Cricket and Tree Tomatoes

Chose to write this post out of the blue after watching my daughter play cricket with her grandfather (my father in-law) earlier today. She was using one of those small plastic cricket bats and was trying to knock a rubber ball around the house. Reminded me of the first cricket bat I got back in 1985 or 1986 (don't remember the year exactly).

I was showing some kind of promise back then in cricket and although I was primarily a bowler, I somehow had greater excitement at the prospect of having my own cricket bat, one that could be used against real cricket balls and not the tennis ball variety. My father was one that never said no to anything I asked for and when he promised to get me a bat my excitement knew no bounds!

I still remember the feeling of getting my hands on my very own bat. It was a HRM brand bat made from Kashmir Willow. The feeling of joy that I had just wielding my own bat was indescribable. Something that you very rarely feel these days even with the more expensive toys we get ourselves these days. 

My first couple of hits with the new bat was with raw tree tomatoes plucked from our garden. Those things could get pretty hard and it was the memory of hitting tree tomatoes that came to my mind this morning when I saw the little one play. 

I probably used the HRM bat for 3-4 years before it broke, I guess. It was followed by a more expensive IDM cricket bat and I think that was really the last cricket bat that I owned. The IDM lasted me at least 7 or 8 years.

Ah! memories...such a precious gift for us humans!