As i have started writing this, i am still under the euphoric spell of T20 night cricket match i witnessed with my Son Prajwal and Smitha's cousin Shalini at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on 17th Oct 2009.
I had planned to go to the match about 10 days back. But my son had exams and he was not so much inclined. But two days before the match, he expressed keen desire to witness the match. So i started the mad scramble for the tickets. I finally got the tickets at UCO bank where some people had just cancelled the tickets. Getting the tickets was a big victory like India winning a Pakistan cricket match. I could see great glee on the face of my son. It was a 1000 watt smile. Can just a 350 rupees ticket buy so much happiness, yes if we are ready to savour small things in life with Gutso and with child like attitude and exuberance.
We reached the stadium at about 6.00 PM in the evening, we were interested in the second match between Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils whch was scheduled to start at 8.00 PM .
The atmosphere inside was electrifying , with all the flood lights and the colour of the different stands showing red , green and yellow. It was getting darker and the cool wind blowing inside was wispering into our ears about the enjoyment to unfold on a giant scale in front of our eyes.
Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to field. Delhi Darevils account was opened by Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Each time a four was hit, the crowd used to go into raptures and all standing up and waving the Team flags and shouting at the top of their voice. When a six was hit it was still wild and in addition to crowd going bersek, there was rockets and flower pots going off all around the stadium from the stadium top. It was a grand spectacle and sometimes it was looking like a celestial event. It looked like the entire city celebration of Diwali was happening inside the stadium.
Delhi Daredevils scored about 140 odd runs in the allotted 20 overs. Royal Challengers won the match with some fighting spitit. But who cares for the statistics or who is winning the match. It looked like cricket was just a reason for celebration. I was taken in completely by the festive spirit and the electrifying atmosphere but i was thinking what has happened to cricket which was a gentleman's game and watched seriously with a dissecting mind about every ball bowled and the way the runs were scored. I remember the times the results of the match were secondary but the way the runs used to be scored were providing enjoyment. It was sheer joy to watch Gundappa Vishwanath scoring about 4 elegant boundaries in a small innings of 25 runs. It was pure delight to see the ball racing to the square boundary like a bullet. His was a touch artistry. Does present day cricket particularly T20 evoke the same delight for the purist, i very much doubt. Some shots like Soude shot ( in Kannada ) have become a common fare in T20 cricket.
It was sacrilegeous to do something like that in cricket a decade back. But in this era of Globalisation and instant fame and money , cricket could not resist falling prey. Will Test cricket survive in its present day Avatar or does it require to be tweaked to suit the current tastes and the globalisation spell. I invite everyone to share their comments with me.
regards
padmanabh
As I remember, going to a cricket match was something like going for a festival.
ReplyDeleteWe used to hurry in the morning to Central College Grounds where cricket matches were held prior to start of Chinnaswamy Stadium. We could see Mr. Chnnaswamy also actively walking around the stadium and some times even rearranging the chairs. Then it was Game and Love for the game which used to exist unlike the present day motto of win and money!
Well I thought cricket was my life in my younger days even cutting the photo clippings of players like Polly Umbrigar. Dilip Sardesai, Vijay Manjrekar etc from news paper. I would hover around radios to listen to commentary as TV was non-existing. I even learnt Hindi to know the scores as commentary would be sometimes in Hindi and that was my love to cricket. But now I hardly know the players name and I have no regrets as the present day cricket is tooooooooooo fast for me.