Butter Knees

The term butterfingers is used to describe a person who tends to drop things. In the context of cricket it is used to describe a person who tends to drop catches or who tends to get his fingers injured a lot while playing.

In this context, I must say that I’ve contracted butterknees syndrome. It is as though my knees suddenly decide that it needs a break from supporting my body weight.
It first happened when I was running in hard to bowl during my cricket match in the beach. Bowled a superb delivery to clean up the batsmen’s stumps but ended up rolling on the ground clutching my knees. The pain was excruciating. More than the pain it was humiliating to paint a sorry picture in front of my teammates and on-lookers. My friends quickly pulled me up and carried me along to sidelines. As though reading my thoughts, they immediately stopped worrying instead made some humorous remarks that made me a lot more comfortable.

Excerpts from the conversation below:

Soko: Machan unakku body strong a irukku but basement weak da. (Buddy – your body seems to be strong but your basement is weak)

Myself: Had a slight laugh in agony.

Hemu: Machis (addressing other team members in a serious tone) The first thing we’re gonna do after the match is to take him to MRF pace foundation to Dennis Lillee. We need to have his bowling action corrected and we can’t afford to lose a strike bowler. (As if we’re playing in an Indo-Aus match).

Myself: Started giggling a bit.

Dinesh: Machi, there’s nothing wrong with his legs da. It’s just that this month is not good for left-handers. There seems to be a bad omen lurking around for them. Zaheer, R.P Singh, Yuvraj and Hayden all got injured during the Indo-Aus series. We better let him rest this whole month.

Myself: Wondered what Zaheer, R.P Singh or Yuvi would have said had they heard this remark.

Even the on-lookers broke with laughter on hearing the conversation.