Tour Diary
An outdoor view
As one approaches the Iqbal Stadium, large pockets of fans, mainly youth, stand around chit-chatting
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
As one approaches the Iqbal Stadium, large pockets of fans, mainly youth, stand around chit-chatting. Most of them don't have tickets but continue to lurk around, almost throughout the day, just observing the events around, listening to the crowd inside and trying to guess what may be going on inside.
As spectators, media-men and security personnel come out of the ground, they ask them about the state of the game, trying to pry out details, imagining what might have happened.
Instead of watching it on television, they prefer to hover around, hoping that a ticket or pass will materialise from somewhere and soaking in as much atmosphere as they can. It's a strange sort of way to spend a day, knowing that Shahid Afridi is going ballistic, getting news that Shoaib Akhtar is running red-hot, yet not able to watch the action.
Maybe a giant screen outside might help, but again, maybe that will remove a part of the charm as well.
Full postThe sight-screen puzzle
Sometime after tea today, both Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid got distracted
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
Sometime after tea today, both Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid got distracted. As Shoaib Akhtar prepared himself to hurtle in and deliver one of his thunderbolts, Sehwag backed away and started gesticulating. Somewhere close to the sight-screen at the Golf Course end, someone was moving and it took a while for the source of the problem to be informed.
Simon Taufel tried, Shoaib tried, the fielders tried but finally it required Shoaib to walk all the way to the boundary line – which one realised wasn’t too far from where he starts running in – and rectify the situation. Movement behind the screen has, is and will continue to be a big hassle for the batsmen.
It’s obviously never easy to concentrate on an object moving towards you when the background is not still. And it’s even more frustrating when you have security personnel wandering around in the vicinity of the sight screen.
Full postComing alive with Afridi
There's a certain aura that accompanies Shahid Afridi
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
There's a certain aura that accompanies Shahid Afridi. Until he walked in, there was a certain predictability at the Iqbal Stadium - some tension at the start of the game, nervy silence following loose shots, generous applause for good strokes, and raucous cheers in response to boundaries.
Once Afridi entered, all restraint was forgotten. The cheering accompanying his arrival could have been mistaken for a response to a famous win. When on strike, he commanded attention; when not, he created some frenetic anticipation. Every run that Inzamam took was followed by a certain mayhem; all in wait of Afridi's next ball.
When he smashed fours, they asked for sixes; when he blitzed sixes, they asked for more. His sixes have a certain animal-like quality, one that makes the blood gush, one that gets the veins to tingle.
Full postA poet and three heroes
He wrote ‘Sare Jahan Se Achcha’, is credited with coming up with the idea of a separate state for Indian Muslims, and has a Test venue named in his honour
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
He wrote ‘Sare Jahan Se Achcha’, is credited with coming up with the idea of a separate state for Indian Muslims, and has a Test venue named in his honour. The Encyclopedia Britannica called him "the greatest Urdu poet of the century." Allama Muhammad Iqbal was a versatile man.
The Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad is probably one of the few cricketing venues named after a poet. It’s smaller than the Gaddafi and a more open sort. The press box is open as well – a good thing for one keen on soaking in the atmosphere, a bad thing during inclement weather. Like the Gaddafi, the stands are split into various enclosures, all named after famous cricketers. Wait. Not all, but most.
At one square of the pitch are three enclosures that make you wrack your brains, named after Shahid Nazir, Taslim Arif and Ijaz Ahmed jnr. In one way or another, all three were associated with Faisalabad. The first, a local lad, played eight Tests between 1996 and 1999, has managed more than 100 first-class games and often found himself on the fringes of national selection.
The second, Arif, played two fewer Tests, between January and December 1980, and cracked 210 not out at Faisalabad, the highest score by a wicketkeeper at the time.
Full postEchoing and informal
From Lahore to Faisalabad in a Daewoo bus with a hostess making anouncements that are undecipherable, unless one has an echo filter
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
From Lahore to Faisalabad in a Daewoo bus with a hostess making anouncements that are undecipherable, unless one has an echo filter. Snacks and soft drinks on a two-hour bus ride, along with a television, make it a semi flight-like experience. Parts of the journey are spent surveying the pastoral countryside, most of it sleeping, a suitable index of the comfort levels in the bus.
Cricket in smaller cities always has an informal air to it. Security guards appear less tense, the public exude more anticipation. Both teams go through a relaxed net session, with Danish Kaneria attempting mighty slogs against the net bowlers, only for the ball to land just 20 yards away. It's a brand of slogging like none other, an agricultural exercise in a scientific age.
Full postSo passionate ... so Pakistani
There are several ways one can get to the Gaddafi Stadium from where I am staying – either walk for about ten minutes, reach the main road and take a rickshaw; or hope for a rickshaw to be around in the housing locality; or - and this is what is
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
There are several ways one can get to the Gaddafi Stadium from where I am staying – either walk for about ten minutes, reach the main road and take a rickshaw; or hope for a rickshaw to be around in the housing locality; or - and this is what is likely to work best - try and wangle a lift from one of the passing cars.
Three days out of five, the last option worked and the response soon became so pleasantly predictable. Once inside, the conversation went something on these lines:
Host: Where to?
Me: I need to go to the Gaddafi Stadium but I will take a rickshaw from the main road.
(That response, in pathetic broken Hindi, usually leaves me exposed and the fact that I’m not a local pretty obvious)
Full postLife's a pitch
So here we were at Lahore, witnessing a Test played on, if we were to believe the cricketers, the flattest of surfaces
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
So here we were at Lahore, witnessing a Test played on, if we were to believe the cricketers, the flattest of surfaces. As the game wore on, the pitch got more and more attention, with everyone talking about the importance of producing a 'sporting wicket'.
Dravid, justifiably so, refused to criticise the pitch, speaking in detail about the various horticultural aspects involved in pitch preparation. "It’s got to do with nature, with soil, with binding, with clay, with rolling ..." How, one must ask, can we expect an ideal pitch when there are so many factors to take care of? And as Younis reasoned, had Pakistan’s batsmen played shoddy strokes and rolled over, not many would have even talked about the pitch.
Full postLeave or smack?
Watching a cricketer at a press conference has its own charm
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
Watching a cricketer at a press conference has its own charm. It's interesting watching how one man sitting in the public gaze, with television cameras hovering around, and with press corps likely to throw up anything ranging from the intelligent to the bizarre, responds.
One remembers Adam Gilchrist’s press conferences on his last trip to India – chirpy and full of cheer. One was tempted to liken it to his batting, considering the carefree and straightforward approach. Inzamam often indulges in matter-of-fact humour and those who saw him on India’s last visit to Pakistan, when he was on the losing side, recall it as one of the memorable highlights.
Anything may get misinterpreted, even passing mentions could turn into a headline. If he is honest and indulges in criticism, he may be doomed. If he doesn't, and decides to play it absolutely safe, he still may be. It's often a lose-lose situation to be in, especially if things aren’t going too well.
Rahul Dravid is often at his diplomatic best, mostly preferring to err on the side of caution. When he wins, he will stress on the importance of not getting carried away; when he loses, on the positives gained; when in doubt, he will leave the question outside off stump; when put in a spot, he will prefer to offer a dead bat.
Full postGoing round in circles
Sarfraz Nawaz
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
Sarfraz Nawaz. One sight is enough to convince you that he was indeed one heck of a fast bowler. Big man, aquiline features, mop of hair, don’t-care-a-damn attitude ... Just the man who could invent a dark art. Just the sort who would wreck havoc or sit in one corner and sulk all day.
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What did you think of the Indian attack in this Test? "They were disinterested." Surely, the pitch wasn’t great for them? "You need to be able to bowl on all pitches." What could they have done? "Tried and conceded less runs and taken more wickets." How? "Bowled better." Where did they go wrong? "They were simply disinterested." Superb. A conversation with such a logical conclusion.
But Sarfraz, is cricket getting too batsman-oriented? "Of course, it's unfair." What can be done? "Many things can be. Allow more bouncers, prepare better pitches, reduce heaviness of bats. Many things."
Full postWatching ... painfully
As one tries to make sense of what exactly happened in the cricket today, when Pakistan gorged themselves in batting heaven, one needs to spare a thought
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
As one tries to make sense of what exactly happened in the cricket today, when Pakistan gorged themselves in batting heaven, one needs to spare a thought. For a talented young batsman who had to spend 141.2 overs in the dressing-room, watching his team-mates plunder runs to their heart’s content. Poor ol’ Salman Butt.
He spent ten minutes in the middle, faced six balls and hit just one measly boundary while his gluttonous friends spoilt themselves with 86 between them. Obviously he was happy for them, but surely, at some point, he wondered what he could have achieved on this pancake-flat surface, masquerading as a Gaddafi Stadium cricket pitch.
Full post