[Desi Masala] Honey, I shrunk the ODI
It had everything you want of the very best of ODIs-- *and* it began just as
you were pouring out a pre-dinner glass of wine, and ended just in time for
a post-dinner glass of coffee and cognac. What's not to like as Rob Peters
asks on the iafrica.com website?
As with the best of one day cricket, this game had controlled aggression
[Mathew Hayden]; attacking batsmanship of the highest order [Suresh Raina,
Mahi Dhoni in a timely cameo, Robin Uthappa]; blazing counter-attacks
[Abhishek Nayar, Harbhajan Singh in an adrenalin-pumping cameo]; intelligent
bowling [Manpreet Gony, who not only hustled Jayasuriya into a false pull,
but kept Uthappa on a leash when the batsman was in hitting mode]; fielding
that ranged from the very good to the truly spectacular [any number of
diving saves by both sides; a direct hit by Subramanium Badrinath; a catch
while airborne after a dead run by Jacob Oram that had to be seen to be
disbelieved]; and a photo finish that involved a test of skill and nerve
both [Muralitharan, who now knows what it is like to bowl a do or die over
with a ball that was like a bar of soap left under a shower; Joginder
Sharma, rewinding to the T20 World Cup finale with a final over that saw him
fight back after a couple of early tonks; Abhishek Nayar, battling against
the odds till that one nervy moment when he crossed over for a no-ball, and
left Ashish Nehra, whose application for Mensa is not likely to be
considered any time soon, to face the free-hit ball].
It had a healthy dose of parochialism from the full-house crowd: who would
have thought to see two Australians in yellow take strike to an Indian quick
bowler in blue, and for the crowd to cheer the men in yellow?
A league of this nature will be nothing more than a money-spinning machine,
unless it has the added plus of throwing up domestic talent for
consideration; in that sense, this game had its fair share-- Raina, whose
comeback hopes could have withered in the ennui-inducing realm of domestic
cricket; Gony, whose bowling is increasingly impressive; and Nayar, who
married fearless batsmanship with calm resolve, all got to strut their stuff
under the eye of the national one day captain, and team coach.
The league, as it unfolds, is providing opportunity, in many ways: a chance
for the likes of Harbhajan Singh to experience the pressures, and
responsibilities, of leadership and hence, hopefully, to be more sympathetic
to the needs of his captain when next he plays in Indian colors; and a
chance for youngsters to play alongside, watch, learn from and even be
shamed by the work ethic of some of international cricket's hardest-working
stars.
One aspect of the game was puzzling�unless Bajji was looking to contest for
the president's post of the bowlers' union and wanted to buy votes, I
couldn't see why he would waste two of his own overs, and rotate eight
different bowlers, some of indifferent skill, in the Chennai innings.
What made this even more inexplicable was that the heavy dew had reduced the
ball to grease�to the extent possible, you wouldn't want to throw said ball
to inexperienced bowlers against batsmen of the caliber of Hayden, Raina and
Dhoni in attack mode.
Chennai, with its second win in two games, looks increasingly set in its
batting; bowling-wise it has a bit of a problem with Oram and Amarnath not
quite able to keep the run rate under the high double digits.
Mumbai, with two losses, seems to reckon that its ills will be resolved once
Sachin Tendulkar comes back; no one is sure when that will be, though word
is that he should take the field for the team's next game; more to the
point, I am not sure the return of Tendulkar alone will transform the
fortunes of the team.
By way of added worry, its next game is an away fixture against Punjab--
that is to say, against an attack led by Brett Lee .
In other news-- remember the fuss and bother the BCCI has been making about
the ICL's contracted players, and how anyone who touches the ICL will not be
allowed to have anything to do with 'official' Indian cricket?
Apparently the rule only applies to cricketers, and to ex-cricketers who
have had the temerity to accept managerial positions in the ICL and as a
result, forfeited their pensions and other entitlements. Elsewhere, however,
the apartheid is not as strictly enforced-- per this story, television
producers, Bollywood starlets, 'freelance' cheerleaders and such are
welcome, even encouraged, to cross the floor.
In other, even less welcome news, cheerleaders are getting it coming and
going. While the prudish strata has been holding up the fig leaf of "our
culture" to protest their presence, the loutish segment apparently views the
ladies as soft targets for illegitimate lust.
Tabitha, who says she's originally from Uzbekistan, added, "Wherever we go,
we do expect people to pass lewd, snide remarks but I'm shocked by the
nature and magnitude of the comments people pass here� Be it a 70-year-old
oldie or a 15-year-old kid, they all letch at us and make amorous advances.
I feel very threatened. We are here to entertain them, to add a bit of
glamour, but we are living in constant fear (of someone attempting
something)."
Another cheerleader, worried about revealing her name, said: "It's tough to
dance and keep smiling when the people behind are giving you hell. People
here think we're morally loose women just because they see us enjoying
ourselves. We're doing a job and all we want is a bit of respect, that's
all."
India's leading socio-historian and writer, Ramchandra Guha, dubbed the
phenomenon of cheerleaders despicable and degrading for the game of cricket.
"All the organisers are doing by making scantily-clad white women dance in
front of huge crowds is to stoke the base, voyeuristic and sexual
insecurities of the Indian male. It is revolting, appalling and shows the
game in very poor light," a disturbed Guha told HT.
Personally, I am not as opposed to, or disturbed by, the concept as Ram Guha
seems to be. In a more bucolic age, in the game's then home, ladies in their
Sunday best laid out high tea just outside the boundary line as an added
attraction; today, they-- in their Sunday least-- dance. *O tempora, O mores
* covers that, and damned if I see why that is necessarily a bad thing.
Where I agree with Ram and other critics is that maybe the cheerleaders are
best kept under wraps *for now*; honorable exceptions apart, we as a nation
appear not to have grown beyond our immature adolescence
The cheerleaders can should wait-- till we as a tribe are adult enough to
be able to appreciate a spectacle, without wetting the front of our shirts
with drool.
--
Dr. Bhavdeep S. Ahuja
http://drbhavdeep.googlepages.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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