The Fractured Match

August 18th 2009, 5:30 am.

Wake him up! Wake him up! it is getting late, his friends might be waiting. He alarmed his wife.

Let him sleep for a while, he came late last night from work and it is just 5:30 am. His wife replied.

30 mins later.

Ey, wake him up! it is late. You are spoiling him with so much care, he needs to learn to get up early. Wake him up, otherwise he is going to be very late. It is already late enough, come on, wake him up. He yelled at his wife again.

vrrrruuuuuummmmmmm!! their car was ignited outside their house. virrurruuummmm!! they heard the rise of the engine louder again. The couple was not sure who is in the car. His wife thought, it was their son who is already leaving, but he thought otherwise, since he was confident that his son is a lazy bumb and won't get up that early from bed ;-), so he came running to see who is in the car, but they could only see the half torn soul of their son's shoe on the floor after the car's smoke cleared off.

I was driving the car in a high speed (only because, it was early morning and no one was on the road), to attend the morning session started for a cause, with passion, with hopes, with dreams. It was going on for past 2 weeks, and all this is for the D-Day, which was just 3 days away.

Yes, the CRICKET match ;-).

It was scheduled between mine and an another company in Coimbatore. My team is very skilled, however they needed lots of practice to get back to their form. We had chosen the captain and coaches in a democratic way (my guys might disagree ;-)), since we took this match seriously. The opponents were very skilled and threatened us with their class performance in the friendly warm up game played a week ago.

I reached the ground, joined the team in the warm up session. I started to give instructions to the team to warm up and keep fit in the practice session, since the team cannot afford any injuries (we were already less in numbers). So I was very cautious about the health and fitness of the team in the practice session. Yes, I have been appointed as a coach.

Where is Gopi and Boopi? I asked Nissar.

Nissar is our captain cum batting coach, who was not very fit on that day, he was running a fever, maybe he wanted to dodge the warm up session? ;-). Gopi is our fielding coach.

They are sleeping, they won't make it. Nissar answered.

Whhoops, what a let down after all these build up ;-). I said we are already less in numbers. Oh! probably Gopi and Boopi thought, staying in bed is the best way to stay out of injuries ;-). Whhooa! great idea, but what about the practice? hmmm, I think bed is their ground where they will practice, since they are good enough to play bed games (Strictly no naughty thoughts ;-)).

Warm up done, practice started. I was bowling for Chakku. Nissar, Sujai and Dilip were fielding. 2 overs done, it was Nissar's turn to bat. I got a call from my aunt (who was aggressively searching a girl for me after I gave a go ahead for the marriage), after 2 minutes the practice resumed. Everything was going smooth, everyone were involved, everyone were focusing on the practice, everyone were enjoying...

....until that incident happened, yes the incident which shattered our dreams, the incident which shocked everyone, the incident which canceled the scheduled match, the incident which costed the unaffordable.

I ran to cover Sujai, who was fielding Nissar's drive towards mid off; The ball was heading very slowly to the boundary; I did not expect Sujai to miss it; so I slowed down, but I was wrong, Sujai missed it; I picked up the speed again to block the ball; My focus was only on the ball; I ran faster; I did not see the surprise hump on the floor; I stepped on it... the next thing I knew was... I was in the air and landing towards the ground at 68 kg per feet; I tried to position myself to be safe, but failed; my left hand landed in an uneven surface and my 68 kg landed on it.

"Kduk" was the sound I heard; there was a slight pain; I was forced to face the sky, showing my back to the earth; I could not move my hand; I immediately knew that I fractured my bone and the match scheduled in 3 days ;-(.

Watch out for the posts on the "after fracture" experience ;-).