Cricket and Life: Life’s Lessons Through the Language of Cricket

Sitting on my balcony looking at the broad sky and the distant stars I often wondered about the big question ~ ‘what’s life?’ A few days ago, I was watching a cricket match with my son and while I was trying to teach him some life lessons, I discovered life through the language of cricket!

And that bowled me over!!!! 

I had never thought that a cricket match would help me see life so clearly. And it became so easy and interesting to teach my son these basic life lessons. 

So, today, I am drafting this blog to help you see life from a new perspective. It’s a fresh and fun reading to brighten up your lowly lockdown day!!!

Cricket and Life: An uncanny analogy!

1. The 22-yard field

Just like a cricket match is played on a 22-yard field, the actions of your life happen at your place of work. Be it a bench, a cubicle, or a clinic, you need to give your best shot at your work. And the actions that happen on the field are a manifestation of all the hard work, dedication, and dreams that happen off the field.

It is your ceaseless efforts off the field, the impenetrable control over your mind, your pain through the sun and rain, and the daily wounds that decide whether you get knocked out or set in at the very first opportunity thrown at you!

The 22-yard field is your place of ‘action’!

2. The Captain

Cricket is as much a mind game as it is a physical game! And Mahendra Singh Dhoni proved it for us! It was the calm demeanor of our captain that made the team turn matches at the last moments. 

The same goes for life. 

With a calm head and clear perspective, you too can win matches in the blink of a breakdown. All you need to do is hold on to your faith and continue putting your efforts with the same spirit!

You should never accept defeat until the last ball!!!

4. Life in a 20-20

20-20 really tests a player’s real game! More than luck it’s the efforts that come to the rescue in a 20-20 match. Every ball matter and every run make a difference! It’s a short but mad stint where everyone needs to be at their best at every moment.

20-20 is like the showtime at your job. It is that crucial project, that complicated case, or a big presentation where you need to be in your best form. 

5. One day match, every day

The one-day match is where you get the results at a day’s end. After a tense tedious day of scoring runs and wickets, the winner and loser get the results to reflect on. But no matter whether they win or lose, there is always another match to work on. 

The same is the case with life! After a tedious exhausting day at work, you need to reflect and access. You need to judge your performance and score yourself. You should say the words of gratitude and the words of promise to outdo yourself!

Every day is a one-day match! 

6. Life is but a Test Match

Test cricket has the longest match duration and is considered the game’s highest standard. Each team plays a four-inning match, which may last up to five days. This game is all about staying in the game!

Life, in the long run, is nothing but a test match! When you need to play every ball, you don’t need to hop at every opportunity. But you must choose your balls cautiously and catch your opportunities strategically. 

It’s not about scoring fast but about lasting till the last.  

7. The Innings of Life

An inning means the entire span of one team’s batting and another’s bowling. Every team gets a fair chance at both jobs. Innings can also be defined as the playing period of individual batsmen.

Life, as we know, has its own innings. The first innings is where we struggle, work, and earn the scores. In the second inning, we balance the earned scores against the expenses, just like the scoreboard keeps a tab of the scores of both teams. 

8. The Team to lean on

The gentleman’s game is all about team efforts. Each team consists of 11 players and each one plays an important role in winning the game. You need to pick each member strategically so that each one brings value to the team. 

In your life, your friends and family play the role of your team. You need to choose your friends right, and also whom to be close to within the family. It’s the right people who will hold you high through all the thick and thin of life.

You need the right people to lean on at hard times.  

9. Extra-man or the hidden wings 

Every team has an extra man. It is a substitution player that the umpires allow when a player gets injured or becomes ill after the start of the game. It’s the backup plan for every game. When your best man is out injured, the extra player is your ticket to the game.

This teaches us to always have a backup plan in life no matter how great the current plan is. Especially in the current scenario when life is so hard, everyone needs to have a backup plan for their career. 

Keep an extra pair to go the extra mile.

10. After the break 

ODI innings are usually broken into lengths of 15, 15, and 20 overs. These three sessions have short drinks break for the players between them. To avoid dehydration, the players drink between 1-3 liters during the match.

Just like the match, you need breaks in your life too. These are the times you take off to holidays to replenish your energy. The breaks give you a moment to think and reflect, to realign the strategies, and to get back on the game stronger than ever. 

11. An Appeal

Appeal refers to a bowler or fielder demanding the umpire to dismiss the batsman, generally by shouting ‘howzat’  or sometimes simply turning to the umpire and cheering. 

Just like that, you need to ask your due even if your efforts are evident. If you need the rewards in life, you need to speak for yourself. People are often too busy to recognize your efforts until you spit it out!

12. The partnership of Striker and non-striker

When one scores, the other must support.

The striker faces the deliveries bowled by the bowler and the non-striker stands at the bowling end. It is the tuning between the striker and non-striker that makes the partnership work. 

In life, the husband and wife play the two ends of the partnership. It’s the emotions, trust, and unselfish nature of both partners that make the relationship work. Just like in cricket, when one plays at the striker’s end the other must always be ready to support. And each should get a fair chance at both roles!

13. Blocking the balls

It is a defensive shot or the act of blocking the ball with the bat. When life throws you hard balls you need to block. It’s not about scoring or winning but about surviving these balls.

14. No ball says Never cross the line.

If the bowler oversteps the crease or bowls too high or low then it’s a no-ball. In this scenario, the other team wins a brownie point! 

This teaches us not to cross certain lines in life. 

15. Hit wicket – a self knock out

When a batsman gets out by removing the bails off the stumps behind him either by hitting with his bat or body as he tries to play the ball or set off for a run is termed as a hit wicket.

It’s our own actions that determine our end results. To play the tough balls in life, maintaining balance is of prime importance. Balancing your work, hobbies, and personal life is necessary to ensure that you don’t burn out and trip over.

You can be your own destructor!

16. Footwork – An art of the game

The necessary foot movements of a batsman so as to be at a comfortable distance from where the ball has pitched, so that he can hit the ball anywhere he desires, nullifying any spin or swing that a bowler attempts to draw out after bouncing.

Success lies in the details of your hard work. While everyone observes the mastery of your strike, only you realize that it’s your footwork that makes the strike possible. Getting that footwork right needs relentless practice fired by a passion for the game. 

Passion makes you strive for excellence!

17. Maiden Over – Zero is good!

An over in which not a single run is scored. No wides or no-balls no runs. This is considered as good performance in the bowler’s life. Maiden over is all about survival for the batsman. You bring on your defense game to point.

The current year is no less than a maiden over!

We are not scoring big on holidays or happiness. Earnings are bad and life pretty much is stalled. So, this is the maiden over of our life. We just need to wait till it gets over and bat tight when the right ball comes our way.

18. DRS  – A review

It is the common abbreviation for the Umpire Decision Review System. It is used when a team thinks the decision given by the umpire is wrong. Re-evaluation of the decision can sometimes be a game-turning point.

In life, you too may need someone else to evaluate your decisions. That may be a friend, your parents, siblings or a therapist. You need to talk to someone else and ask what’s right and what’s wrong. Because when you are too close to living life you may often miss the broader vision that one gets looking from afar.

19. Century – A Celebration

A century means 100 runs scored by a batsman. It is a significant landmark in the career of a cricketer and the cricketer celebrates it by raising their bat and taking off their helmet! Even if the match is lost a century is a marked achievement. 

This teaches us the importance of celebrations. Even with all the pressure and hectic days, we need to take off our helmets of burden and take a moment to celebrate all that we have achieved. 

Conclusion – Everything teaches a lesson about life!

When we look deeper into things, we see a completely new perspective that teaches us a thing or two about life. I hope you all liked these connotations about cricket. Please share your ideas on such subjects where you realized a life lesson from an everyday thing.