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| Young-Husband eagerly clings on to the award Picture courtesy: Nelson Mail (New Zealand) |
Billions of female
followers, pouring over the live updates on the internet since morning to
become proud witnesses of another Indian defeat, suddenly erupted in joy as the
name was transmitted in text through cyberspace all around the world. There was
no doubt whatsoever who the new winner would be!
“Young-Husband!”
shrieked an eager fan that had already gone gaga over the name. “This was the
person we had been waiting for!” Her friend, an ardent follower of the history
of the sport, brought up the names of the likes of Julien Wiener and, more
importantly, Peter Willey. “The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey” is a
phrase buried somewhere in history, she reckons.
The Cummins,
Anderson and Pat, had re-ignited the imagination over the past two decades, as
had Craig Cumming and Trevor Gripper, all coming incredibly close to the award
that had been held by Geoff Humpage for a long time. Stephen Rouse and Peter
Sleep had come close, but with limited luck.
Arnie and Ryan
Sidebottom, on the other hand, could only invoke laughter among the diehard
fans of the sport, as had Ijaz and Salman Butt, Clyde Butts, and Jack Crapp — and most unexpectedly, Nathan Astle. None of them could get their hands on the
award, though. None, however, had suffered the ignominy of Gladstone Small, the
mention of whose name always caused general hilarity.
The heartthrob among
the new generation of girls, of course, had been the South African wicket-keeper
Quinton de Kock — the boy who had almost single-handedly batted India out of
the recently concluded ODI series at home with his bat.
“A name like de Kock can make your imagination go haywire,” a fan had confessed
a couple of months back, her gaze transfixed at the huge scoreboard.
Indeed, de Kock had
managed to cause a stir in the world with his appearance. Forgotten were
eminent names like Ashley Woodcock, David Sincock, Paul Hitchcock, Neil Adcock,
and the perhaps the one who had held the award for the longest time of them
all, Jack Badcock, whose name often led people to ask “Why?” before they knew
it.
There have been the
romantic ones as well, like the Grace fraternity, Hammy and Martin Love, Alf
and Bryan Valentine, Brian and Franklyn Rose, Andy and Grant Flower, Joe, Len,
and Rick Darling, Blessing Mahwire – they were all there, but other than the
occasional inspirations from Heath Streak, no one seemed to be able to capture
the imagination of the women.
But Young-Husband indeed
seems to be the craze of the moment. “It is always maturity over anything else”
was the unanimous reaction from the women in the crowd, “and when we say
anything, we mean it.” They also seem determined to refer to him as P
Young-Husband instead of addressing him by his full name.
