Bleeding blue

By measuring the blood pressure and pulse rate of an elderly cricket addict at different stages of yesterday's match, MiD DAY finds proof of fans' hearts bleeding for Team India

DIE-hard cricket fans struggling to explain how their very life depends on a Team India victory now have some medical evidence to back them up.

As India took on Australia in a nail-biter yesterday, two MiD DAY reporters and Dr Sushil Mishra from Borivli camped at the Chaubey residence in Kandivli to measure the blood pressure (BP) and pulse of self-confessed cricket addict Maya Shankar Chaubey (62) at different stages of the match.


Maya Shankar Chaubey continues to watch yesterday's India-Australia match as a doctor monitors his blood pressure and pulse rate

We found that Chaubey's BP and pulse shot up with every boundary and six hit during the Australian innings (see graph), returning to normal only when the rate of scoring slowed drastically or they lost a wicket.
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Chaubey had predicted that India would win and got tense every time he felt the match was slipping away from his team.

Explaining the fluctuations, Dr Mishra said, "Since Chaubey is a senior citizen, his normal BP is 140/90. It shot up at various times during the match owing to the excitement.

This happened when the Australians were scoring quickly because Chaubey got tense that India wouldn't win."

"His BP did not fluctuate by huge margins as the match was, largely, evenly balanced. His BP and pulse rate rose when every Indian wicket fell, indicating that his stress levels were rising, and also when India was nearing victory, since he was excited about his prediction coming true," he added.

Living the obsession

Even as the doctor was busy gauging Chaubey's BP and pulse rate, the 62-year-old was glued to the television set, afraid even to blink for fear of missing a crucial ball.

"When I was doing my BA course, I had a small radio through which I would hear the commentary.
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At that time, I used to wonder what Gavaskar and Farooq Engineer looked like. I was the first in my village to play cricket with my younger brothers," Chaubey, who is a retired BMC school teacher, said between overs.

Chaubey's cricket obsession also leads to household wars. "He keeps talking about his favourite cricketers, Sachin and Yuvraj, and never leaves the television free for me to watch my soaps.
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I get irritated sometimes, but then I knew about his obsession right from the beginning. He even watches the highlights after the match," said his wife, Chanchal Chaubey.

Geared up

"The real excitement is going to be in the India-Pakistan match," Chaubey told MiD DAY's reporters. "You should come and measure my BP then. It will even cross today's records."