitches perfectly. Brian Nash has the distinction of being a struggler and he's the only white player in the WI team. Being a minority, he immediately got my attention. And then i saw him struggle and i fell in love with him. Shiv Chanderpaul is not really a struggler. He has all the shots in the book, some which are not, and yet he has this slow and plodding playing style in test matches that makes it look like he is struggling to find runs. All this struggle reminded me of Jimmy Adams and one particular innings Jimmy played against Pakistan when he was captain. 

Jimmy was never a great talent. He was a hard worker. He scored a lot of runs when he originally debuted but soon lost his form and was dropped. But then WI lost all its talent and that created an opportunity for Adams to come back. Come back he did, and after Lara gave up his captaincy he took over. We knew he was not the savior of WI cricket. He knew it too. But i always felt he had a lot of heart and i thought at that moment in time he was the best man for the job. So i wholeheartedly supported his captaincy, through all the defeats and the few victories he managed. And the one moment i will always remember was his celebration after he scored a hard-fought 50 against Pakistan in a test in WI. 

I don't remember details of that match. All i remember is that Wavel Hinds batted magnificently and WI won the series 1-0. All the pitches were flat because they were scared of akram and akhter. Plus Pakistan had really good spinners as well. And WI had no one. So flat track it was. But even so, Akram and Akhter bowled with fire and Adams struggled. Really struggled. And managed to score a 50 in one of the matches. He took off his helmet and ran around the pitch as if he had scored a triple century. He had a huge grin on his face and he was the happiest man alive at that moment. That moment was was burned into my memory and also into the memory of my friends who watched it. And today i discovered it was a moment that others noted as well. For today i brought up the Adams 50 run celebration and this junior friend of mine immediately said "the one against Pakistan" and then we both burst out laughing. 

Well i hope you remember that particular moment, you who are reading this. It was a moment that captured the innocent happiness of a man who fought and struggled hard all his life to do what he loves doing. and in that moment of triumph, it didn't matter that it was a minor milestone. All that mattered was that he had reached a milestone and he was happy for himself and his team that his effort had paid off. 

At the end of the day, that's all that matters. So here's to you Jimmy Adams! We remember you fondly!