JOIN USOne of the primary disadvantages of chewing gum is to find ways and means of disposing the lump after its work is done. Tasty to begin with, with as many flavours as the manufactures choose to introduce, it lose its taste progressively as it so happens in matrimony. When the point of zero return is reached, the chewer has to forcibly eject it. The elliptical path such a blob travels depends on one’s jaw power. Men not only shoot it out to longer lengths but accurately as well to hit the intended target as they sharpen their skills by practising it.
Anyone chewing gum, transferring it from the left corner of the mouth to the right and back and forth resembles closely a cow that chews the cud with the lateral movement of the bovine jaws. While the cows have to throw such pulverised grass or hay back to its cavernous stomach, the man to whom it is not a food or even a supplement has to dispose it off. One cannot remove it with hand as it will be yucky and messy. Furthermore it will stick to the tip of the finger like the best adhesive available in the market.
Among the merchandise marketed during the cricket season, no other product will have such hidden visibility than a chewing gum. One cannot find out the name of the brand as it is concealed inside the mouth of the fielders who have to entertain themselves when the ball is not moving or flying in their direction. It will be interesting to watch when they will spit on the ground. Some will do it when the monitor may not be showing them. But even non-gum chewers would spit now and then, the prolific among them performing like a spray gun all over.
Cricket used to be a gentleman’s game when Test players played for a song. Now with mega bucks at stake and sponsors bidding for players with staggering amounts, the pressure comes on the latter to perform or else. The image of a polished gentleman who never spits in public has gone. With pressure building up in the stadia, spitting may be recognised as a permissible de-stressing act. Who knows the TV screens that record the speed of ball in kilometres per hour, may even flash the speed of spitting for trivia-crazy cricket buffs.