Caught in office reading cricinfo

I am an Indian. This means I am in love with the game of cricket. Whenever India plays and I am in office, I open cricinfo and track the whole match. Today India was playing against Sri Lanka. It is one of those test matches after watching it children say I don’t want to become a bowler. I was tracking the match since morning and forget all the work when Sehwag reached 99.

Sehwag got out at 99. I had already forgotten work and reading Sehwag got out forget that I was in office and shouted Oh nooooooo………..Damn it. Most of the people working around me have got used to me talking to myself whenever India plays and ignore my every high pitch cry thinking this guy is just overreacting.

Unfortunately this time a very senior manager was talking with a senior manager that sits next to me. Being a very senior manager he immediately came to my desk and asked what happened. Before I could reply, “Nothing Sir….just a small problem. No worries” he was looking at my computer's screen.

I froze thinking the very senior manager will now ask me do you come to office to read cricinfo. I was planning to say - No sir….I just opened it and Sehwag got out….and I am really sorry…To ensure that India doesn’t lose any more wickets today, I will not open cricinfo again.

However, instead of that question the very senior manager asked me is that cricinfo. I response I nodded like a child who after being caught cheating in the exam has been asked don’t you know it’s wrong. He asked me did someone just got out and I realized the very senior manager is also a cricket fan and with all the seriousness I could muster in voice said,”Sehwag got out.” This was now the turn of the very senior manager to say, ”Oh nooooooo…..”

The senior without taking my permission read the bowl that dismissed Sehwag and said,”Did he got out on 99?” I wanted to tell the very senior manager that Sirji check the url. Its cricinfo and not fakingnews but the senior manager had just caught me reading cricket score and ignoring work so I said,”Yes Sir.”

The senior manager again looked at my screen and said,”What is the name of the bowler? I have not even heard it. He got out to such a bowler. This is bad, very bad.” I wanted to say to the manager you don’t play international cricket if you are bad bowler but then the senior manager would have proved me wrong by saying the names of the Indian bowlers playing the India v Sri Lanka test. So I said, “Yes Sir. Bad, very bad.”

The very senior manager said, “This really reduces our chances of a draw” and I said, “Yes Sir, this reduces our chances of a draw”. The very senior manager said, “I don’t understand it. What was the need to play such a shot at 99? and I replied, “Yes Sir, I also don’t also understand it. There was no need to play such a shot at 99”.

I think the very senior manager understood that he is not going to have an intelligent cricket discussion with me. All I was going to do was to say Yes Sir and then paraphrase whatever he had said. So the very senior manager smiled and left leaving me happy as a child who after being caught cheating during the exam has been told by the invigilator, “Beta, be careful. Enjoy this time and don’t do it ever again.”

To sum up

In India, everybody loves cricket. Irrespective of whether India wins or loses the match, cricinfo always does brisk business.