No this is not an exercise in acknowledging the virtues of team building, patience, perseverance and countless other stuff that the game has taught me. Infact this is an attempt to realize some of the short comings I as a human being can have and how one can take this learnings to apply to any aspect of Life.

Let me explain how.. I am 37 years young and I have been fortunate to play cricket in more than 100 different places (this count includes different areas in my birth city of Bombay & elsewhere in India and the world). I realize now more than ever, that to me the game was always more important than the people I played with. I say I realize now because over the last 3.5 years in Canada, I have been part of 2 teams. One comprising players who spoke tamil and the other who spoke only punjabi. 

The fact that there are teams that consist of players only from one community speaks volumes about how teams are made here in Canada. When I observe myself in this situation, I realize I became a part of the teams because I had a single minded pursuit to be able to play the game. So I played for the first team I found in Toronto and Calgary respectively. I respect the teams and its players to accommodate me in their teams which was a result of not only my performance in playoffs but also my apolitical attitude, my clarity on playing the game even when I did not understand the language my team mates chose to speak amongst themselves on and off the field.

I understand that one would think what did this teach me that I am on rant about my cricketing experience in Canada. Well, I realized when you love something and are clear about your intentions, everything around it just background noise. There can never be a hurdle in letting you do what you really love to.

This is true for everything in life which requires us to be trustworthy and vulnerable otherwise there is a tendency for self-doubt and self-sabotaging behavior. I sincerely hope me and people like me realize that there are sometimes parts of us which stop us from our own growth because of Fear. Lets operate from the place of Love instead of Fear. My love for the game did not allow the fear of not blending in, weigh on me. I just did what I did best, Keep Playing.

 

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