What Being A Fan Means:)

I still remember the golden days of 2003 world cup
the best matches, the best runs and the best entertainment though it was final exams for 2ndyear2ndsem of my graduation.
I should say that was my best year in my academics and also for indian team where the best team spirit was built up.
As usual i was a big cricket buzzer when i was a kid (may be common indian influence) even.
But with age, as the interests change, may be interests vanishes even ;), i didnt follow even a single match till this golden year:).
As india did well in those matches and reached finals and though lost final against Aussies with a lump difference, our spirits were drastically lifted up.

Later on there was a cup against Aussies again and me who has reached to heights of collecting the whole news of our team, this time wouldnt take a chance to miss it. There were so many new faces in our team then(though now also we see atleast a new face being added for every match) and one among them was this teenager.

It was his pure luck (which is infact his hardwork) to become the star of the match and leading india to win the cup(dont remember the cup name) against Aussies.As far as i remember he scored almost 25runs(though he is a bowler and indian bowlers dont even know how to hold the bat properly- purely my personal view) and took 4 cricial wickets, man!! he was just 19 then.

Everyone in our TV room of our hostel just awe struck at his performance(not only the BCCI) and i was one among the few crazy who stay back till the end of the presenting cermony to listen to the words and see the happy faces of our team.Ob, the man of the match was called and asked to tell how he was feeling with his performance and it was said by him that "i believe in god and just becuase of that i am in this position", - the most appreciated humbleness which left a very good impression on my mind.

Next it was the competition among my roommates to read the Sports page of The Hindu and somehow my eyes fell on this article in editorial which is rarely visited by page turners(but considered the best articles among all) and there was this below article published which was written so well, with all minute details of his where-abts,his reaction after the match and his background which just impressed me like anything and this articles cutting also went in my cricket collection.

http://www.shashitharoor.com/articles/hindu/irfan.php

With time and due to some shifts from one room to another in our hostel i lost that collection and there in some corner I got this paper cutting back after 2years when i was back to home finishing my graduation making feel nostalgic , from then I preserved this as a remain of those golden days.

And now I just dont know whats happening in the team india, but whenever I see Pathan playing I just watch it and wish him the best and one should see happiness in my face when he replicates the game which he played nearly 4years ago against Australia.

I wish you the best, may be my list of favs change but you will be one among the few who will never get deleted from this list.