I would shout, 'I will meet you all on the bus!' as my buddies and I rushed out of the school where we studied together. They were usually in an even bigger hurry than I was, as their stops were nearer to the starting point of the bus. This meant they had to get ready faster for the cricket coaching, which was located 10 kilometers away from our town. The government shuttle buses, which were free of charge, traveled between the two towns approximately every hour. Missing the bus meant missing the chance to travel and do warm-ups together.
I typically took my time, as my stop was the last one for our town. To be precise, we would finish idling around at school at 3 p.m., and the bus would arrive at my stop at 3:45 p.m. My gang would already be on the bus at 3:45 p.m., seated in the back and eager to spend more time at coaching, even though we had spent the entire day together at school.
After 30 minutes of banter, we would arrive at the cricket ground. Since our coach usually arrived 10-15 minutes later than us, he expected us to do our warm-ups independently, a task we often neglected. On Friday evenings, we were almost always instructed to practice in the nets. Our coach would decide the batting order, and the rest of us would bowl. It was then set: each of my friends would give their all, striving to outperform the others. Being bowled out or getting hit by a friend in the nets could ruin anyone's day, as we would inevitably tease each other about it on the bus ride home.
It’s safe to say that, at that time, we all shared the same dream of becoming fine cricketers and playing in the big leagues. But, in hindsight, we were just idealistic youths, conscripted by our dreams to think like that. Back then, we believed the weekends were the best days of our lives because we could play our favorite sport, get better each day, and compete with one another escaping from the routine school life. Looking back now, it is clear that every day we spent together was truly special.
2016 - 2020
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