We are all too familiar with old fable of the tortoise and the hare—which parents use to teach their children one of life’s fundamental precepts: It is unwise to allow overriding confidence to lead us to underestimate any challenge.
Despite being reiterated throughout history, humans (being the erroneous and tenacious beings they are) seldom seem to absorb the wisdom of this tenet. No sport can truly depict this in its pure form, aside from the sport of cricket.
Cricket—a legendary sport invented by the English but embraced by their Commonwealth—is perhaps the only force apart from religion capable of eliciting the most powerful expressions of emotion from the populace of Pakistan where its own national sport does not seem to enjoy a mere fraction of Cricket’s influence.
To the South Asian mind, cricket is like a “duel” in the Roman Coliseum. It is not only a sport for entertainment, but a glorious rite of passage for proving honour, supremacy and dominance over another which is a carnal instinct of the animal kingdom. Only then, can ambivalence be replaced with concrete belief.
Thus, when the ambitious, young challengers of O Level from Beaconhouse Metropolitan Campus – Boys Branch approached their grizzled veteran seniors of BCP with the prospect of a “friendly” cricket match, to the discerning observer, it was undoubtedly a joust for the undisputed title of champion as well as a trial to prove the truest mettle.
With stakes of such proportions, it is instinctive for even the most brazen contender to consider the unthinkable: defeat. With sport, comes the certainty of victory or defeat as surely as the sun’s rising on the morrow.
It was perhaps this nagging possibility in the minds of the A Level players which may have given the O Level Team a slight edge in pursuing their quarry and sealed the outcome before the first ball was bowled or the first wicket fell for cricket is, in equal measure, a contest of physical dexterity as well as mental fortitude.
When the A Level batsmen stepped out to bat first on a beautiful Friday morning with adequate visibility and favourable conditions, one could observe a certain hesitation, the certain quivers of a poor actor who frets his hour upon the stage. The shots and strokes they played were devoid of true confidence and only a few sluggishly rolled to the boundary. The O Level bowlers pounced on this reluctance to take risks with balls of impeccable line and length as pressure mounted and the batsmen were pummeled to a modest total when wickets fell cheaply.
As the innings shifted, the underdogs had the upper hand in the chase, to the dismay of their seniors who had grossly overestimated their own strengths and underestimated the dogged determination of their underclassmen. The A Level bowlers paid the price for any loose deliveries with an immediate boundary and sloppily bowled several wide balls and extras which the O Level batsmen fully capitalized on and, eventually, they cruised to a comfortable victory with three wickets in hand, thanks to their disciplined batting.
Indeed, the beauty of cricket lies in its unexpected results. The victors of O Level basked in the glory of their triumph while the defeated were solemn and resolute to turn the tables on the pitch, in the next challenge, in future.
This contest had favourable outcomes for both sides. The O Level squad reaped the fruits of their labour, whereas, the A Level squad reflected on this loss as a wake-up call to remain cautious in every circumstance instead of allowing complacency to creep in, which inevitably leads to decadence.
Yet again, the adage of the hare and the rabbit holds true. What remains to be seen is if we can finally grasp the crux of the issue and adapt accordingly instead of becoming blind to our shortcomings. The whole clash furnished a thorough treat to the spectators who cheered on each moment and life seemed to have resurrected after a sustained dormancy of unprecedented times!
