Watching liveva cricketva !!

The other day I went to watch the cricket match between India- Pakistan. It was a beautiful bright morning like any other morning in Bangalore (actually Bengaluru). The place has become polluted recently, the blogger hopes that no more new buildings (skyscrapers) are allowed within the city limits. There is lot of space in the outskirts and other nearby towns. Furthermore they have become a burden with unsustainable building, they cannot capitalize the beautiful climate (even now they use AC, I went to a mall yesterday that was airtight, even in the mornings they have to switch on the AC. What kind of development is this??). Why are these being allowed in Bangalore?. They have spoiled the place, it surely is arrogance.. The house I stay has no fans…there was no need for it till recently. Then the ‘development’ occurred, I am using a small table fan (Though the electricity bill rarely exceed 200 Rs a month). The way Bangalore is being vandalized is heartbreaking and they call it development.

So here I was watching an international test match after having bought the ticket paying triple the price from black (the man vanished without giving back the change is another story!. It was too chaotic). There were no chairs but cemented steps, the view though was great. The squeeze though was still on, everything cost double or triple the price. The reason given was ‘we have given big money to get this in’. BCCI doesn’t give a damn about audience at the lower end is not a secret (that is typically Indian). People though didn’t mind they came in their best dress, children painted flags of two countries on their cheeks and generally enjoyed the occasion, it was quite noisy. Every time a player came near the stand they shouted, very rarely the player condescends to look up. If he does there is another round of wide applause (Pathan though was quite sporty and did wave at the crowd)!!. In fact they shouted, screamed and used all kind of tactics to attract attention and rushed to the fence before the cops came down with sticks. It was quite a chaos. Remember in seventies the matches in West Indies the crowd used to rush to ground and congratulate the players?. I thought it was really funny, I love watching old matches in sports channel. Gavaskar, Kapil Dev….were hugely admired and we used to collect their photos (as also of movies) it came in small rectangle shape (as also match box pictures…at one point I had huge collection). We also used to play games chith ya pat with it. We used to have discussion on who is the fastest baller (similar to who is the strongest hero, so comparing different movies on who has hit whom. The face off between Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrugan Sinha in Kaala Pathar was a talking point on who is stronger!!). The logic was if the photo had bowler facing then he should be slow since it would be difficult to take photo at that angle since the photographer would be hit!!. The bowler who in the photo had side profile taken as he bowled obviously is the fastest. And I had Dennis Lillee to prove!!. First time I watched a cricket match on TV was probably when I was eight, we bunch of kids walked few Kms to a Officers Mess and sneaked though the window (it was in Delhi Cant), we were euphoric.

The game I had gone to watch had become quite dull, with initial euphoria of falling wickets dying down. In between there was a skirmish between Kumble and Yousuf, which excited the crowd, people around me whistled and jumped. I simply have no idea why they have to react in such juvenile fashion to something equally foolish! (It’s like clapping when two grown up people start to abuse each other in a traffic!!. Amazing, they also call it aggression!!). The guy sitting next to me happened to be a bhojpuri and he spoke loudly when couldn’t control his excitement ‘ek or outva hoi gayo re”. I enjoyed his commentary!!.

Misbah-ul-haq was a tough customer and was in no hurry. Anil kumble (he is legend around here, with a prominent junction named after him) tried all tactics but our man was not to be budged. I had already spent four hours, my conclusion is still same: Cricket is a boring game to watch particularly the test matches. When a player is out most people are not even aware, it happens so fast and suddenly, since not many track each and every ball. Some games (like some people!!) are good in TV only. Quite appropriately two white men with grim faces arbitrated the proceeding. They called them umpires.

At around 2:30 I decided to leave, resold my ticket!. Left to the race course and enjoyed the incredible sight of galloping horses. No comparison here, accentuating the thought that how dumb Test matches are, I even add that it is a violation of human rights. Test matches are torture on people. I recall in school we used to play leg cricket!!. Since we didn’t have bat we used take one leg as bat, of course rubber balls were used and the bowling was underhand-the one referred to as surra in normal cricket, anything above knee was no ball. It was very exciting and contested quite keenly. We also had one-tip-one-hand-out, also ‘baby over’!!

Future is about 20-20 and also One dayers. The guy to watch out for in Indian team is Yuvraj Singh, the dude is brilliant when in flow. But our man has a very disturbing behavior of celebrating milestones with abuse words. Freud would have lot to say on that!!

Post Script: it was shocking the incident of shooting in Euro international school in Gurgaon. The availability of gun is the grievous part, USA is definitely not a role model. I think most kids below the age of ten are basically attracted to violence. Most kids of this age group love violent movies (we would shout when shetty’s name came on the screen, since it assured fight. He was bad guy in movies of seventies. Wonder what happened to him?) it though vanishes in teens as they become circumspect and subtle in their relations. Fights in the teens are serious and can go out of hand. It is nothing new so the discussion on whether kids are becoming violent is absurd. This happens in all the schools but they don’t get the gun. Most children enjoy WWF, it is the adults who encourage these need be questioned. I recall when I was in fourth or fifth (in delhi) there was a kid who was unfortunate to have Padua as his surname. We used to call him padhu. So every time anyone farts in the class they used to beat him up (I too joined sometimes). Just like that. It might seem funny but in retrospect I am extremely distressed (photo from Net children 'playing' with toy guns).