Losing my religion

This blog has been influenced by the article in Cricinfo http://gulf.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/376791.html

We can see many a poster held up by Indian fans saying "Cricket is my religion, and Sachin is my God" or "Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching!?"

As in the case of Hinduism, we have several gods to look upto (for different occasions / needs) and cricket in India is no different. I am compelled to write this article because 2 of the demi-gods who ruled the cricket grounds for more than 10 years have finally called it a day.

For a long time, these men have withstood our brainless chatter, the immense tribulations we put them thro and carried the pressures of a billion people on their shoulders with panache. We adored them, prayed for them, jumped with them, hated them, derided them.....the list is long.

Indeed the god of the upper echelons had plans for Indian Cricket when he gave us the Class of 74 (Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly), the bespectacled gentle engineer with grits of steel (Kumble) and the man with the rotatory wrists who finds genuine pleasure when playing Australia (Laxman)

We have seen them playing, giving us many a heart stopping moment and little less nails and grown up as an integral part of Team India. We used to switch of the television once these great men somehow seemed human and were back in the pavilion. This slow exodus will surely mean something, much like many stopped watching Formula 1 after Schumi retired, am sure many of my peers would stop watching Cricket when Sachin decides to hang up his boots.

I can surely feel, my childhood is ending, part of me just dying with the retirement of the Prince of Kolkatta and Jumbo. Indian Cricket will never be the same again but they sure have left it in a better condition than they found it.