Far Pavilions

Giving umpires a break

2005-06-02T11:16:00.000+10:00

Much has been written on how the new rules with soccer-style substitutions will improve or worsen the one-day game. The only change that ICC has come up with on umpiring is to have additional technology aids to help the umpires get more decisions right. Srinivas, a friend and reader of this blog, writes in:

I heard something interesting during the recent India-Pakistan series coverage on Fourth Umpire (the much maligned program in Doordarshan hosted by Charu Sharma and Srikanth, not the new blog that Rahul Bhatia has introduced his readers to). An idea came from a smart Indian cricket fan during the discussion. “Except for New Zealand and England where the weather is mostly cool, umpires are stressed due to the heat and the stressful situations of the game. There are instances when umpires have displayed poor form from one match to another or within 5 days of a test match. Why can't umpires work as a team? Perhaps, for a test match, we could have a team of four umpires who rotate every session. This can also include the third umpire.”

Simon Taufel and Billy Bowden have been unhappy with technology interventions diminishing their role in the game. Perhaps they will be happier to have more personnel from their fraternity assisting them. To me this at least ensures that the chance of cricketers and cricket fans being anguished by Bucknor-like, decisions is likely to be reduced that bit more.

Rubbishing the East

2005-05-24T09:37:00.000+10:00

The first plastic cup made its way to the floor by 11 AM. After some cheering and clapping, two more cups bearing the logo Victoria Bitter tottered to the floor, slightly imbalanced, like those who had drained them. Diversity was soon added. Paper bags containing discarded remains of fat and slimy Potato Planks here. Some plastic ice-cream wrappers there. At the end of the first day's play at the MCG, I looked around and noted at how the concrete footsteps were padded with assorted litter.

However, when I returned the next day to see day 2 of the test match, I was surprised to see no traces whatsoever of the garbage-carnage.

The western world is often disgusted with the filth they see in the developing or under-developed world. Some are even moved to philosophise on it. Scott Seligman, an American, has this to say on the Chinese in his book Chinese Business Etiquette

Relatives, friends, neighbours, classmates, co-workers are all people to whom one bears some form of obligation. No obligation is felt to those outside of ones circle, which explains the paucity of philanthropy in China and the tendency of people to show little respect for public property or commonly held property.
Apartment dwellers in China may live in lovely flats, but the stairwells and hallways resemble those of a New York tenement dark, dirty and generally not maintained. In Taiwan, you can tell there has been a day off by the amount of litter strewn in public parks. The near total lack of civic responsibility, to my mind is explainable by the circle theory, because appropriate civic behaviour requires a respect for others outside of the circle something that is rare indeed in China.

If my experience at the MCG and elsewhere is any indicator, our basic nature of not caring for public property is not too different across cultures. What differentiates the West is the willingness and ability to correct the consequences of the littering not always littering in itself.

Recently, Australian visitors to Gallipoli the Turkish city where several Australians, New Zealanders and Indian soldiers lost their lives in a futile war launched by Britain - were accused of desecrating the site of the ANZAC day event with litter. However, the Australian Prime Minister John Howard went on to defend the behaviour of the ANZAC day visitors by asking the critics to compare the litter on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour after New Year's Eve celebrations.

John Howard is pragmatic. Correcting human behaviour is never easy. Managing waste collection is. Back home, the parts of Chennai covered by Onyx, a private waste collection operator, are visibly cleaner than before.

Till such time as we evolve from relying on inefficient municipalities, we'll have to endure these East vs. West theories!

Tales from a neighbour

2005-05-19T15:09:00.000+10:00

"India se ho bhai?" greeted the taxi driver who was assigned to me at the Sydney airport taxi rank. I was running late and developing familiarity with a patronising driver was the last thing I was looking forward to. "Mai Pakistan se hoon ji. Mera naam Ali hai". My anxiousness didn't dull the raconteur in the man. The roads were clogged with rush-hour traffic. The anxiety of tardiness soon mellowed, giving way to banter.

Ali expressed his undisguised glee at the recent success of Inzi's men in India. Not content with being one-up, he quickly switched topics to enquire why Jayalalitha was as popular as she is. That stumped me -- not the fact that he knew of Amma -- but indeed, why is she popular? I couldn't provide a convincing sociological hypothesis in response to that question, but then, he wasn't looking for one. He was merely intrigued by the film stars who chose politics as part of their career path: Sunil Dutt, Govinda, Hema Malini.

Ali then reminisced about his 15 years in Australia in about 15 seconds. The commitment to home and togetherness of the family was what he thought made us distinct from the westerner. In an endearing Punjabi drawl, he got nostalgic about the various occasions that bind families "Wahan tho shaddi hoti hai, bacche hote hain, koi marta hai -- kuch na kuch hote rahta hai".

That sentiment is not something that I always value and I was beginning to worry that Ali would decry everything Australian and eulogise everything from home, as many immigrants do here. To my relief, he showed more balance. He resented government officials who unfailingly sought pomp when they used the roads, much to the inconvenience of the masses. Ali was critical about how roads were washed thoroughly in preparation for the burial of Musharraf’s father – especially when roads are never cared for in other times.

In his last tale, he recounted that he was once sent to pick up a passenger named Howard in the suburb of Kiribilli in Sydney. After getting through armed guards at the house of his passenger, it turned out that his pick-up was the son of the Prime Minister John Howard. Ali asked the young Howard why he didn’t use his dad’s car. The bemused passenger told him that his dad’s car was only for official use.

Ali turned to me and asked if I could imagine this happening in India or Pakistan. Yeah, right. I can just about picture Sasikala haggling with a Chennai auto driver as he drops her off at Poes Garden.

Public Transport: From Mumbai to Melbourne

2005-05-18T21:00:00.000+10:00

In Melbourne, complaints abound that the city is getting more and more impersonal. This is often a complaint against Mumbai as well. However, a couple of events made me realize that Melbourne is no Mumbai.

Two commuters in Melbourne were indignant that no one came to their aid when they were confronted by a bag-snatcher. This, when there were about 50 people witnessing the lone snatcher in action. Something like this is unlikely to happen in Mumbai. In the two years I lived in Mumbai, I have seen occasions when passengers vent their day-to-day frustrations by raining merciless blows on pick-pockets who are unfortunate enough to be caught.

The other event made me wish that Mumbai would take a lesson from Melbourne. As I stepped into a tram one morning, the journey began with this reassuring announcement from the driver:

Good morning passengers. This is the 7:30AM tram service to St. Kilda. Unlike other tram drivers, I am accessible to all passengers. If you are unsure about your stop, please come and see me before you make a mistake.

Passengers with delicate constitutions should be aware that this tram might swerve dangerously around curves and can reach top speeds of 20kmph. You are advised to close your eyes and pray if you have a fear of speed.

During the course of our journey it is likely that the tram may go off the rails and come to rest against the nearest available object. In such an event, there is a real possibility that our destination might be severely altered. Please wait until the tram comes to a complete rest before getting off.

I am sure Mumbai could use drivers with such a sense of humour.

On second thoughts, if train drivers were to make such an announcement in a Mumbai local, the harried passengers are likely to take the announcements seriously and rain blows on him.

Pop and Pope

2005-05-18T10:41:00.000+10:00

In Australia, the most popular religion is the religion of Sport. Then again, there is only that much worshipping you can do of sportsmen and women. So the news that Kylie Minogue has been diagnosed with breast cancer , is now keeping Australia's newspapers and TV channels breathless. One certainly wishes Kylie a speedy recovery from the dreaded ailment. However, nine stories on the pop diva in today's local Herald Sun seems a bit over the top. As a colleague pointed out, even the present pope and his predecessor didn't make as much news in the last month.

Thorpe's oil slick

2005-05-03T21:03:00.000+10:00

Tamil movie followers have long worshipped their stars with fanatic fan clubs. Just when I thought I had escaped the fan club culture by shifting to Melbourne, I come across a cloying fan website for Ian Thorpe.

With 'Thorpedo' taking a break from competitive swimming till the Beijing Olypics, his newly styled hair made news.

Melbourne's evening tabloid Mx reports that most callers to a local radio station gave the new hairstyle a thumbs down. One caller suggested that George Bush had ordered an invasion of Thorpe's hair--to take control of the oil.

Watching the bulldogs bite, hearing the bulldogs roar

2005-04-25T22:09:00.000+10:00

Saturday evening was the chosen date for my initiation into footy, the religion of Australia.

John, a friend and a genial supporter of Western Bulldogs, enlisted my wife and me to cheer his team in their match against Adelaide Crows at the Telstra Dome. The Telstra Dome incidentally, is a temperature controlled indoor stadium which will also be the venue for the 3 one-day matches between Australia and the ICC World XI in October.

Before I went to the match, I did my homework by spending 10 seconds of quality search time on Google to learn the footy rules. 18 players from each side try to kick an oblong ball between two of four goalposts on the opposite side.

Here are two enticing excerpts from a website that gives a light-hearted primer to the game:

No guns, knives, chains or baseball bats. Biting and kicking is punished. No tackling below the waist or above the shoulders. Other than that ... go for it!
High-leaping marks can be taken by climbing onto another player's back before catching the ball. If a player drops such a mark, a free kick is often paid to the player who was climbed upon. Basically this is to compensate for the inconvenience of having a 90-100 kg man jumping all over your back.

Footy, John informed me, is over 125 years old and was invented as a means to the keep the cricketers fit during the winter. These days, footy captures the imagination of Australia's youngsters as no other game does.

To me, a few things stood out about this amazing game:

The supporters
The 16 teams competing for the annual premiership come with a huge band of supporters who have stayed with the club (or its older forms) for generations. John's grandparents were supporters of this club and he now carries on the mantle. The supporters spend several hundred dollars a year in membership fees and invest considerable time and effort in travelling to various venues to cheer their team -- irrespective of how well or poorly their team performs. The Bulldogs, for example, last won the premiership in 1954. The followers may not always like the performance of some its players, but that doesn’t diminish their loyalty to the club.
In comparison, I think of the investment that most people make in following cricket. Often, it is little more than paying for a ticket to a match venue. The involvement is never as deep. It is a lot easier to criticise a team and stay away from supporting it in times of poor performance when you are not as involved.

Crowd behaviour
John, who has also spent two years in the UK, observed that the footy crowd is pretty well-behaved. He said, "In soccer, where the game is not as quick as footy, the crowd has the time to behave badly. In footy, you are so engrossed with the quick action in the field that there is no time for animosity between opposing fans". Quite true. Crowd-related problems are almost unheard of in footy matches. The MCG doesn’t have such a clean image with crowd behaviour when it hosts cricket these days.

The egalitarianism
The team that finishes at the bottom of the ladder is said to take the metaphorical 'wooden spoon' (It is not clear why or how the term came about). The good news for the wooden spoon team is that it has the choice of picking the best emerging talent to play for its team the following year. That way you don’t have one club dominating the game for a very long time.
I liked this idea a lot. I mentioned later to my wife, "Imagine if the ICC ensured that Nathan Bracken, Stuart McGill and Brad Hodge would play for Bangladesh. It would then take lesser time for Bangladesh to get their test victories against recognised teams". My wife gave me a dazed look. I think I impressed her with my insight and intelligence.

P.S. To John's delight, the Bulldogs won the game.

Ad, sound and vision-free TV

2005-04-20T09:28:00.000+10:00

Sometime back Rahul Bhatia, in an article in Cricinfo wrote of his frustrations in watching a viewer-unfriendly cricket telecast through Doordarshan. While watching cricket on Doordarshan is possibly an angst filled experience, in recent times, watching the performance of the Indian team on the field has been even more depressing. Either way, pleasing its viewers may continue to be an elusive dream for Doordarshan.

However, there is now a proven technique for Doordarshan to improve its viewership ratings. It only needs to take a leaf out of the books of Channel 7, an Australian TV channel.

Last Wednesday, a power failure at their broadcast centre forced Channel 7 to show a blank screen for 48 minutes during prime time (9pm onwards). In spite of telecasting nothing, the channel had at least 88,000 fans glued to the screen seeing the "ad, sound and vision-free offering". This even helped them beat the viewership ratings on SBS, another national channel. Using Dibertian logic, the blank screen is evidently an improvement over the regular programs.

Now, this technique has even been borrowed effectively by Kiruba on his blog. I do like Kiruba's posts that cover a wide range of entertaining and unlikely topics. Today, I visited his site to look for new posts -- only to be greeted by a completely blank white screen. And I have gone to his blog four times since then to see the blank screen. If ardent readers of his blog have been doing likewise, it might turn out that Kiruba's site meter shows the highest ever hit rate he has had!

Ghost Rider

2005-04-18T15:07:00.000+10:00

My office is located in Southbank, a shopping and office precinct on the banks of the river Yarra. This morning I discovered that Flinders walk, one of the two bridges that connect Southbank to the Flinders Street train station across the river, is shut for the next four days. Four massive cranes are surrounding the bridge. No construction work here though. The bridge has been cordoned off to accommodate the shooting of some scenes for Ghost Rider, a movie starring Nicholas Cage. The cranes are positioned, presumably, to take overview shots. It is unlikely that many will catch a glimpse of Cage running across the bridge over this week, all of the shooting is scheduled for late evening. A peek into the story of Ghost Rider gathered from a movie site makes for interesting reading:

Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) has a dark secret - he is the Ghost Rider - who can grab you and force you to re-live tenfold all the sins you have perpetuated in your life… if there are too many sins, you'll burn up and incinerate.

Extending the caveat from sins to other follies such as incompetence makes for some interesting possibilities in the real world. Among various scenarios, one such thought stood out for me:
Imagine Steve Bucknor reliving some of his own decisions by taking the place of Tendulkar at the crease. He is successively and repeatedly being given out
- LBW for shouldering a ball clearly missing the stumps
- caught behind for leaving with light passing between the bat and ball

Perhaps Bucknor would rather just burn up and incinerate?

The underarm problem

2005-04-09T23:31:00.000+10:00

Australia and New Zealand tend to think that their rivalry, at least in sports, is quite similar to that between India and Pakistan. I am not convinced it has the intense love-hate relationship that India and Pakistan share, but an event that caused a severe strain on the trans-Tasman relationship is the well-known underarm bowling incident.

For those not in the know, here’s the story. In the 1980-1981 World Series cup, New Zealand needed six runs off the last delivery to tie the third one-day match final against Australia. The Australian captain, Greg Chappell, instructed his brother, Trevor, to bowl underarm to the batsman and squash any chance of a New Zealand stealing the glory. Trevor bowled to the plan, with the batsman defending the rolling delivery. The bitterness that ensued was unprecedented. Even Robert Muldoon, the then prime minister of New Zealand, had acrimonious words to say, and it would be years before Greg Chapell would be forgiven.

But, more than 2 decades later, it appears the incident is still fresh in the Kiwi memory.

Sometime last year, an Australian executive travelled to New Zealand and was welcomed with the slightly unexpected gift of a deodorant. Imagine his consternation when he saw the inscription on the card:

"For help with the Australian underarm problem."

Leading the men and lagging with form

2005-04-06T15:18:00.000+10:00

Comparing Mark Taylor and Sourav Ganguly

When you think of how test cricket has been rejuvenated from the lethargic pace of the game in the early 90's to the more result-oriented contests in recent times, Mark Taylor and his team of prodigious performers should rightfully be credited for leading this revolution. With an imposing stature in physique and fortitude, Taylor was a cricketing Gorbachev, bringing in a much needed perestroika to the wan world of international test cricket. In a time when most teams idly contemplated compiling large scores over many days and looking at individual records as ends in themselves, Taylor brought back a forgotten tradition of dominating the opposition—often overwhelming them—with a scorching scoring rate, wicket-hunting field settings and a relentless pursuit of victory for his team.

In a different setting, India, reeling from the woes of the match-fixing scandal of 2000, found just the right man to rebuild its fortunes. With many stars in its batting galaxy and a comet-like bunch of inconsistent bowlers, the threat of implosion for the Indian cricket team could never have been greater than in the new millennium. In came Sourav Ganguly. A man who favoured the off-side with his willow and showed no favouritism to his players for their mother tongue or city of origin. Ganguly revolutionised the way cricket was played and talent was chosen at the national level. However, his most significant contribution over the last few years has been in channelising the energies of individual stars to produce winning results like no other Indian captain.

Taylor and Ganguly have both been talented southpaws. Both have drawn respect for their astute leadership. Both have also had criticisms levelled against them. Taylor was accused of being parsimonious in sharing the credit for his team’s success with his team-mates. Ganguly's ‘attitude’ has caused consternation to opposition and administrators alike. Of late, Ganguly has also drawn another dubious similarity he would rather not have—leading his team through a personal form slump.

From December 1995 to March 1997, Taylor led Australia through 13 tests without a century and a batting average 25.54. An opening batsman, he had an unmemorable time scoring all but two 50s in this 16 month period. What helped him survive through this phase was victories in 8 of those 13 test matches. He didn’t strive for many draws--he lost the other five matches.

For Ganguly, after the knock of 144 in Brisbane, which set the tempo of the classic 2003-2004 series against Australia, the 13 matches that followed for him has yielded 580 runs at a personal batting average of 32.22. Ganguly has had three 50s in this 16 month period. 6 of the 13 matches during Ganguly's poor run with the bat have resulted in victories, although two of those victories came against Bangladesh. Of the remaining seven, three have resulted in losses and four were drawn.

Taylor broke through his slump in form with a 2nd innings century in the opening test of the 1997 Ashes tour in June in Birmingham. After that effort, he went on to score 4 more centuries, the biggest of them being an unbeaten triple-century against Pakistan at Peshawar. The Peshawar match was made memorable by Taylor for his brilliant knock and also for a more old-fashioned gesture. Not wanting to surpass the highest test score of 334 by Don Bradman, Taylor chose to respectfully declare when he reached that same figure. Taylor retired in 1999 at the age of 34, leaving his team and personal form in a state of high, and passing on the mantle to his worthy successor, Steve Waugh.

Many of Ganguly's contributions to Indian cricket are not easily measured. Improving the team morale, identifying and nurturing talent, cutting down team politics--in these intangibles, Ganguly's contributions stand taller than that of most other Indian players of any era. One hopes that he will resurrect his personal form as Taylor did. It would be an unedifying sight to see the Prince of Kolkata leave the test arena with the batting form of a pauper.

The F1 experience

2005-03-23T18:22:00.000+11:00

If the sporting scene in India was made into a Bollywood movie, cricket would be the hero and every other sport would be reduced to bit roles. If Sania Mirza’s gutsy exploits on court are making a case for tennis to get its share of glory, Narain Karthikeyan’s debut at the Melbourne Grand Prix and his improved performance at Sepang has shifted the spotlight to the F1 circuit. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone must be mighty pleased with Karthikeyan for almost single-handedly propelling F1 racing into becoming a more well-known sport in India.

Getting excited about the Melbourne Grand Prix is de rigueur for a Melburnian...as is getting excited about the Melbourne cup horse racing, Boxing day test match, the Australian Open, and most inexcusable of all events to not be excited about - the Footy Grand Final. Not having followed motor sports before, I was merely looking at another opportunity to wear my patriotism on my sleeve and cheer an Indian. I had after all gained some experience in doing this duty diligently for Sania Mirza in her encounter with Serena Williams - but we'll leave that for another post.

With a pass to the pit exit suites, theoretically among the better seats in the arena, I made my way to the Albert Park for the first qualifying race. All around the seating areas, giant TV screens project the race with an accompaniment of excitable commentators. In terms of sound clarity, the commentary was a few shades better than the Indian railway station announcements (I am certain there is a circular somewhere in the Indian Railways asking announcers to confound listeners by muffling the microphones with grimy hankies).

The races began shortly. Each car would leave the pits, make appropriate gear changes and leave behind noises of ear shattering mini explosions. I kept an eye out for the yellow and black Jordan cars and also for those who were rumoured to be the best-in-the-business: occupants of the two red Ferraris. Unfortunately, the best view that I could get of any car was a streak of colours as they screamed by doing their laps. Even getting a glimpse of their numbers to distinguish Shcumacher from Barichello or Karthikeyan from his team-mate Tiago Monteiro proved impossible. The only recourse to make sense of the race was to view the TV screens. In all the noise, following the commentary posed additional challenges. In about 15 minutes, every effort to follow the blur of colours as they passed from one side to another was met with a protest of pain developing in the neck. Cheering for anyone in this circus was as effective as a melting an iceberg with a matchstick.

That experience decided it for me. F1 is a sport better followed from the comfort of TV at home. You get to see the driver's relative position on the grid, details of the gear he is in, when he is accelerating and innumerable other statistics. And the commentary is audible. I could almost understand the excitement that the race generates. But, it is clearly not a spectator sport.

Unless your idea of F1 sport spectating is to ogle at the grid girls.

The Great Indian colonial hangover

2005-03-23T18:00:00.000+11:00

"When do you think an Indian boy will represent Australia in cricket?" asked a person from a gathering of Indian cricket fans to the amiable Peter Roebuck. This was at an informal gathering after the boxing day test match last December. The venue was a North Indian restaurant in Melbourne. Roebuck had agreed to come over and chat up with the cricket enthusiasts from the local Indian diaspora that evening. The AU$10 buffet for a moderately lavish spread was good enough an inducement to get away from the chore of churning up dinner for the evening. Add to that, a couple of hours of blissful cricket chat with one of the hottest contemporary cricket writers, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Roebuck answered the Indian-boy-in-Australian-team question with aplomb and rightly suggested that the Indian diaspora needed to answer that question themselves. To me, this question and a quite a few of the others that followed, seemed to carry a recurring underlying theme. The theme was one of seeking recognition for the Great Indians and Indianness from a foreigner of standing.

In 8 months of moving to Melbourne and reading their local newspapers, I got an orthogonal sense of recognition-seeking behaviour by the Australians. Australia is a country that derives large amounts of self-esteem from its sporting achievements. The 8 page sports section in the weekend edition of the local broadsheets is a good indicator of that. What you notice as you read through this section is how inward-looking the Australians can be. The local newspapers carry reports on cricket matches not involving Australia, with about the same frequency that George Bush has words of praise for Saddam Hussein. When Australia is not involved, only a landmark event like Lara regaining the highest test score record with a 400, or Tendulkar scoring his 10,000th run in test cricket can merit a few inches of column space.

This led me to ask Roebuck a question related to this phenomenon –Indian newspapers have a trend of seeking foreign columnists and members of the opposing team to write pieces during an ongoing series –a trend that you never see in the Australian newspapers (time for them to take a cue from the Guardian in UK, which features excellent reports from Amit Varma on the India-Pakistan series). So the question –Is the Indian trend to be construed as an increasing broad-mindedness for a foreign view? Or, is it the remnants of a colonial hangover that we haven’t been able to shake off?

Roebuck had a view on this which probably covers an arena larger than sports. He observed that he too had witnessed this phenomenon. When in India, he recounted instances where his views were sought on every little thing –to the point of being intrigued on why he would be considered an expert on every topic. In that, he felt that Australia had had a similar pattern of kow-towing to the English for many years. He suggested that prolonged success breeds a self-esteem that makes you less dependant on approbation from outsiders. Roebuck was of the view that Australia has long gained that confidence over the last decade and if anything, India was well on its way there. Economic success has made India a place for professionals from all industries -including that of sports, to make a mark. In a reversal of trend, he thought it was the foreign experts –in their quest to make a name for themselves, that were beating a path to India for assignments.

That may not have been an observation of the greatest profundity, but if any such session in future has an audience less insecure of their origins, India is certainly making progress.

Australia & Cricket –An Indian view

2005-03-21T10:18:00.000+11:00

With a population of 20 million -about the same as that of Mumbai and Chennai together, Australia claimed 49 medals in the 2004 Olympics -the 4th highest tally behind USA, China and Russia. The medals came in a wide array of events including swimming, cycling, hockey, basketball, softball, tennis, rowing and athletics. If kabaddi were to get enlisted in the next Olympics, you can be certain that the antipodes would set up an academy and the professional support structure to notch up a medal in that event.

And yet, the sport that evokes passions and following like no other in Melbourne is a very local sport that goes by the name 'footy' – short for Australian Rules Football. A stunned outsider watching a game of footy described the mayhem in the name of sport as a “mixture of rugby, soccer and a bar room brawl”. Only a handful of teams play this game outside of Melbourne. Nevertheless, footy matches regularly fill up the capacious Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) with ease and undoubtedly plays a big hand in the financial viability of cricket in that hallowed ground.

Given the wide range of sports being followed, and the unending stream of success they produce, it is a wonder that cricket continues to prosper in Australia. If anything cricket clearly continues to be Australia's sole claimant for the status of a national sport. There is a set cricket structure for children right from the age of 5 which is accessible to every child. The innumerable cricket clubs across the country welcome new members and play local league matches over Saturdays. Support infrastructure is boosted by state associations which facilitate umpiring classes and multiple coaching classes across the suburbs.

Unlike in India, the first class cricket league is well followed by the locals. The one day league of ING cup is telecast over a free to air channel and has a following that makes you fondly wish for Ranji trophy to showcase its importance as smartly. Consider this -a frustrated Brett Lee after months of carrying the drinks in test cricket was so keen to join his state team –New South Wales (NSW) for the 4 day Pura cup final, that he considered chartering a flight from Christchurch to Brisbane through friends. The dominance of the national team in world cricket evokes debates in Australia on how the sport is becoming boring. The hubris of some of the current Australian cricket heroes irks many a local. The Australian cricket team can never garner as ardent a local following as the Indian cricket team. Yet, cricket evokes the collective pride of Australia. Don Bradman continues to be the most revered entity among their legion of sporting legends.

Bill Bryson in his entertaining travel book on Australia –“Down Under” concludes his typically American views of Australians playing cricket thus: “…the mystery of cricket is not that Australians play it well, but that they play it at all. It has always seemed to me a game much too restrained for the rough-and-tumble Australian temperament. Australians prefer games in which brawny men in scanty clothing bloody each other’s noses. I am quite certain that if the rest of the world vanished overnight and the development of cricket was left in Australian hands, within a generation the players would be wearing shorts and using the bats to hit each other…And the thing is, it would be a much better game for it.”

Maybe so, but right now, nothing will stop Australia from doing what they do well -enjoy and play good cricket at all levels.