Boons and Banes of an Innings Defeat

The Indian cricket fans’ reactions have always been mercurial. One day they raise their heroes to heavenly heights and the very next day they throw stones at their houses. The recent innings defeat of the Indian team in England also flared fiery emotions across all modes and breadth of the news media. This innings loss also brought back my childhood memories of similar defeats.

In those days, we used to have only one bat and the owner of that bat had to be kept in good spirits. He was a privileged player and used to get at least two chances to get out – the umpire had little choice but had to pretend - lest he would run away with the bat. Most of us had a penchant for batting and therefore, bowling or fielding were just the necessary evils that we had to carry out. 

Unlike the international cricket, in the ‘gully’ cricket, the teams losing by innings went back home happy as they got the opportunity to bat twice as against the opposition who got to bat only once. The joy of batting twice while making the opposition sweat and toil all over the field was far over-weighing the little pinch of losing the game. On the other side, a few players would be elated to the levels of winning a world cup while there were others who would lament the missed opportunity of a second knock.

In the corporate world, particularly in the IT industry, the term ‘second innings’ has a specific connotation.  There are many employees who, after working in a corporation for a few years, leave the organization for greener pastures. And quite a few of them come back to their earlier organization after a few years, albeit at a higher position and with a fatter pay-pack.  This is colloquially called a ‘second innings’ by the employees. And here again, the loyal employee playing a long steady innings with the organization feels defeated while the one playing two innings laughs all the way to the bank. The innings defeat turns around into a boon for the second inning players.

Coming back to the national cricket team’s ignominious defeat at the Lords recently, I only wonder if these were a bunch of my childhood playmates who thought it was fun to field once and bat twice and let the opposition sweat out on the field with two outings.  Thankfully, these blokes don’t look as cheerful as my childhood friends used to be. They have much more to lose than just sacrificing the Sunday morning for a losing cause.