Anniversary

Today is this blog’s 8th anniversary. It feels like much longer than that. But the internet doesn’t lie.

It was eight years ago today that I signed up for a free account on WordPress and posted for the first time: Bangladesh v Australia at Dhaka, 2nd ODI.

Do us both a favor and don’t read that.

2,922 days later, here we are.

594 posts, 556 comments, 56,000+ page views.

Yesterday I posted about how I was in awe of my mentions in the Wisden Almanack, I am also in awe of those numbers above. I will never not be.

I remember the first morning like it was yesterday. Deep in a suburban office park, in a cube on the ground floor with a window that looked into the backyard of a small home, where an old man tended to his garden, and a family of ducks lived under the low branches of a pine tree. It was a month after I got back from London, where I snapped the picture in the masthead. I signed up, logged on, wrote, and hit publish. I had no idea where it would lead, and it led here, eight years later: still logging on, still writing, still hitting publish.

There was some real highlights. Two stand out, the post about Sachin and my dad, and the post about Twitter Strike Rate. Lightning struck twice with those; I never thought I would see stats like I saw for those two posts.

Mostly, though, traffic is light, and that’s fine. This isn’t about going viral, or making money, or churning out content(tm), this site is about a familiar place where I can log in and write, whenever I want, about whatever I want (though I do try to keep it about cricket as often as possible, honestly I do). For the last eight years, it’s been here. Through dead dogs, and sisters with cancer, and World Cups. Through ball tampering, mankads, spot fixing, divorce and new jobs. Here I am. Logging in, writing, and hitting publish.

But I don’t know if I would still be here if wasn’t for you, my readers. And so whether you’ve been reading me since day one and or this is your first time visiting: thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for reading, commenting, sharing, and following. From the bottom of my heart: thank you.

Thank you for giving me this place to call home.

Until tomorrow.