Good weather, a good ground, a couple of strong teams, a good commentary team and an interesting crowd combine to make watching cricket on TV an interesting experience. By interesting crowd, I mean going beyond the Mexican waves, flag waving and holding up sponsor-provided "4" and "6" call outs. Sample the banners from the crowds for the 4th and 5th ODIs between NZ and India:
"Hey Vettori, name you boy Sachin." (Daniel Vettori had just had a boy)
"Blackcats, the Slum (top) dogs are here."
A google search box, with "How to beat India". And the banner next to it: "0 search results".
"If you Drink and cover Drive..You're a Bloody Ryder". (4th ODI, Hamilton)
The Indian spectators, and also their other Asian brethren, have effectively been denied an opportunity to express their support and also creativity, thanks to the so called security measures that take away the simple pleasures of watching your team and rooting for them. The best, and only thing, that they can do is yell.
On an aside, the cricinfo commentary team spices up the ball-by-ball commentary by including crisp comments and feedback from readers across the globe. They also start and keep alive interesting threads of discussions throughout the game. Here is a couple of interesting (and risque) pieces of commentary:
Oliver : "All credit to the Indian Boys in ODI 1 & 3, but if New Zealand gets 340 again today, and bowl decent we are in contention... India minus Tendulkar is like Christianity minus God!" Beware of the 11th avatar but ...! (4th ODI, Hamilton)
Aniket: "Working in night shift, its time to leave and go to sleep ... will i get some action ?? (cricketing ofcourse)" Dunno about cricket, if you are going to sleep, you are not going to get any action. (5th ODI, Auckland)
Watching a game on TV sprawled on the couch is still the best, but the cricinfo team makes following the scores online the best alternative. Salut!
No comments:
Post a Comment