Dear Shamarh Joseph,
That feeling of pride that is surging through your inflated heart right now, we Indians know a thing or two about that. The sheer audacity of travelling to a fortress of doom and despair for the visitors and serving hell on a silver platter, is mind-boggling.
This moment which you are savouring now, go ahead and frame it, go ahead and embrace it, go ahead and burn in the fire of joy and do what not, for this moment may never come to you again. Two days later, the same fans who are chanting your name may forget the fact that you were a hero once who gave them a smile on a sulky Sunday afternoon.
That chest-thumping emotion that was splashed by you in the brightest and the boldest of liveries to sully the pride of Gabbatoir, oh that felt as if a stake was driven through the heart of a rusty history book, tattered to pieces.
What are you made of Shamarh? Starc got your toe split open with a yorker and here you were whiplashing those fireballs to the iconic Aussies? Where do you get this mettle of defiance? Was this forged in the stars from another galaxy that we know nothing about?
Do you realise that once you have your toe broken, just to stand up it shoots intolerable bouts of pain? And there you were hurling yourself for ball after ball, for 71 deliveries straight and getting the cherry to do whatever you would want to? Are you human, Shamarh?
Being an Indian, I saw Anil Kumble playing with a broken jaw against your very own countrymen. And I being a kid back then, cried every single time the ball would even whoosh past his ears. I was scared. But then here you are. A man with a Godly spirit of resilience and a hunger that was made right in the heart of Tartarus, walking out to see the Aussies in the eye.
Cricket will remember you, Shamarh and so will Gabba. The hearts of the cricketing coliseum will skip a beat every time, they talk about the Son of Guyana who defied pain, sweat, blood, a broken toe and most importantly the World Champions with his signature smile.
With love,
From a crazy cricket fan