Worst spell of bowling , Sreesanth and Kochappan

I was at the wheel. We were nearing Alwaye. It would take another half an hour to reach the airport.

"The flight is on time. I want to be there when it lands,'' said Kochappan.

Hold on. You might be wondering what is Kochappan doing at Kochi. He flew in day before yesterday to receive Sreesanth returning after the Twenty20 match; hence the trip to airport.

'' Hurry, or else I will miss the boat'' quoth Kochapps in OE. I did not, as usual, understand the afore mentioned reference to 'missing the boat' when one is proceeding to the airport.

I sought clarification with reluctance. He gave me a look; something similar to what Dhoni gave to Sreesanth, who in a benevelent mood, gave twenty runs in his first over.

'' To miss the boat in figurative language means to miss the excitement'', he explained. Figurative language? but I didn't proceed further.

Soon as we reached the airport. Kochappan took off, like Carl Lewis, to the terminal. The airport was a sea of humanity. We stood and watched the frenzy of people. I could see Sree accompanied by three people coming out.

'' The one on the left is Mathew Varghese, ex-captain of Kerala Ranji team'', said Kochappan.

'' I know'' said I. '' I have seen this former captain's photograph in newspapers'' I added. Iam not good in Arithmetics", still I added vehementally.

'' He is not the former captain. He is the ex-captain,'' came kochapps.

'' That's what I also said'' I retorted.

'' There is a difference . Rahul Dravid was the captain of Indian team; so was Sourav Ganguly.
when you refer to Rahul you should mention him as ex-captain because he was the immediate past captain. But Saurav and Tendulkar are former captains because they preceded Rahul.
Abdul Kalam is the ex-president of India whereas Dr.Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain are former presidents of India, '' Kochappan stopped. I looked at him with reverance; the variety with which people were looking at Sreesanth.

Seeing an oppurtunity to get close to Sreesanth I hurried up to him. He recogonised me and we talked. He has not forgotten his old college mate. I was elated. I looked at Kochappan from the corner of my eye. Kochappan was standing with his jaws fallen; on seeing me talking to Sree.
I reminded to collect his fallen jaw and to restore it it's ex- postion and not the former position.
Last time he did it himself.

'' Why didn't you tell me that you knew him earlier,'' asked Kochappan in a hurt tone. his jaw may have been aching.

I kept silence. Very rarely do I keep it with me. This time I did.

'' What did you two speak ?'' he was curious. I felt bad that I did not tell him about my friendship with Sree. I apologised. He accepted.

'' We remembered our old days to gether and I also mentioned about his bad spell of bowling in the last over," I replied.

'' You shouldnot have done that today,'' Kochapps opined

'' He has always had this problem even when he was in school,'' I opened the history book.

'' Our English teacher was our Cricket coach also. Whenever he had asked Sree to spell 'Bowling' Sree used to spell it 'boulin'. The master then used to say that that is the worst spell of 'bowling' he has had from any body.'' I closed the history book.

Kochappan jerked , twisted and convulsed in his seat. Then there was silence. I could listen to it.
I dropped him at his home and these were his parting words.

'' Aniyan, you are a humble man but you have nothing in you to be otherwise''

I didnot quite get it. He was probably upset about my mention about the worst spell of bowling to Sreesanth!

I will ask him tommorow.

menon ( aniyan )