Cricket and Me

I remember events in my life by what cricket was on at that time.

I clearly remember the morning of 13th May 2025. I was getting ready for my last uni exam at Bristol. I had gotten only 4 hours of sleep and was sure to flunk my paper. Thank god for the UK education system that they allow final year students to graduate even with failed units.

So here I was passively scrolling through Insta, and I saw:

"Kohli announces test retirement".

I was shaken to my core. I felt the child in me die. 13 year old Saksham used to spend hours watching test cricket. Kohli showed the SENA countries that he was a force of nature. He made India believe that as long as he leads the team, we always have a chance. No matter the pitch, the conditions, the country, the opposition.

He did more for the mental health of Indian dads than Old Monk. That force of nature had finally hung up his boots.

As kids, we associate memories with activities that bring us the most joy. Before we understood the concept of time. Before social media planted seeds of FOMO and time optimisation in our brains. I bloody loved test cricket. That's all I thought about.

Sadly, I have lost that spark now. Work takes most of my time and energy. What's crazy is that my sense of winning as a kid came from how India performed on Day 1 of the opening test. My entire self-worth relied on 11 men who had nothing to do with me, sweating it out in an arena packed with 80,000 people who had spent money to watch grown men fight it out in the hardest format of the game.

What's even sadder is that I have no reference point for my memories now, and that scares me.

Maybe this is what entrepreneurship does to you. It distorts your relationship with time. Taking time off is not rest; it’s 'recalibrating' yourself. Now the reference points will be milestones of my startup. Yes, that'd be great, but that could never beat waking up before the sun to watch Day 1 of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.