The wham-bam-thank-you-mam version of Cricket just proved that though cricket might be a game of glorious uncertainties, irrespective of the version… class defies age and even certain principles of uncertainty.
Day one of IPL had 2 upsets as far as the team performance goes but as far as individual performance is concerned it fell in line with my thinking that legends are ones who can adapt to any terrain & conditions. Sachin, Dravid, Saurav, Laxman and Kumble where not born legends but took the stairway to legend hood.
However, the elevator and escalator bound team owners of the IPL who were pioneers at acting, building cities and airports, making cement, spinning yarns, publishing stories and even brewing liquor and flying planes at the same time fell well short of identifying, recognising or for that matter appreciating cricketing brilliance.
One man said it all tonight…after a brilliant 66 of 48 balls Dravid said that ‘such trying conditions favour ‘boys’ like us who play proper cricketing shots’… Even the erstwhile Mallya might not have noticed the subtle sarcasm in that statement. Dravid played like a man possessed out to prove a point to his critics. And he did it in style…
I might have jumped the gun in going all out in praise just after one performance but a seasoned cricket fan knows that this innings was one that is to be treasured for years to come. One of the commentators even wondered if he could ever get to see the repeat of a spectacular cover drive by Dravid in the remaining 59 games of the IPL.
It was a day when we saw two 36 year olds and a 39 year old from India and a 40 year old Aussie prove that age rarely matters in the shortest version of the game. Some crafty spin bowling by 2 veterans and a fine display of drives by 2 legendary batsmen…. what more can fans ask for.
Unfortunately I sense that good cricket is on the road to extinction, since the advent of the all new term ‘cricketainment’ which certainly has ‘tainted’ classical cricket. Cricket in all its glory was entertainment enough but today it is appreciated only when the kookaburra ball is airborne and sails over the boundary lines for a maximum which in turn is appreciated by gyrating maidens with plunging necklines and even shorter hemlines, which unfortunately is as important as bowling a 'maiden over'.
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