The India- Pakistan cricket series begins on Friday. I want to start a new series called ‘Prabhakar would have said’ and review each game in memory of my late coach V. Prabhakar, who died in an accident four years ago. An immensely talented player, Prabhakar worked at and played for the Mysore based Ideal Jawa Company, which made the Jawa and Yezdi motorcycles. As kids and young men, we were huge fans of both the rugged, sturdy, handsome Jawa Roadking motorcycles and the aggressive cricket played by the Jawa cricket team. With their ‘don’t care’ attitude, Prabhakar and his team often created panic among the Bangalore based State Bank of Mysore teams, which were filled with Indian stars such as Gundappa Viswanath. The company closed in the late 80s but the motorcyles and the cricketing lessons Jawa cricketers taught us can be seen in Mysore even today. Prabhakar’s methods were simple and based on much common sense as well as cricketing intelligence. Our cricketers would be well served to follow his methods and well, let us see how well they do. I obviously will not get to see much action but Sepoy and I will venture out to Baba’s or Zaiqa to watch at least a couple of games.
Greg Chappell, the new Indian coach and the man Bengalis have come to hate (which makes me suspect he must be doing something right!), seems to be slowly realizing what is expected of him but also the enormity of the series:
“I don’t think you can appreciate just how big this [series against Pakistan] is unless you experience it first hand. If you took the Ashes and multiplied it by a thousand, you might get some idea. From a cricket playing point of view, it’s probably not that much different to the Ashes. But from a peripheral perspective - the media, the fans, the political implications - there is nothing like this series in the world.”
Alex Brown has a feature on Greg Chappell and his controversial coaching tenure thus far. A levelheaded, pragmatic guy, who once even ordered his brother Trevor to bowl underarm, Chappell isn’t usually given to hyperboles but even he, with all his exposure to Indian cricket, hadn’t realized the complexity of his job. Chappell and Dravid are the new team to guide India in this series and beyond. It would be interesting to see what kind of cricketing culture they would manage to create in the Indian dressing room.
Apart from politics and diplomacy, India-Pakistan cricket is also about vast amounts of money. We all know that India has become the financial center of world cricket, thanks to the vast following of the game. Even then the new numbers that we hear are quite scary: the new clothing sponsorship deal that BCCI signed with NIKE is worth 60 million dollars and is the richest in sports history, greater than that of all the European soccer gaints. Emboldened by its stature, BCCI as usual is challenging ICC over cricket programming, but then what’s new? It’s just that big cricket powers like Australia are prepared to play ball since that’s how they can maximize revenue.
Others play 20-20 cricket, which at twenty overs per side, will get over in Baseball style within three hours. England seems to be more serious about this new innovation, since that’s how it can keep the interest of youngsters in the game. England even wants to hold a 20-20 world cup. The reaction in Australia in the wake of the game earlier this week between Australia and South Africa has been quite positive. Here is what two guys said:
“All I know is that when I told my girlfriend it would only be three hours she agreed to come.”
“This is the first cricket match my wife has ever come to, and she loved it.”
Columnist Peter Roebuck declared recently: It was a blur but I have seen the future. Read the entire story here. If Damien Martyn, the most classical of batsmen, opens the batting and scores 97 from 56 balls as he did in that game, I think, this form can’t be all that bad. But I still want to watch a test match quietly and enjoy the slow, steady battle between bat and ball, not the bang, bang cricket, in which bowling a dot ball itself is a crime. For the paying public, which has come to see sixers and fours, I mean!
Finally, let us end with soccer, with a story from the English Premier League. A soccer fan collected 25,000 pounds after wagering 200 pounds that Liverpool star Xabi Alonso would score from his own half. Weird and good things do happen, if you are willing to bet on them.
Read the story here
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