Does God play cricket?

By John Cheeran
Does God play cricket?
May be or may not be.
By all accounts, some of the Indian cricketers do believe that God plays cricket.
This is a thought that has been living with me for quite sometime.
Only when I read about Sreesanth’s admission on how he transformed himself into a four-wickets taker in the Karachi one-dayer from being a wicket-less trundler in the earlier matches, I came back to it.
In Karachi, Sreesanth came on to bowl with a new t-shirt, with a new number, 36.
I don’t remember what number was allotted to young Sreesanth by the team management in earlier matches.
But according to the story from Kochi, after Indian fielders dropped four catches off his bowling , Sreesanth consulted his Kerala team manager and finally sought advice from an astrologer called Joshi in Mumbai. It is the Mumbai astrologer who gave Sreesanth his lucky number 36. It adds up to nine, which spells fortune for the young Indian bowler.
It must be true, if you look at the number of wickets that came Sreesanth’s way.
This time Indian fielders held all catches that came their way when Sreesanth bowled. So number therapy works.
Sreesanth is a Gurvayoorappan devotee, much like the former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran.
It is an open secret that whenever Sreesanth plays a lamp burns in his pooja room in Kochi. And I have seen Sreesanth going through a silent prayer each time he begins his run up.
Months earlier, another young boy named Sourav Ganguly consulted another Mumbai astrologer, Bejan Daruwala. This boy from Calcutta performed round the clock poojas when he was with in the Indian team.
He also arranged protest poojas on Calcutta streets but right now has no takers in Indian cricket.
Apparently everyone has a reason to pray.
I believe in God, and can understand Sreesanth, Ganguly and their prayers.
But I also believe that sometimes best of our prayers are our actions.
What we do on the field, what we do within ourselves.
God’s bounties are limitless anyway.