What moves Sriram?

It was past midnight here in Bangalore, India; most 15 year-olds would have either been sound asleep or breaking their heads studying for the next day's pre-boards. I, on the other hand, was watching a midweek Premier League fixture (Watford vs Everton for those interested) with utmost attentiveness. I had a PE exam the next day and I felt watching a mid-table premier league clash from 12:30 AM to 2:30 AM was the best way to prepare.

Ever since I was a preschooler, Sports has been my life. I distinctly remember my first glimpse of Sport when I was five years old. We were living in California at the time, and my dad was toggling through the channels, searching for perhaps an interesting movie to watch. For a brief moment, he changed the channel to NBC Sports and an ice hockey game was being telecast (Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers for those interested) and I happened to see it. I was immediately hooked and asked my dad to stay on that channel. From then on, I fell absolutely in love with hockey and whenever I wasn't watching the sport, I would run around the house with a mini stick and rubber puck, the commentary running through my head. So ice hockey was my first love but I quickly expanded to other sports as well. Later that year, the 2010 NBA Finals came around and I watched Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in what was an iconic 7-game series. At this point, I was watching all sorts of sports and even began playing them. I was going to Hockey and Soccer practice and even played Baseball in the local t-ball league. By the time we moved to India, when I was six years old, I knew all the sports teams, across the 4 major sports leagues, in North America (that's 122 in total).

During 2nd grade, my first year in India, cricket was a big hype as the 2011 Cricket World Cup was coming round. So, I became attached to that as well.

India vs England, one of the biggest games of the World Cup, was screened in the clubhouse of my apartment and I didn't want to miss a moment of it. As the game went on past midnight, almost everyone had left, but I made sure my dad and I stayed until the last ball was bowled.

I had started off as an observer, watching sports because it was interesting and intense. Then I learnt all the player's names and began accompanying the commentators from home. Soon, I was playing sports, trying to emulate each and every action of my favourite players. I would be mimicking Kobe's signature fade away in mini hoops or recreating Evgeni Nabokov's 'game saver' save with pillows as goalie pads or bowling sidearm like Lasith Malinga. I could go on and on. By the time I was 12, I was completely addicted to sports. Sports meant everything to me and I didn't see anything else in life that mattered half as much. I made every small thing, from hand cricket in school to fantasy football at home, as serious and as realistic as possible. The only thing I talked about and thought about was sports. At this point, I was following the Premier League, the NBA, the NHL, the IPL, and a little bit of the MLB and NFL.

I was so crazy, in fact, that if I saw a long empty aisle in a mall or supermarket, I would run the length of the aisle in full stride and do a little bowling action at the end or do a typical goal celebration by sliding on my knees.

I know what your thinking right now; either 'this guy is a complete idiot' or 'hey, I was just like that.' Anyways, the story gets better. I know I was growing up now, and I couldn't run across a smooth corridor and slide at the end without some awkward glances but trust me, my passion for sports just kept increasing. As I entered high school, I became a serious Chelsea fan and an ardent Premier League follower. I began watching every Premier League game that I possibly could, it didn't matter if Chelsea played or not. There were (and still are) Saturdays where I would watch 4 games straight from 5:30 PM to 2:30 AM to scout players for my FPL (Fantasy Premier League) team. I learnt every Chelsea chant and I would sing it in class, at the top of my voice. Before I knew it, 2-3 of my friends were joining in and we were creating splendid footballing atmospheres to the annoyance of the rest of our classmates. Now, I would say at least 50% of my day is consumed by football, be it through football training, football watching, or football thinking.

With so much of my present and childhood days being spent thinking about or playing sports, I could not imagine what my grown-up life would be like if my career is not in the Sports field. Hence, I decided that writing for the Sports column could be a possible option for me in the future and writing sports articles for The Green Pages was a great opportunity to gain experience that I could not turn down.

-Sriram Chidambaram