The Start

So when the opening batsmen walk out to face the first ball of their inning, they have a set preparation in mind. 'Play out the monster fast bowler'; 'Dont play wide outside the offstump' ; 'Defend the first few overs'

Typically they must be mentally preparing to face specific bowlers - to be prepared for their special balls. They must be expecting the bowler to bowl them a bouncer and keeping the hook shot ready.

So then their shock and surprise is only to be understood when they find that instead of the monster paceman, its the wily spinner opening the bowling. And that all their best laid plans are gone to waste. And thats when the wily spinner bowls that googly -which, mind you, comes in completely unexpected - the batsman finds himself getting bowled all over.

And now pan to my boss - playing chaperone to senior management, taking them around the western markets. Prepared with data in hand to answer all comers about the big ticket items - bristling with confidence on the performance on the aforementioned big ticket items. And then out comes the spinner and throws up a question on Rexona. REXONA ??? The bosss' mind screeches loud - That tiny little thing? Really? Out go all the planned big shots and out comes the defensive stroke.

History they say is kind to the one who wrote it. Or in this case the one who told it. We are told that the defensive shot met the ball right in the middle of the bat and the googly was thwarted. But then History is the story teller's right

And then the boss takes around a even bigger boss to another western market. Yet another morning. Yet another inning with the mental preparation to play the big shots. And this time its not even a googly - its one of those tricky ones that stay low. How is Salt doing ?? The boss is spell bounded. We were told that this one too was played out from the centre of the defensive bat. But yet again History is kind to the ....