41-year-old Santha Moorthy 5 wicket haul helps Pondicherry defeat Mumbai

[The Great Punjab]

I think this is the happiest I've seen a bowler after taking wickets.  Sheer raw emotional outburst each time. Reminds me of Lagaan. Kudos

 

The Pondicherry right-arm pacer ran through the Mumbai batting line-up in his impressive four-over spell.

 

https://www.bcci.tv/videos/148189/41-year-old-santha-moorthy-s-record-5-wicket-haul

[Hojoborolo]

1 hour ago, The Great Punjab said:

I think this is the happiest I've seen a bowler after taking wickets.  Sheer raw emotional outburst each time. Reminds me of Lagaan. Kudos

 

The Pondicherry right-arm pacer ran through the Mumbai batting line-up in his impressive four-over spell.

 

https://www.bcci.tv/videos/148189/41-year-old-santha-moorthy-s-record-5-wicket-haul

Simply heart-warming! (I had a tear in my eye watching this ...)

His Cricinfo profile still said (last time I checked) under major teams: Madras Cricket Club :D

I guess he was happy to reach the national stage at all, let alone get a fifer against powerhouse Mumbai filled with present and future stars. It is success stories like this that has the potential to trickle down into the amateur game, which will motivate amateur players to keep plugging away season after season, and ultimately keep the game from dying out even if cash cows are no more.

 

I guess the trickle down effect is more pronounced in English club cricket, where clubs are more community-oriented and community-run, and a club could in principle get promoted from "absolute village" (i.e., roughly Div 8?) season-by-season all the way to ECB premier division. So a team of amateurs playing, say, Div. 6 still has motivation to work hard and get to Div. 5, a Div. 5 team to Div. 4, and so on (even though they are quite far from professional cricket). I don't know how the matter is in India, but the story of Santha Moorthy is definitely worth a share -- and I am sure it will find resonance in countries with deep and organic cricket structures :-)