I am Raghav Bhasin, a normal indian with a good education background, nice family, healthy living and yes a common interest which i share with the whole of Indian Sub Continent. No points for guessing its the great Indian pas time CRICKET.

Its been  almost 14 years since Iv been following and playing the sport. From my child hood days i used to only dream of playing cricket and nothing else. I used to lie to my parents and play cricket or watch it on the road side in some small shop. Sunday's I used to go with my friends to some small ground and play matches on the bet of 50 rs or the winner gets the ball. I was quite a star in my team with my abilities both with the bat and bowl. Started with the plastic ball then the tennis ball and then with the leather ball. In those days we did not have much money so we could only manage with very cheap leather balls which used to only last maximum 8 overs. We had only one or one and a half bats, yes we also used to have half bats because those bats were only good enough for tennis balls and so used at the non striker end only. For protection we used to use only two pads one for both the batsmen placed on the legs facing the bowler for example right handed batsmen used to wear on the left leg and same with the gloves. That was all the guards we had and the rest was left to god's mercy. We played like this for many years before I got my pair of pads and gloves and three stumps with a brand new SG bat. That bat became my life. I had an earlier bat as well but it was a half bat so it died due to the attack of the hard ball. I cried like a baby then. My SG bat was like the turning point in my life. It was for 520 rs which my brother and I managed to save out of our pocket money. Talking about my brother, he was a handy batsmen as well. Inspired by Shahid Afridi who at that time was hitting the ball  no body had ever seen before. He used to hit the ball with closed eyes, some connected and most missed but the ones connected used to dissapear and often resulted in a lost ball. We got the bat oiled so that it would strike better. Everyday after the school I would kock the ball tied with a sock hanging on to a hook to the terrece with the bat. I used to sleep with my bat, eat dinner with it beside me, got a cover for it and carry it in my small street where we used to live. It was everything for me.

I was also the captain of the team for some time but quit that after few matches because my individual game was suffering and the success of our team used to depend a lot on my performance. Kind of Tendulkar story isnt it. Well captain or not I made all the strategies of the matches. I used to be the fast opening bowler for the team and bat one down or two down. We used to sit down in some corner of the street and decide on the strategy for the next match. We had a handy team with success rate of around 60%. We used to practice for hours missing on our studies and everything. So many times i was spanked by my mother because of my madness for cricket. And this was with every member of the team. We used to play on every patch of ground or space availlable and it was a range of cricket from full pitch GULLY cricket to half pitch, Frenchcricket and also one of my favourites the BOOK cricket. Yes, Book Cricket this of course was innovated to pass the boring classes in school.

It was madness i tell you sheer madness. So why or how did all this start........There was a man behind it.....wait for my next blog....