Cricket, in India, is religion and Sachin Tendulkar is God.
Hockey, unfortunately, took a backseat long time ago and cricket entered into the life of the youth and nothing has changed much.
Even to this day, parents prefer handing their children a plastic bat and plastic ball as toys than small cutlery items.
As you age, cricket grips your soul like no other sport. Here are signs that your love for cricket can never experience demise –
Obviously, as a child and in the teenage, you played a lot of cricket within your residential compound, where you broke many windows and got yelled at.
Whenever you did not play cricket, you watched cricket on TV with your family or with your close friends. When with family, you had the Indian flag; with friends, beer and something to complement it.
If you work on the day India played a cricket match, you have one tab on the computer showing the live match score. In case you had a cooler office, you watched the live telecast of the match with other employees.
The doors or walls in your house have posters of Indian or international cricketing legends. Obviously, you had an argument with your parents about it, but they eventually gave in.
Other than posters, you have Indian team jerseys, probably ranging by different eras.
You also collect cricket stubs of the matches that you have attended personally. Carrying them in wallet could be risky which is why you have a secret stash at your home.
Location does not stand as a barrier when it comes to your love for cricket. You make it a point to travel to different Indian states or even overseas to watch your favourite players in action.
During a high profile cricket match, your social media profile contains a series of updates. This tends to annoy people in your friends list, who are as enthused but do not promote their excitement online.
Whether you own a smartphone or an iPad, cricket is one of the first games that you download. The game becomes your travel companion if you have to commute long distance for work.
You make it a point to never miss a cricket event. You even watch the pre-match and post-match sessions, for you consider them informative. The statistics that the panel provides get registered in your brain forever.