09/10/2025
If you love cricket, play it with your whole heart — fairly, passionately, and respectfully. Cricket is more than runs and wickets; it’s a classroom where we learn discipline, teamwork, and humility. Don’t let it become a place for grudges, petty rivalries, or politics. When we drag outside agendas into the game, we lose what made it beautiful in the first place: the simple joy of competing together and growing together.
Remember: keep brotherhood alive. Treat your teammates and opponents with respect. Help the younger ones, lift up those who fail, and celebrate those who succeed. A true player’s strength is shown not only in how they smash a ball or bowl a perfect over, but in how they treat people off the field — with kindness, fairness, and generosity of spirit.
Think about how fragile life is. So many young souls are gone too soon — in tragic, unexpected ways. Life does not give warnings for tomorrow. If today you hold anger against someone, if you have been jealous, if you have harbored hatred or kept someone’s mistake like a heavy stone in your pocket, ask yourself: what happens if life ends suddenly? How will you stand before Allah with those burdens? How will you face the families and friends of those you pushed away?
Let the cricket field be a place where we leave egos at the gate. Leave politics out of the pavilion. Leave grudges on the sidelines. When you walk into the dressing room, bring respect, bring honesty, and bring compassion. When you walk out, carry memories of teamwork and lessons learned — not bitterness.
Forgive quickly. Apologize when you are wrong. Make amends where you can. Live in a way that if you were called back to your Creator today, your heart would be lighter, your hands cleaner, and your relationships mended. Pray for those we’ve lost, and protect those still with us by being better people for them.
May Allah guide us, forgive our mistakes, and keep our youth safe. Let’s honor the spirit of cricket by being better humans — on the pitch, off the pitch, and in our hearts.
© Shahid Baba
