Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Test Match Nostalgia !!



Palladian, 23 Aug:We won the third test match against England at Trent Bridge Nottingham. A fitting reply to our last defeat!



What   a wonderful five days of wholesome cricket!
Forget the TV replays and the short footages in the hews.  Reading the coverage in detail in the sports pages each day was so thrilling & satisfying – especially when we started wining from Day1 itself. Wonder how many people subscribe to Sportstar magazine. Should have some fantastic shots and centre-spread in the coming issue.

Unlike modern day IPL enthusiasts, I strongly endorse the classic 5-day cricket. (for this blog only)


IPL is bad medicine!

How can one substitute a 5-course gourmet meal with a cheap Chinese take-away ?? or take a melodious Mehdi Hasan Ghazal and force fit it on top of a Malkit Singh’s Bhangra rap??

Fast cricket, like fast food in no good for no one in the long run. Only the ad agencies and media houses thrive.

Sad!
Real Sad!!

Cricket is (or was) a gentleman’s game .
Epitomising the true spirit of sportsmanship, grace, style and perfection in each stroke.

A game of leisure played over 5 wonderful bright sunny days (and a rest day thrown in) and played with ultimate patience and unlimited overs in spotless whites. While the players enjoyed the test match, we, the spectators enjoyed 5 days of relaxation & picnic with our friends , family and everyone in the stadium.  We shared a wonderful ambience, bonhomie with both sides and shared our food hampers and floppy hats.  We made tons of friends, exchanged and traded cricketers’ photos, sports mags, and bragged over our heroes! Remember those day long sit-outs in Bombay Brabourne Stadium and  Chennai's Chepauk Stadium days??

And IPL reduced these wonderful cricketing experiences into a frenzied 4-hour football-like brawl!!  Heavily sponsored by the TV media. And no different than the WWF TV wrestling bouts!

My question:  If people wanted to play or watch a fast-paced game, and jostle and scream and sweat and argue and sledging, why don’t they take up football or rugby or buzkashi or quidditch??

Why cripple and maim a wonderful long-standing tradition???

Krish..


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