How Ravi Shastri lost to Suresh?

I have a confession to make... I just need to come out clean.. Sure, please forgive me for not confiding in you before.

It's about my first love.. it happened during the summer of 1985, when I was 15... Ravi Shastri (Shaz), with his curly locks, lanky frame, 6'3" tall, claimed the Champion of champions trophy and I stood before my blue and white television set, clapped till my palms became sore, blew a kiss and fell irrevocably in love with him.

I made sure to check the "flames" test before I stepped in and accepted him as my one and only love. For those who are not aware of the "flames" test, it's testing out the "chemistry", wait am not talking about that Chemistry which involves a bunsen burner.

Let me brief you on how it works... write your name and your love's name one below the other, strike out the common letters and count the remaining nos of the letters not scratched. Write the word " flames", below your names and start counting from 'f". "f" will be one "l" two and so on. Keep counting until the last letter, which eventually decide your fate..This "flames" test will shed light on the compatibility between a couple. What "flames" stand for?

f- friendship (don't you guys try to give any other name for this; keep the sanctity intact)
l-love
a-affectionate
m-marriage
e-enemy
s-sensational/sexy (I was too shy to think of the word sexy then, I used the word sensational)

I added and deleted letters from my name till I got what I wanted.. Yes I got "L" finally. However I tried desperately "M" never came..

But when I looked at our names, it ran like this:

VIJAYALAKSHMI VIJAYAGHAVAN SRINIVASAN (Vijayaraghavan is my dad's name and Srinivasan, his dad's)
RAVI SHANKAR JAYADRITHA SHASTRI

















Where was I? Yeah! I watched with pride, when Shaz drove his Audi, the whole team found a place inside, on top of the car... while I dreamed of a monsoon day, taking a long drive with him on the shores of Mumbai beach in his Audi, just me and him... yeah it was after all a dream and there was no traffic.

Most of my readers are young and they would not have experienced the golden era of Indian cricket. Kapil, Gavaskar, Kirmani, Yashpal Sharma, Sandeep Patil, Srikanth, Binny, Madanlal, Vengsarkar, Dilip Doshi and my SHAZ of course... That's what I would call real cricket...

Do you know how tedious it is to play a 5 day cricket test, when ODI was an occasional occurrence? Just imagine staying on the ground all the five days, facing 357 balls, 455 minutes and score 111 at Eden Garden... that's what Shaz did and my hands itched to go and fan him at the pitch, it was a very hot day and poor guy he was made to stand there. He kept showing two fingers towards the dressing room, still he was not allowed to go to loo..(fortunately rain god heard my silent prayers and put him out of his misery)

He came back again after the rain and how I adored the way he touched the ball ever so gently and magnanimously picked the ball himself and gave it to the bowler..He is a perfect gentleman and not Walsh....My brother and my cousins called Shaz a drag, but I found his determination staggering.. I decided then and there, if a guy has that much patience, only a girl who has more patience than him can be a winning pair... yeah that's me, as I was the only one who watched that match all the 5 days.

He loved me in his own way, we had just met a couple of times during the net practice at Chepauk, Chennai. I tried climbing a chair to get his attention, when I slipped and fell down. He came close to the fence, smiled at me and asked If I was hurt.. I smiled, my heart hammering said yes and no.. when I stretched my autograph book to him, he wrote "Have a happy life :) with love Ravi"..damn he said it at last :D Imagine a girl being loved by a celebrity cricketer with in a span of just two meetings...

True love always face difficult times.. Amrita Singh, Gabriela Sabatini happened to Shaz and I met and got bowled by Sure's charm, before we knew we were kneeling at the altar reciting our wedding vows...

Poor Shaz he lost to Suresh... But then how long can he remain a bachelor? He got married to the next best woman in his life Ritu Singh, a model. The last I heard Shaz and Ritu were blessed with a daughter last year... Congrats Shaz and I perfectly understand if you had named you daughter, Vijayalakshmi Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan after me.

God Bless!