It was early 90's. I still remember those days. We were very crazy about cricket. On a weekday we play for minimum three hours and during the weekend more than 8 hours. We prefer to play with tennis ball/rubber ball rather than a cricket ball. The reason is quite simple. The cost of a cricket ball is much higher (we buy used tennis ball form a local tennis club) and we didn't have oil bat. All we had was some local made sub standard bats. A decent cricket bat costs around 100 Rs, which was a very big amount for us. It was a dream for every one of us to own a cricket bat. Only one or 2 in our gang could manage to buy a proper bat. Rest of us depended on Karupaiyya Aasary(கருப்பையா ஆசாரி).
Karupaiyaa is a well know carpenter in our locality. For Rs 25 he will give us a custom made bat. The bats are mostly made of neem/guva wood. After a long struggle I managed to save Rs 25. Now, It was my turn. I went to his workshop and asked for bat. As he was busy with some other work he asked me come latter. When I went to his work shop for the second time, he was crafting my bat. Once my bat was fully ready I was totally disappointed. The bat didn't look like a regular bat. The handle was longer and the blade was relatively smaller and narrower. I was not happy with the bat and I was not ready to pay Rs 25. He said "அடிச்சு ஆடுறதுக்கு இந்த பேட்டு நல்லா இருக்கும்" (For playing powerfull shots this bat will be very good). I was not ready to hear his words. After a small panchyat I paid him Rs 25 and got the bat. Initially I was not ready to take this bat to the ground. Since all the other bat in our team was broken, I took this bat to the ground. For the first couple of overs we struggled with the new bat. Once we got hold of the bat, hitting the ball was very easy. What Karupaiyya said was true. Our average score in a 12 over match raised to 100 from 60. The bat was a huge hit among us. I think Karupaiyya Aasary should have copy righted the design. The mongoose bat which Mathew Hayden used/using was much similar to the one which Karupaiyya has designed. 16 years before I got this bat for just Rs 25. Today mongoose bats are sold for Rs 23,000. Enna Kodumai saravan ithu..
