A CRICKET MATCH

A Cricket Match

Cricket is an internationally recognised game. It has both the values of entertainment and knowledge. It fills one with much enthusiasm whether one plays it or one watches it. Even to hear it on radios is attention-grabbing. All people love it. Man and women, boys and girls, the old and the young equally appreciate it. Its expansion is beyond the political boundaries and several human cultures.

Cricket is thought to be an imperative mechanism for the establishment of world peace. What happens during the National and International Cricket matches? Teams along with people from the far corners of the world visit countries where the matches are played and they often come with large additional delegations, assistants and cricket admirers. Such exchange of visits brings the nations closer and together. All these result in the peace among people and the nations.

I remembered the cricket match that was played between our school team and the District School team. It was played in our school playground. The play started with a toss. Our team won the toss and chose batting. Two of our batsmen stood in front of each of the wicket to defend them. The opposite party started bowling and fielding. The match was very slow in the beginning but after an hour it gained momentum. Our batsman did superb and scored four hundred runs. The opposite team then started playing. They did fine but our fielders stopped the ball and thwarted the opposite batsmen from making more runs. They could keep score only three hundreds and sixty runs. Our team won the game. We were in high spirits after the match was ended. It was an accomplishment at individual level. But, a cricket match is not meant only for an individual achievement. It has its universal appeal and also has a great scope of its own kind.

The cricket match always creates unprecedented fervour in the world. It is gazed at by millions of cricket enthusiasts all over the world as it is broadcast and telecast live over the radio and television networks of the world, respectively. The coming of people together from the different parts of the world during a cricket match make the people familiar with the culture and the way of life of different countries. This promotes understanding, fellow feelings and better understanding, on one hand and on the other hand, this knowledge results in more harmonious relations among the nations as well as people of the world. It is increasingly realised that human nature is basically the same, and national and regional differences are merely superficial.

Lack of knowledge and ignorance is the root cause of friction and quarrel, while knowledge and familiarity lead to peace, friendship and harmony. This is true both of relations on the individual plane and on the international plane. Cricket, doubtlessly, is important force for the world peace. This is more so the case in more recent times, when matches are broadcast live on the world television networks. The same scenes and sights, the same thrills and sensations are watched and shared by the people all the world over. This fosters both the emotional unity and psychological unity. It causes people of the world to come closer and together. Such feeling of closeness is an essential requisite for the world peace. The cricket match is beneficial in several ways. It must be encouraged and promoted in every possible way.