What's My Age Again?

So I’m back to Wandering. With a vengeance. Or something. The blogword is: SURE.

Sometimes I’m not sure I’m getting older… you know, your body starts to creak, you have hair on your face, but you still have the sense of humor of a seven year old and you find toilet jokes hilarious. Am I seven? Eighteen? Thirty-five? I don’t know. But everyone now and then, something happens that makes me realize that I’m surely not getting any younger. Like yesterday.

Brian Lara retired from international cricket after a 17 year career. Yes, retirements from sports happen all the time. But for some reason, I only really feel my age when a sports star calls it a day… or a life. I still miss Hansie Cronje. And Ayrton Senna.

Miandad
Javed Miandad retired in 1996. Now there was a cricketing icon gone. I remember watching his last game in Karachi on TV. It was a World Cup game and you could barely hear the announcers over the din of people shouting “Javed! Javed!” as he walked out to bat. I saw him at the airport once. It was sometime in the mid to late 80s. I was there with the father to receive some sort of relative. And the cricket team happened to be arriving at the same time. He was the only player I can recall that evening with enough humility to smile and shake the offered hand of a security guard eager for a connection with one of his heroes.

Oh, side story. Javed is rather dark. But you can’t really tell on the TV so much because of the light or the something or the helmet hiding his face, I don’t know. Anyway, we saw him in person at a wedding (This is a few years after the airport event). The maternal grandfather (of other posting fame) was there too. When he saw Miandad, he leaned forward and exclaimed loudly (and we are sure Javed heard him), “Oho!! Yeh itna kaala hai!! (Translation: Oh My! He’s really dark!)” My grandfather officially insulted the greatest batsman ever to play for Pakistan. At a wedding.

Moving on…

Becker
Boris Becker retired in 1999. My first conscious memory of him was watching his victory over Stefan Edberg in the 1989 Wimbledon final. It felt like 10 years of my life had flown by when he quit. Whoosh. The Stich battles. The wife who wasn’t white enough for some people controversy. He managed to maintain his dignity throughout. And then, all of a sudden, no more Boris.

Schumacher
Michael Schumacher retired in 2006. I’d been watching the arrogant genius running (well, driving really, if you must be technical) circles (well, laps really, if you must be technical) around opponents since 1992, when he drove a miserable Benetton Ford V8. Many a Sunday evening was spent in front of the television, eating lemon tarts (hey, they’re good), watching Schumi pull away from driver after driver. Yes, it got boring after a while, but I watched anyway.

I have more nostalgia to share, but in the interests of not boring you to death (just near death… you know… you see the white light but you don’t actually move towards it), I will restrict myself to further reminiscence only on the career of Brian Lara and why his retirement makes me feel old.

Lara
So this may surprise you, but I actually remember Brian Lara’s first innings in international cricket. It was the 1990 tour to Pakistan. Interestingly, the West Indies tour started as soon as the New Zealand tour I mentioned in my previous post ended.

Anyway, test match cricket.
TV on.
Shahyan cricket watching.
Wicket falls.
In comes debutant Brian Lara.
No real hype or anything. You know… no fanfare. No “Oh look, it’s the greatest player of our generation making his debut!” He scored 44. A very good looking 44. I was a fan. It was easy to follow his career after that. He come to prominence in the 1992 World Cup, starring in an opening partnership with the reliable Desmond Haynes. I actually tried to model my batting technique after Desmond Haynes’ for a few years but failed miserably… come to think of it all my attempts at modeling myself after any sportsman or woman have ended in abject failure. *sigh*

Anyway, Lara went from strength to strength. 375, 501, 277, 400… records tumbled, bowlers were miserable. It was a good time to be a fan of batsmen. Sad to say, the West Indian cricket team kind of disintegrated around him. Many a game, he was left playing a lone hand… a lone lonely hand. You really felt for him. He leaves with West Indies cricket a shadow of its former self. It’s all quite tragic really.

Lara gone. After a SEVENTEEN year career. And I remember the beginning of that career. I couldn't at the time conceive there would be a day when he would stop. I’m so old. And so naive. *sigh*

P.S: The title of this post is actually a song by Blink 182… an OLD song fittingly… 1999… 8 years… where does the time go? Anyway, the song is excellent. And would be a great theme song if I were 23, not 26… opportunity missed three years ago.