Mumbai Diary: Sunday shorts

Deryck Murray in action

You can never be sure of rewards
India's star middle-order batsman Suresh Raina was thrilled to get his first World Cup man-of-the-match award in Auckland yesterday. He deserved it because his was a century effort in a winning cause unlike Zimbabwean skipper Brendan Taylor, who was playing his last game for his country.

Deryck Murray in action

Taylor now heads to Old Blighty to play for Nottinghamshire on the English county circuit and who knows, could adorn England colours by the time the next World Cup comes around. Wonder whether the adjudicators gave Taylor a thought for the award. All the same, Sourav Ganguly, in his post-match utterances from the commentary box, said Taylor's century was the innings of
the match.

We are reminded of a match in which the adjudicator picked the wrong guy as man of the match. Pakistan played eventual champions West Indies at Birmingham during the inaugural World Cup in 1975.

In response to Pakistan's score of 266 for seven in 60 overs, Clive Lloyd's West Indies were reduced to 203 for nine and were all set to experience their first loss in the tournament.

Wicketkeeper Deryck Murray and pace ace Andy Roberts said nothing doing and put on an incredible 64 runs for the last wicket to pull off one of the most unbelievable victories in World Cup history. Murray top-scored with 61 while Roberts got 24 as they ran Usain Bolt-like to the Edgbaston pavilion, manoeuvring a thrilled West Indian crowd which ran on to the ground when the winning runs were scored.

Now, Murray was clearly the man of the match in every body's book except the adjudicator Tom Graveney, who awarded it to Pakistan's Sarfraz Nawaz for his 4 for 44. How come, we asked Roberts recently and we got a revelation. "He didn't see Murray's innings. He was drinking in the bar and didn't watch our recovery. Deryck played a truly great innings when no one... I repeat, no one gave us a chance," recalled the dangerous fast bowler.

Skilled and serious
Even a routine walk through the streets of Mumbai, going to work, the mall, or just crossing the road might make you spot a number of kids dressed in karate ‘gi's (that is the white karate uniform) with a coloured belt tied at their waists. The colour denotes the grade one has reached in karate class. You need to give a number of exams to graduate to different grades and thus, different colours. Usually, these children are accompanied by a parent, caretaker, guardian... being taken to or being brought back from martial arts class.

Little girls and boys being held by their hands, as they are led by elders on the road. One must admit that martial arts is a great skill especially in these times of escalating violence and there are some very formidable kid karatekas. Yet, it is time parents explore exactly why they send their child to karate class. The main motive should be to train in self-defence.

To train sincerely and hard to get the combat skills needed in a street situation. Looking at many of these children, one gets the feeling they are enrolled as a ‘keeping up with the Jones' kind of situation, or to keep them busy or keep them fit or simply to be with their friends.

Karate may make you fitter but it is not a fitness class. Karate is combat, and a fighting philosophy. Don't let commercialism change that. Meanwhile, get into it only if you are serious and enroll your child with a sense of responsibility and an understanding of how demanding karate really is. It is certainly not some fun time pass.

On the mobile
This diarist was out watching an Academy-award winning movie at a city theatre recently, and was quite amused at the innovative strategy the theatre employed, in asking people to refrain from speaking on their mobile phones, while watching the movie.

Pic for representation only

Actors from upcoming films, asked the patrons to enjoy the film while observing mobile etiquette, in innovatively shot commercials.

While watching them, we couldn't help but pray that somebody does the same when it comes to our local trains. There are enough times we have been, unwillingly, party to the travails of other people's lives, while sitting in the first-class
ladies compartment.