Lal-it isn't about cricket

I watched with amazement all the hoopla and hype surrounding the IPL.

Few stray thoughts.

That IPL is a pensioner's paradise. How do you explain the decisions of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne to come out of retirements and opting to play in a grueling schedule? I read a news item where Mathew Elliot (remember him—he last played for Australia a decade ago) and Michael Kaspprowicz have reportedly agreed to play in the IPL. Look at the retirements over the last couple of months—Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Pollock! You do not need to be an Einstein to infer. They said T20 is a young man's game!

That Ganguly, Laxman, Dravid, and Tendulkar are captains of the respective teams. Laxman was discarded from the Indian team in the 50-over format some four years back because he was considered 'slow.' A month back, Ganguly and Dravid were dropped from the Indian 50-over team because their ageing limbs cannot cover the big grounds in Australia. What it tells you is that you may be unfit to play for your country but the same people (who think so) will call you to lead teams in a format where your limbs may even break! It is like withdrawing ageing boxers from the World welterweight championships, but they are found good enough to be part of the Super heavyweight category but at the provincial level!

That no player will talk about too much cricket now. I remember Tendulkar complaining to the media how tightly packed schedules were not helping his tired body. What will he say now? What if he says, "I have just finished a grueling IPL. I don't think I can tour Sri Lanka." What will the selectors say? Will they cry foul? When was the last time a Chief Selector looked at the scheduling and said 'enough is enough?' M/S Vengsarkar & Co., interesting times ahead!

That the IPL management (comprising of Lalit Modi, Lalit Modi, and Lalit Modi) managed to get the likes of Tom Moody, John Buchanan, Greg Chappell, and Martin Crowe to be in charge of the teams. You will wonder if it was the same board that struggled to even find a list of people to call for the Indian coach's job. In fact, the BCCI made such a monkey (not a racist slur—we worship Hanuman!) of itself that it called two candidates, one who had suspect credentials (of coaching South Africa) and the other whose name was added to make it look like a list! Now, the glitterati are coming to India. The Adelaide curator is also coming to create nice cricket wickets. Mr. Modi, couldn't you have done all this to the Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy, your premier tournaments. Wonder, what Lalu Rajput would be saying? "Mummy, I want a team too!"

That everybody from Ness Wadia to Shahrukh Khan is talking about Indian domestic cricket. No longer, will first-class cricketers be looked at as "domestic" helps (obviously pun intended!), so say the city club honchos. Therefore, you have a situation where money is splurged into a format that is not even the mainstream format. The players say that playing Tests for their countries is the ultimate thing! If that is the case, am I wrong to infer that the players will not play the IPL with that intensity? Can this imply that the quality of cricket will not be that great? In that case, why should I watch it? Rather, why should anyone watch it?

That everybody is gushing over how Anil Kumble will get to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar and that Brett Lee will finally have a go at Mathew Hayden and Ricky Ponting. They will only get a 4-over spell and that too in a format that has field restriction! Sorry, this does not work for me. Ask Kumble and he will tell you that he would rather bowl to Tendulkar with a slip and couple of others in close-in positions. Can his captain give him that luxury? I am not sure. So, is the Indian public short-changed again? You will probably see a heavyweight bout with one of the contender's arms tied up!

That I recently saw a news item where Channel Nine stopped telecast of a one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka. Increasingly, cricket administrators are finding it difficult to fill stadiums ( or find enough TV viewers) for neutral games. The Champions Trophy matches held in October 2006 in India, not featuring India, were played to empty stands. I asked myself," Will I go and watch Joginder Sharma bowl at Stephen Fleming?" (I hope they are not teamed together.) NOOOOOOOO! OK, where do I go and watch that happen? In an Indian stadium—we don't have a decent stadium! For years, cricket administrators have short-changed paying spectators by providing them with broken wooden chairs and leaky toilets in the cricket stadiums. Somebody screamed, "TV rights hai na." Last morning I asked my dhobi (who provides a daily analysis to the other support staff in my building on the day's cricket news),"IPL aa raha hai. Tum dekhoge?” "Nahin saab, ismein India kahaan hai? India ke match ho toh mazaa hai." I wished I had taped this and sent it to Lalit Modi.

The night ends and all that........

I watched Nishant last night. I had picked up the VCD over the weekend. What a movie! For the uninitiated, Nishant was directed by Shyam Benegal in the mid-70's. The story written by Vijay Tendulkar and set in 40’s is about four brothers who rule a village in Andhra Pradesh with an iron hand and then how a rebellion overthrows them in a super climax!

The movie has few standout points!

What an ensemble of talent! Naseeruddin Shah, Anant Nag, Mohan Agashe, Amrish Puri, Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, and Kulbushan Kharbanda light up the screen with their electric performances. None of them is wasted in the movie—that is a tribute to the maker. None of them tries to upstage the other in the movie. Even the unsung Sadhu Meher is brilliant in a cameo.

The movie takes you to that era—an era you will find it difficult to relate to if you have led sheltered lives in cities. If a book or a movie can take you to that era and through the story provide a social commentary of the times and the place, the job of the maker is done! This movie is no exception—it takes you to that era and you can relate to those characters, empathise with them and feel for them!

A case in point is a verbal exchange between Karnad, the schoolteacher whose wife has been kidnapped by the lecherous brothers and Kharbanda, the corrupt cop.
Kharbanda: Why do you want to register a complaint?
Karnad: Because she is my wife
Kharbanda: Even if she comes back, will she be your wife? Then why complaint?
(I felt like slapping the cop!)

There is another scene where the hostage, played by Azmi, begins to flex her muscles, much to the dislike of the wife, played by Patil. Shah, who is smitten by her, rushes to his elder brother, played by Puri, for a solution. The elder chieftain, with a deadpan expression, says, “Keep emotions out of a relationship. You already have a wife at home." Riveting stuff!

Two 'Shants' and few stray thoughts..........

I did not see the match yesterday. I do not follow one-day cricket—probably because I want a contest between bat and ball and one-day cricket is hopelessly loaded in favor of batsman. Anyways I switched on the TV set and followed the proceedings for an hour. I had to go for my Art of Living workshop—so I was out of touch! I saw the highlights in the evening and liked what I saw.

Few stray thoughts in Busybee’s style!
That it was the quickest bowling partnership, I had seen in my life. For the first time, I saw two Indian fast bowlers running in quick and bowling with fire! That was a watershed moment! Ram Guha felt that the opening over Kapil bowled to Sadiq Mohammed in 78-79 was a watershed moment. For the first time, an opening bowler forced the batsman on to the back foot so much so that Sadiq Mohammed was forced to give up his white Panama hat and put on a helmet! Non-violent Indian Attack, RIP! Yesterday, we went a notch higher. The two ‘Shants’ had me in delirium—they were bowling beautifully. Yes, quick bowling can be a treat to watch! Hope these people carry on!

That Rohit Sharma looks set to dominate the Indian batting lineup! You can sense a batsman’s class from his stride to the wicket, his stance, his poise, etc. In Rohit’s case, he has all that plus an unflappable temperament along with a hunger to do well against the best. What he must and he will is that he goes back to domestic cricket and converts all those starts into big hundreds—what the Fab Four did to break into the Indian team. He is speaking to the Little Master and I am sure it will rub off on him. It was evident yesterday when he collected his runs calmly, a sign of maturity. Yes, that was another watershed moment. We have found one replacement and we need three more!

That I saw Yuvraj fielding at mid-off, so what? He is our best fielder, so he must field at point. Says who? Then I watched closely! Hayden is batting and he loves to drive straight—he would be wary of Yuvraj at mid-off. He has to do something different—which he does—he goes for an expansive cover-drive and edges to Dhoni. Whoever thought of this field placement? That was so out-of-the-box! I looked at the whole dismissal closely—there was a plan! It told me that Dhoni and his men were becoming tactically shrewd. Maybe, this could be a watershed moment!

That Dhoni has emerged as a keeper of some merit on this tour! He showed that during the Test series and yesterday he reminded people of his glovework when he effected that stumping off Bhajji! What a dismissal? I am not completely sure about Dhoni the Captain! (Pathan as a pinch hitter was a shocker!) But yes, Dhoni, the keeper and Dhoni the reliable lower order batsman is something Indian cricket should be happy about. One thing the Indian cricket fans must accept is that Dhoni is not Viv Richards, when it comes to batting, he is at best Ravi Shastri, ugly, inelegant, at times dour, but effective! Like Shastri, there are only two gears in his batting, neutral and top! Therefore, people, lower your expectations and allow the man to be himself. His calming presence on the field as well as while batting is refreshing—another watershed moment?

What is a watershed moment? I seem to like the word. I quickly went to a dictionary Web site and looked at the meaning.

From Dictionary.com:
wa•ter•shed P Pronunciation Key (wôtr-shd, wtr-)
n.
A ridge of high land dividing two areas that are drained by different river systems. Also called water parting.
The region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.
A critical point that marks a division or a change of course; a turning point: "a watershed in modern American history, a time that... forever changed American social attitudes" (Robert Reinhold).

Why am I making all this a big deal? Am I getting over excited? Am I seeing ‘course-changing-critical points’ where there are none. You cannot find four such moments in a 100-over game. May be? May be not? I found four, probably because I was looking for them. Yes, Mr. Ponting, you may disagree with me, Indian cricket is moving forward and the results are heartwarming! Also, Pawar kaka and Lalitbhai, all this is pure serendipity!

Taare Zameen Par

Normally I look forward to an Aamir Khan movie! I have never wondered why! Probably it’s to do with the mystique surrounding the man—you’re not sure what to expect! Maybe, his releases happen once in two years that expectancy is naturally built.

Therefore, when Taare Zameen Par hit the screens, I was one of the earliest ones to book tickets and catch up the movie. This is not a review column—I shall not dwell on the movie per se.

When I came out of the movie hall, I had the following thoughts:

That Aamir Khan is a damn good director. The movie is his vehicle as a director and he has not done a bad job!

That Prasun Joshi will go and become another Gulzar (and Javed Akhthar of better times)! Some of the lines in the songs are so true! I don’t want to pick any favorite.

That Shahrukh Khan should learn a lesson or two from Aamir on how to use his stature to move away from his safety-first brand of cinema.

That movies like Taare Zameen Par (and Chak De India) worked because of great writing! The success of these movies must excite movie makers with great scripts to take the proverbial plunge. It’s not difficult to point out similarities between the two—unconventional heroes and no heroines.

That I will definitely see the movie again!

(P.S. I am writing this piece a month after I saw the movie.)

Model Champions, Eh!

I first saw John McEnroe play in the Match of the Century―Wimbledon 1980. It was that long ago. Those days we had a Dyanora (anybody?) B/W television set―that is not the point. I was hooked on to the game. More than that, John McEnroe became a personal favorite. He could do no wrong―his on-court misdemeanors did not matter to me―his presence on the court was all that mattered. Those days, Doordarshan showed only the Wimbledon final―so one looked forward to the annual McEnroe darshan.

Few years later, our school had invited some visiting American schoolteachers as part of some exchange program. During our tête-à-tête with the teachers, somebody asked, “Do kids in the U.S. look upto McEnroe as some of us here in India?” The teacher said, “McEnroe was a bad example. He was considered as someone who was rude and uncivil.” THUD! I was brought to Ground Zero. Yeh sunne ke pehle mere kaan kyun fat nahin gaye! Probably what the teacher said made sense. Probably what helped was that a month back, he had lost to the big-serving Kevin Curren 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in a Wimbledon Q/F match. I would not know―I only knew that the Big Mac had fallen in my esteem.



The other day, I was watching Federer’s comments after his straight sets loss to Djokovic—his first straight sets defeat in 4 years! A record to be proud of and a thrashing enough to rattle even the best! ''I have created a monster, so I know I need to always win every tournament. It is not easy coming out every week trying to win.'' I switched off the set in utter disbelief. Disbelief because I was wondering! Isn’t Federer human? What’s wrong with him? Can’t he come up with some excuses? No, that’s Federer. He is blessed with equanimity of robotic proportions! For someone blessed with such incredible talent, he is a humble man, not fazed by victories, forget defeats! He probably knows that he has a limited shelf life at the top and makes best use of his incredible talent. Probably that is why I want him to win every time he steps onto the court. The more I see him play, the more my ideals on fair play, grace, humility, and everything nice are reinforced.

But I know that bubble will burst someday………..Somebody will step on to the court and do a Hewitt-like ‘Come-On’ when an opponent hits long or wide. I will probably switch off the television. This time it will be out of DISGUST!!