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Celebrating cricket, in verse

K. PRADEEP

Vasisht M. C. is no ordinary cricket fan, he has set in verse his love for the game

POETIC TRIBUTE Vasisht's anthology of poems expresses his love for cricket

There is something about the game of cricket that lends itself to poetry. There is, perhaps, no other sport that has inspired so much verse. We have had writers who have been first class cricketers and a few cricketers who later turned to write some excellent poems in the English language. Vasisht M. C., who joins the merry band of cricket poets, is different.

A lecturer in history at the Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode, Vasisht's only claims to cricket is the occasional local games and the regular annual fixture in his college, between teachers and students. But the game, to which he was introduced when he was a seven-year-old, is now `part and parcel' of his life. Writing poems, on what he thought and felt about the game, was his way of expressing his love for cricket.

His first anthology of poems on the game, Night Watchman, is also unlike the usual languorous, tending towards the elegiac or searching for a lost past kind. They are straight narratives, a `single statement,' simple and direct.

"Cricket, its colourful world, the excitement and the wonderful characters that played the game were brought alive through the sheer poetry of radio commentary. There were so many great commentators on BBC and Radio Australia who virtually painted pictures with words. Those were days when the one-day game was not in vogue and Test cricket, with full five days when thoughts were assembled in verse-like descriptions, ball by ball. I still remember listening to Bernard Julian's cracking first Test century, against England, the spectacular exploits of B. S. Chandrasekhar and G. R. Viswanath in that pulsating series against Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 1974-75, which the visitors won 3-2 or the5-1 thrashing that Windies suffered Down Under. Through the voices of the commentators, I had formed images of the heroes of those games like Ian Redpath, Gary Gilmour, the swashbuckling Roy Fredericks, Keith Boyce and of course our own players," says Vasisht.

This passion was whetted through the sports columns in The Hindu and Sportsweek. "The first Test match I saw `live' was when the Pakistanis, captained by Asif Iqbal, toured India. The thrill of sitting at the huge stadium in Madras and watching my childhood heroes play before me was simply dream-like. One moment that still sticks in memory is that of Imran Khan who for a while, threatened to take the game away from us, hooked Kapil Dev, and Dilip Doshi of all people, latched on to the catch at the boundary."

Strangely, none of these early memories find a mention in Vasisht's poems. "They remain cherished memories. My fascination for this complex game has also grown. There are so many new heroes, new concepts. But some of the old knights of the game continue to hold my imagination. So we have Eknath Solkar, Kapil Dev, Imran, Wasim Akram sharing space with Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam, Brian Lara and Muralitharan. I have a soft corner for West Indies and the cricket they have popularised and this is also reflected in my writings."

Incidentally, Vasisht's first poem was on football and was published in the FIFA magazine. "That was in 2001. It was on the game at the world stage, its universality and popularity. This was followed by a collection of football poems titled Last Penalty Kick. The Malayalam translations of most of these poems have also been published in various newspapers and magazines."

Night Watchman is a tribute to `India's most popular sport.' Some of the poems have been translated into Malayalam, while four of them won praise from the former president of the International Cricket Council to whom Vasisht sent them before the 2003 World Cup. "I happened to see a new item in The Hindu that said that the World Cup organisers invited entries for the official World Cup song. Though they did not merit that status at least it was read and appreciated."

There are some painful memories also associated with the publication of this anthology. "The caricatures were done by one of my friends, Sathyachandran, who is not with me today. So the illustrations are not complete. He was a very good caricaturist and cartoonist."

Vasisht is now giving the final touches to Panorama an interactive CD that will glance into the history of Indian cricket, the influence of the game, cricket and cinema, cricket in television etc. "My wish is to see cricket literature grow like never before. I feel that there is no other game that has been so much reviled as cricket. There are many who believe that cricket is a rich man's game. But take, for example, West Indies cricket. This game has given people social status, and in many cases has lifted people out of poverty. For me, it is a great unifying factor, uniting people of varied castes, creed and religion."

And the Night Watchman goes on that lonely trek.

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