the new format of cricket has hit the screens since yesterday and all the players are clamouring for a spot in the team and all advertisers are clamouring for a spot in the breaks... though what made them go for the shorter version of the game is anybody's guess; according to a PnP theory the higher the urgency in a task, the better your results turns out. ok sorry no more gas, but at least in this current raw format i don't like it...
it reminded me of our limited overs cricket matches we used to have during our school days in our apartment complex... we had a small open space abt 50m by 40m area covered with thick bushes and weeds among the neglected coconut tree saplings planted by our colony welfare association during some emotional independence day or republic day event... anyways wot matters was we had a decent open space to play cricket... and we had a small pitch where we could play throw-matches - as in there was no run-up-bowling, but just stand at the bowler's end and throw (as in no complete arc bowling action) to the batsmen... of course we had variety bowlers under-arm over-arm leg-spin off-spin off-break leg-break hand-break jaw-break anything... and depending on the condition of the pitch - where the gardner had suddenly decided to irrigate the coconut saplings and on which area on the pitch the excess water had accumulated we used to have the runs allocation - if you hit on the leg-side you get normal runs and on the on-side you get "Gs" meaning you dint have to run for the run but instead it was just granted... and ofcourse if and when you hit a nearby window you could be declared out depending on the time that had elapsedd since the last time the tenant in that house had shouted curses and threatened to put a fullstop to our play by escalating it in the association meetings... so we batsmen could weild our willows and play within the constraints of space and place the ball cunningly so that we got the maximum "gage" (meaning maximum batting time at the crease) without getting out...
however, beyond all this what never changed were the boundaries... the locations could change depending on whether that day's puddle patch favoured a leg-side or on-side scoring, but a boundary was always the compound wall surrounding the "cricket ground"... you just needed to be lucky to hit them through the narrow trajectories through the network of saplings and grinning faces of the fielders peering in between from some of the gaps. and lucky to hit the boundary wall without the ball going out of the compound because apart from the probability that the ball could be written off due to inaccessible ditches and cranky neighbors you also got out... "6+out" was the rule and you would feel like that sure century had been cheated out of you... and since we are all lazy indians hitting boundaries without getting out was a skill that made you the most wanted player on the team... but it was largely a bowler's game as the bowlers could exploit the unevenness of the pitch and the control in the arm to suffocate the batsmen and finally getting them to make a mistake and get out...
and this was a game where seniority played a very important factor - not because of being the most experienced players on the team, but because you could easily bully the kids into giving them the bat afer getting "hurt-retired" (which was actually pronunciation corrupted and called “attetailed” and actually meant that you could get hurt if you didn’t retire); usually this bullying was not required either as we kids are usually pretty scared of the "annas" (big brothers) who used to tower over us and usually come home to let out the steam generated at their work or college on the poor little tennis ball, swearing away over even the simplest of things...
every evening after school one of us would start the process going around calling people shouting from the groundfloor to their balconies much to the irritation of the moms who would want us to study and finish our homework etc... then we would assemble and usually the most senior players would start building the teams carefully choosing the right mix so that the team would win in the designated number of overs (usually 8-10-15-20) and at the same time there would be the least resistance to the senior players playing the maximum gage... first to be picked up would be the senior players with whom the captains were comfy with (when u grow older some prejudices tend to grow with you)... second would be some special kids... the generally accepted norm was that the kids are less dependable to score runs, but then sometimes they would click and it is just impossible to get them out on "their days"... so such kind of "kids" were the second most prefered in the hierarchy... and then would come the last preferred pawns who would be blamed if the match went down while the captain got the praise for keeping faith on these players if they won...
i don't crib as i soon outgrew my status of being a new kid to that of a most wanted player to a senior player within about 6 years, and 6 yrs is quite a short time if you look at it as 6years and not convert it into number of days or hours which definitely makes it appear quite big... it was one of the most memorable times of my childhood where sometimes during the hols we used to even play some 5-6 hours non-stop till our moms came and dragged us away for lunch and other things; and then we would be back at the ground to play until nightfall and the batsmen could not even see the arm of the bowler, in a vain attempt to disprove haisenberg’s uncertainty principle trying guess momentum and position of the ball simultaneously... this kind of play within the constraints to a very large extent did give me a confidence to play on the school team and even impress my coach with my defense strokes (learnt mainly to survive the one-pitch-catch funda)... and then of course the cross between the full power driven pull and the timed sweep shots that we used to play to land the boundary hits helped us to hit out to unexpecting fielders where it would fall just short or just beyond them and score those extra runs... and best of all it gave us a good do-your-best-and-dont-care-about-the-result attitude when we used to swing away at the ball with eyes closed putting all responsibility on god to keep our stumps safe...
which does bring me back to the T-20 that i happened to witness between SA and WI... for a moment it looked like the windies have shaken the ghosts of their past and were once again coming out to be the first to excel in the new format of the game like they did in tests and one-dayers... gayle seemed to be working out a gale and was just sending every damn ball to the fence - tearing through the ground or the air depending on what level of respect he had for the bowler... and for a time it looked as if the windies had definitely perfected the technique for winning this game and that their strategies had made an optimal consideration of the rules and had stretched and pulled them so that within these boundaries they could score as many boundaries as possible... for a moment i thought i was wrong in assuming that it resembled the cricked we used to play during those younger days and that it was a largely bowler dependant game where the batsmen were only intent on swinging away, praying with their eyes closed hoping that wood would connect with leather and send it rolling to the ropes...
but then i was right (as usual)... with gayle's strength running out he finally succumbed to fatigue and gave the ball to the fielder instead of the spectators... then the rest of the gang followed soon spending as little time as the bowlers would take to bowl a good ball to send them packing... gayle had just clicked before he finally croaked and the rest of the windies (who are not underdogs without a reason) followed suit. and then the SA's, obviously a set of better rated batsmen, proved more trustworthy and the underperforming windie bowlers failed to capitalize on a bowler friendly strategy for the game... i am not commenting on the indian team as yet, but then the "annas" of the team are not there to bully the youngsters, so i hope they at least have unconstrained fun...
i don't say i hate the format... i am not a cricketing expert to comment on the performance of the players too... in fact i wont even say that i could have scored at a better rate at my old cricket ground... the game is in it infancy and the players need to understand the spirit of the game before entering the ground with a "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" attitude... cricket is a gentleman's game and the game can be played that way even in the new format... just lofting the bowlers high up and praying that the ball finds the hands of the spectator rather than a fielder's can be interesting for a short time, but in the long run you want to watch the elegant strokes of timing the ball to the fence...
probably this is how the ardent supporters of test cricket felt when one-dayers were introduced... and when the number of balls in an over was reduced from 8 to 6... probably they felt that the new format was totally against the spirit of the game... but with time things changed... now i cannot sit and watch a 5 day test match... i simply don't have the patience... maybe soon i would lose my patience with the one-dayers too... i think i just need a little more time to adjust to their shorter time durations... till then I will accept the cheerleaders…
