My friend Anopheles met me again last night, with a question that had been bugging her.
"What's match fixing?" she wanted to know.
"You mean match-making? It's just arranging for a bride or groom for your daughter or son." I helpfully answered.
"No, no, match-fixing. What your papers have been headlining the last few days." she was emphatic.
"Oh, that. It's a player who has some black spots in his character. Then he goes and decides to bowl badly. So the batsman can score lots of runs. It's called spot fixing. " I tried explaining the intricacies of the deviant behaviour.
"Oh, so that's the new form that the gentleman's game has taken, is it?" she made me, actually my whole race, quite small with that scathing remark.
"The gentlemen that you speak of, are almost extinct," I had to admit.
"Well, there are one or two left, as far as I can gather," surprising me with her intricate knowledge of humans at large. "Rahul Dravid, for example."
I said, "He might be the last man standing, for all you know. The guys who are not yet involved in either spot fixing, match fixing, nepotism, or hanging on beyond reasonable retirement age encompasses almost everybody in the game."
I added, " The reason I moved from cricket to golf is that in golf, you are a bad player quite naturally. Most golfers talk much more than play. So naturally, there is no fixing possible. In fact, it is a great FIX for many of the ills of the present times. Such as stress, which match-fixing causes in abundance."
With that advocacy of the game, we parted till we would meet again, perhaps to discuss politics, women, or other important things in a man's life. I sometimes wished I were a mosquito, like her. But who knows, may be the grass just appears greener on the other side. Lead a dual life for a while and find out, maybe?
"What's match fixing?" she wanted to know.
"You mean match-making? It's just arranging for a bride or groom for your daughter or son." I helpfully answered.
"No, no, match-fixing. What your papers have been headlining the last few days." she was emphatic.
"Oh, that. It's a player who has some black spots in his character. Then he goes and decides to bowl badly. So the batsman can score lots of runs. It's called spot fixing. " I tried explaining the intricacies of the deviant behaviour.
"Oh, so that's the new form that the gentleman's game has taken, is it?" she made me, actually my whole race, quite small with that scathing remark.
"The gentlemen that you speak of, are almost extinct," I had to admit.
"Well, there are one or two left, as far as I can gather," surprising me with her intricate knowledge of humans at large. "Rahul Dravid, for example."
I said, "He might be the last man standing, for all you know. The guys who are not yet involved in either spot fixing, match fixing, nepotism, or hanging on beyond reasonable retirement age encompasses almost everybody in the game."
I added, " The reason I moved from cricket to golf is that in golf, you are a bad player quite naturally. Most golfers talk much more than play. So naturally, there is no fixing possible. In fact, it is a great FIX for many of the ills of the present times. Such as stress, which match-fixing causes in abundance."
With that advocacy of the game, we parted till we would meet again, perhaps to discuss politics, women, or other important things in a man's life. I sometimes wished I were a mosquito, like her. But who knows, may be the grass just appears greener on the other side. Lead a dual life for a while and find out, maybe?
2 comments:
In golf, by default,players have to fix the spot where ball should be headed. Even after reaching there (green) they have to spot the hole and fix the ball in it.
A south Indian word for no match-fixing? Fix-illa.
Yes, Anil, you seem to fixated on certain aspects of it.
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