bouncing back

Recently an international aussie cricketer got hit on the head while batting. It was freak shot and he sadly went into coma and passed away. The cricket ball is a really potent weapon in the right / wrong hands. I played my entire cricket in the dust bowls of Mumbai. Here when the bowler bowled most of the time he wasn’t that fast – we played corporate cricket – old misfits playing the game. Some would be genuinely quick but the dust bowls of India would not let the ball come anywhere higher than the waist. So when I went into bat I would have minimum padding on. Good gloves are essential as the ball has a knack for variable bounce and pads are of course important. In variably the low bounce would mean being rapped on the pads near the shin area. That was more than enough. No need of helmet or an arm guard. Of course no one ever made the silly mistake of going without a groin guard. That was extremely essential :). I remember the humble groin guard. When Jispa first saw it lying around in my kit she was putting in around her knee. She thought it was a knee guard. Err… yes sure. Only when I went opening or higher up the order I would use the thigh pad. There is no point using the thigh pad after ten overs. The ball stopped doing anything  - no swing, no bounce, it would just sit up there and wait to be hit. In Mumbai with the afternoon heat – even in winters – you are sweating like crazy and hence you want to carry as less padding as possible. The padding would just sit there and absorb the sweat and become heavy. It would become tough to run in them. I remember being hit when I first starting playing on the thigh. After that I don’t really remember being hit at all.

The bowlers would occasionally bowl the bouncer but most of the time it would really be a beamer that slipped out of the hand and that is the easy one to duck out of. I always ducked, never hooked, why do bravado when you get a no ball for it? Once or twice I have been at the receiving end of a well directed bouncer. A well-directed bouncer is bowled to intimidate the batsman and push him on the back foot. In Mumbai grounds, you generally take your guard a step ahead; this negates most of the late swing movement and almost certainly rules out most LBWs. If you stand ahead there is always reasonable doubt that the ball is going to hit the stumps and then you are saved. My captain Arun Solanki always taught me stay in front and out of the crease. And ensure that the umpire sees you come up. Then it’s the wicket keeprs job. The only way to get you back should be that wicket keeper comes up to the crease to keep wickets and then you as a batsman want to come back or risk getting stumped. That’s the way I always played my cricket. Step up and hit. I hardly got an LBW decision against me.

I remember the one time when a bouncer was intentionally directed at me. I had just driven the bowler on the front foot back behind him and got a boundary. The next ball was a awesome bouncer directed at my nose. I jumped and swerved out of it and avoided it. The umpire gave a no ball and warned the bowler. The next ball I still came on the front foot and again drove him. Sorry dude – it takes more than a bouncer to put me on the back foot. After I took a single the umpire told me that the bouncer was well directed and I did well to move out of the line. He said I did it well because I did not get my eyes off from the ball and hence I could adjust till the end and got my head off the trajectory. See the bouncer below. The one near the 1 min and 24 second mark was similar to the way I moved  - a jump and a swerve.

In Mumbai grounds the biggest danger of getting hit is while fielding. With the pitches so densely packed, you have to worry about the other match where you may be standing right where the batsman is looking at an empty spot from his perspective. One strong pull could put you out of action for some time.

Cricket is an aggressive game. Not playing a shot or ducking from a bouncer is an act of aggression. You know the rules; you have to play that to your advantage. Sledging or over hitting aggressively is not necessarily the aggression you want to show.

Here is a bonus video. Not directly related but it’s there – reason. Use cold and hard reason and you should be good. There would be no reason to do bravado when reason will tell you to just be smarter.