Sound and Sights of Cricket

The IPL is here. Being a cricket fanatic of yesteryear(yesteryear equals 4 years in this case)my ability to watch cricket had dwindled in the past years mainly due to the untimely telecast of the matches usually in the early mornings according to Central Time. All that has changed with the IPL with me jumping through hoops so that i've watched all the seven matches at ungodly times such as 6:30 in the morning to a slightly more godly but still devilish 9:30. The IPL is to put in mild terms short and sweet. Three hours. Its like maybe watching a slightly long movie. It even has the music in it. You can even say it has the film stars in it. But then I have seen this mentioned in every single article I have read about it, so I will stay away but that cliche. People have even also called it a "decadent, dumbed-down, third-rate formula for sub-prime cricket". I am not going to pass judgment on that considering that I am a millionth rate cricketer who plays worse than sub prime cricket. But it has it entertainment element in it. Here are some funny, memorable things that i have seen in the choppy sopcast broadcast which I am indebted to. Latit Modi must be pissed if he knew what sopcast is. I have tried to add pictures wherever possibly, but then if they say the cricket is sub prime, I have no words for the camera work in the broadcast. The moment the batsmen swing his bat through cover or midwicket, the camera traditionally goes up in the air and probability takes over in governing whether the camera follows the ball or not. But then being 20-20, it usually works out good, but sometimes the camera swings quite dumbly trying to trace a ball in the crowds when its actually fielded by short mid wicket.
A little known player called Palani Amaranth from the TN ranji team, shouting the stump microphone "Mathew" which his beautiful madras English accent. I couldn't catch the rest of the convo but Hayden moved to a different fielding position but it was still funny to hear it coming from Madras and all.

Ricky Ponting going and talking and patting on the back of Ishant Sharma after all the great good will the pair had spread in the past series in Australia. I couldn't get a picture of that specific event, but then its pretty cool to see Ponting celebrating with a little known play called Ashok Dinda. Mind you he bowls well and maybe hes a big player in the Ranji trophy but then I dont really follow it.
Mark Boucher veteran of 114 test and 250 odd ODI's egging on little known Balachandra
Akhil who looking at his records seem to have been languishing in the Bangalore Ranji Team for a few years now. Must have been motivating for him, either ways its seems interesting for me.
I have never heard anyone speak tamil on international cricket field before. Surprising but even with Sri Lanka and Murali, I don't think I have heard Tamil being spoken. But then yesterday in the match with Delhi DareDevils here was a bowler YoMahesh shouting to Dinesh Karthik his keeper "enna da pannera". For the Tamil illiterate that means "what are you doing". The context was that Karthik through done the stumps when there was no chance of a run out and a risk of a over throw. It was funny to see the first words of Tamil on an international cricket broadcast was spoken from team from Delhi. This is understandable considering TN has the highest ration of cricket fans to players actually representing the team in international level.

Hearing Sunil Gavakar call Shahid Afridi a "Hunk". That was just plain hilarious. His whole statement was of course " From the Beauties to, to the Hunk". There was no real reason for me to put up the picture of the cheer leaders but then I thought the RedSkins should be mentioned considering they play a big part in this heterosexual tournament.
Hearing Mike Hussey come to a huge roar from the Madras crowd as i currently write this post.
The one thing missing is the commentary team that is present. Apart from the Ravi Shatri and Tony Cozier and to some extent Gavaskar(he gets boring and luckily for me Sachin is not playing so I don't have to hear him drone on about him), Ian Bishop and surprisingly Pommie Mbangwa(His voice sounds a tad like Henry Blofeld) the commentators are pathetic.
The spirit less voice of Greg Chappel, the highly and unduly shrill and over excited voice of Arun Lal who keeps reiterating the same thing in the first and last over, the blandness of SRK(as called by Rameez Raja, SRK being Laxman Sivaramakrishnan)the idiosyncrasy of Aamir Sohail stressing on every syllable that he speaks and just the fact that Rameez Raja kept pronouncing Delhi DareDevils as "Daily" DareDevils.
Other disappointing things. I cannot believe they are playing Hindi music in Madras. That's just plain silly, if you are looking to pump up the crowd. You would be better of playing English than Hindi. Also the cheerleaders .Well they do seem to be their.I am sure the Homo sexual prehistoric politicians of the city had something to do with it. Also the irritating logic of Arun Lal saying that CSK must be feeling the pressure to get a move on when they are going at 8.25 RPO at 10 overs with just two wickets lost. I am sure he must have heard of building a innings even in 20-20
P.S: They just played Tamil Music. I am pumped now.
P.S2: They have a live band playing. Now that would pump anybody up.
P.S3: There are Cheer Leaders. Home grown apparently. Not from the Red Skins. Well i guess thats more innovative than the other teams.