Cricket - o - phobia !

Scene off a canteen table. The otherwise choosy men pick up anything from the wide option of "delicacies" available and run, squabble to make sure they get a vantage position. The unlucky few curse their worst signs for having to go through the misery of sitting with their backs to the television.The ones with a good rapport with the girls, coax and please them to exchange seats. Some desperate souls compromise on the pleasures of tv viewing and go down to live commentaries on the radio.

But come Cricket world cup season and it is more of a pain for a girl, like me, to accompany the male counterparts to grab a meal. "Hey heard about this new scheme that they have come up for the pay cheque?", meets deaf ears, selectively deaf infact. Or it would be returned with a "Oh it was plum man..!", which totally bounces off the conversation. You are definitely received with necks craning over their shoulders to make sure not one ball is missed. And when there is no live telecast, damn those matches in the carribean, there are those innumerable replays, thanks to the countless channels that have resolved to mint money in the month to come.

Even if those dedicated channels do let them down, they always have their very own in-house experts, recounting tales from world cups they viewed as kids, moving on to the teenager days. How cricket was more a sport then than the game now. And then the usual argument, be it for the regional favorites or the bowler-all rounder issues, they just keep popping up always.

And respite is nowhere near in sight. Getting yourself served a meal quick is an option out on the open, for the canteen guys blink not an extra minute incase they miss out on that key stroke that would change the direction of the game. And such is their interest in the game, that any hopes of changing to anything else is minimal and bleak.

As we fight to move over to something more promising, I am down on my knees and ready to compromise. I am ready to put myself through an hour of Himesh Reshammaiyya's nasal drawl. I am keen on watching Sanskar and find out the positives of turning into sainthood. I am considering diksha as an option in life infact. I am ready to learn all the new asans that Ramdev baba has come up with for a severe neck disorder. But please, not another ball of the match.

A desperate plea. When are we getting the soccer matches back and why in the whole, bad hell does the Formula 1 season start this late?