SPORTS MAKETH A
MAN
'Sports maketh a man'... this is a
very famous saying. It's so famous that no one knows who coined it. It is
true though. (The saying). Very true. Or is it? To answer that the first
thing that needs to be done is find out who or what a "man" is. After
establishing that, an anal... (how do u spell that men?)... an analisis
(damn)... analysis .. .uhum... an ANALYSIS must be done on sports in
general.
This is not going to be an easy
task to accomplish. The truth is the only damn reason I'm thrashing an
argument out of a worn out saying is because I don't know what else to write
on. I'm still trying to figure out why the editors wanted me to contribute
an article to the big match souvenir. I've never had anything to do with
college cricket at all, though softball cricket did play a big role in my
school life. But writing about softball cricket in the big match souvenir is
almost like writing about soiled nappy episodes in a graduation handbook.
Then again we have all been there machang. Soiling and soft balling.
The most popular place for
softball matches at college was the cemented area beside the old volleyball
court next to the lower school. This cement block is where any thada
balaThomian fast bowler started with orthodox 'Budhu pace' bowling. Didn't
have much in it for the spinners though. Wonder why that area was cemented
in the first place? Its still there, and it still offers the best conditions
for emerging young left arm spin batsmen, uruttan bowlers and val adiyas.
Some of my most memorable moments
at college were spent on and around that huge cement slab. During the
holidays after morning squad training, and as we got older water polo
practice, we would play cricket there at least till lunchtime. I wonder
where we got all that energy from. . . anyway, us swimmers and water polo
players were quite a talented bunch of cricketers.
First there was Golly. He would
bowl — wide, wider and wider still. Averaging seven wides an over; which
meant of course that the over took a hellava long time to be over. And when
his side (and if I
remember right, the batting side
as well) tried to stop him from bowling again, he would throw a tantrum and
preach to us about fair play and equality, stopping the game for longer than
he would have if he had been bowling.
Then we had Jevert who although
couldn't hold a bat properly (and still can't), and would drop every catch
that came his way would use his gargantuan vocal capacity to make
psychological inroads into the Opposing team. Unfortunately sometimes, when
his filtering was not quite right, his own team would get psychologically
traumatised. Anyway we leamt from this and made sure he could not shout at
future water polo matches. Don't ask the methods used (Amnesty International
may hunt us down) — but there's a lot you can do when half your body's under
the water (and you KNOW what half).
Then there was Nawaff He was a
batsman of exceptional talent. So exceptional that I need to capture his
exceptional exceptionality in point form.
Short straight delivery - Nawaff
plays it to midwicket
Half volley on the legs - Nawaff plays it to mid wicket
Inswinging Yorker - Nawaff's stumps are splayed
Ball pitches wide outside off stump - Nawaff plays it to midwicket
All the fielders are placed at mid wicket - Nawaff plays it to mid wicket
Anyway let me next move onto the
dynamic duo- the Bandula brothers. Bandula was not their name. The older one
we called Bandul after the Sri Lankan captain Bandula Wamapura. By proxy the
younger one became a Bandula brother. We only realised that they had 'real'
names after we left school. But this made little difference. To Thomian
aquatic sports (at least our generation) they will forever be remembered as
the Bandula's. It's hard to explain the contribution they made towards our
softball matches. They did make their mark. A very definite mark. In fact
the Bandula's are responsible for inventing a whole new style of cricket
know as "rila cricket" aka "hival cricket". Use your imagination.
Not all swimming cricketers were mad. Eranga is a classic example. This
smart young man who is a SAF medallist and national swimming treasure was
the 'Mr reliable' and 'Mr technically correct' of the side. He played with
commitment and never let his captain down. He was always fair in giving
umpiring decisions. He always believed in fair play and was always on the
side of justice. He stood for what was right and wasn't afraid to look
anyone in the eye. He played the game of softball cricket right! Good luck
with the game of LIFE Eranga (ha haaa).
When speaking of Eranga how can we
forget his kid brother Nisho? These days he is a death metal rocker with a
steady following of groupies. But we remember him as a baby who would
entertain us with acrobatic fielding hoping that his antiques would earn him
the chance to bat. It never did. Hope he's having better luck with the
groupies.
Sharky was the best batsmen we
had. That's probably because the glint of his pearl white teeth, enhanced by
his black skin would blind any bowler. Shades... didn't work—then we could
only see a spooky set of glinting teeth in the darkness before the ball hit
us on the nose. Another legend who at the moment is studying at MIT is Kota.
He was the worst swimmer at squad and thus developed a complex. This complex
would surface in its most evil form when playing cricket. The gentle quiet
Kota would turn into the tyrant who always fought to be captain. Once given
the captaincy he would boss everyone around and there was many a clash
between his tyrannical views, Golly's absurdly idealistic ones, and Jevert's
raucous braying. The rest of us would get comfortable and watch. It was
better than cable, better than mud and bikinis.
I can go on and on and on.... but
then I'd be rambling and this article would be even more boring and
fruitless to the reader. So I shall stop now. My apologies to all'the
swimmers and polo players I left out. There are so many Ruvini, Geek, Hanzil,
Nabil (the house), Villa, Veda, Ducky, Dayan, Ravi, Heji, Kasun, Senura,
Shiran (everyone's favourite) and many many more.
Swimming and water polo were two
sports that were dominated by college. What helped us? Was it the gruelling
schedules we were put through? Or was it the softball matches on the cement
slab after training? I don't know. All I know is that sports gave me good
friends and I guess that's what makes it so special. It builds friendship,
and good friends can make a man. So I guess the saying should be "sports
maketh friends who maketh men of each other". Sounds mushy? Well then in
Shirans words (and voice) I end this article by saying, "don't talk about
friends alright!" You guys wouldn't have got that joke. That's because it's
a joke among friends.
G de C
