One of my passions has always been cricket. I was a decent enough player at school, good enough to play a couple of matches and as with many of my other passions, lost interest for a brief while at college before picking up the threads a few years later. Cricinfo remains one of my favorite sites for cricket news and while I assiduously devour the articles, what I really love is the access it provides to databases, information and now over the past 18 months their selection of best cricketers of all times to play for their respective countries.
I have followed the country selection with interest and overall, I thought it was a fabulous selection, such selections are always fraught with tension and debate but rarely have any choices been very surprising - a few selections could perhaps be debated (like Kumble preferred over Chandra or Warne over Grimmet) but these have been rare and far between.
So I thought let me relook at the 88 players selected by the august selection team and let me try and put together a team which would be in effect the finest cricket team assembled on any field. To start with, I thought the team needs to be balanced so I look at two quality openers - openers who have ONLY opened or have opened for most of their batting life. Then I look at 3 middle order batsmen, ideally I would like to have one left hander but not at the cost of leaving out a better batsman for the sake of variety. The one all rounder followed by four bowlers - one right arm quick, one left arm quick, one leg spinner and one off spinner - ensuring the team is ready for any battle it faces.
Openers - I have never seen Jack Hobbs bat but the original little master cannot be left out - arguably the finest opening bat of all times and he needs to make it for the sheer number of runs he scored and his collection of first class centuries (197) remains unsurpassed, eight decades after he hung up his cricketing shoes. His partner would be the diminutive Indian little master - Sunil Gavaskar, the man who taught Indian cricket to take pride in itself. For people who have been born and bred on Sehwag and wonder about classical openers who gave the first hour to the bowlers and then defended a little less to make runs, I just request them to watch a rerun of Gavaskar's 100 against Holding and Marshall in Delhi in 1983-84. Sheer counterattacking class.
The middle order - Don picks himself, the easiest selection on this list. His class and ability is followed by the purity and technique of Sachin Tendulkar and the cavalier and panache of Viv Richards. The middle order definitely packs a punch! For the left handed variety, I did consider Lara but Sachin & Viv possessed tighter techniques than the Trinidadian master and if there was a spot for a fourth man in the middle order, the choice would definitely been between Lara and Hammond.
All rounder - The all rounder slot goes to Sobers, perhaps the easiest choice for me after the Don. Besides his great batting, he would be a potential opening bowler and coming back with the older ball to bowl a selection of Chinamen and and sharp cutters. Awesome talent. Kallis may be a statistical match for Sobers but he is yet to have the presence Sobers had, Imran, Kapil, Botham and Hadlee all fall short of the Sobers mark and while Miller was the darling of a generation of Aussies, he loses out to the impact and consistency of Sobers.
Wicket keeper - This was another difficult choice, the debate was not just on the person but more on the KIND of person one needs for a team teeming with class. Does one need to be a good wicketkeeper AND a good batsman? Would the wicket keeper really be required to bat? After all, how often do you think bowlers would be able to get past Hobbs, Gavaskar, Don, Sachin & Viv? In the end, I thought I should chose a wicketkeeper who rarely dropped a catch, kept to the spin of Warne, the bounce of McGrath and the pace of Lee effectively & revolutionized the concept of a wicketkeeper-batsman - Adam Gilchrist. He may not perhaps be as good a wicketkeeper as Tallon whom the Don reckoned to be the best or a Knott who remains my favorite keeper (keeping to Underwood on a difficult wicket would probably qualify for the most difficult job in cricket) but he was effective and imagine a counterattacking innings from Viv and Adam together - a sight for the Gods.
Fast bowlers - The left arm seamer picks himself - Wasim Akram is quite simply the finest bowler I have had the privilege to watch - in real life or on TV. The graceful, short run to the wicket and the astonishing swift arm action packed everything one could ask for - away swing, in swing, in dipper, cutter, a brutal bouncer, toe crushing yorker & all delivered with barely a noticeable change in action. The right arm fast bowler was a very difficult choice indeed and I had a whole galaxy of greats whom I had watched to chose from - the West Indian greats Holding and Marshall, Aussies Lillie and McGrath, it was indeed a very difficult choice. In the end however, I have gone with someone whom I never watched - he plied his trade a century before I was born - Sydney Barnes. Well, I could not argue with 189 wickets in 27 tests at 16.43 - he is almost the Bradman of bowlers.
Spinners - for a balanced team, I considered selecting two very different spinners - one essentially a leg break, fastish spinner and another a off break, loopy one. Bill O Reilly makes the cut as the leg spinner of choice - well Shane Warne comes close but I could not argue with the Don, who reckoned Bill - Tiger to most - to be the finest spinner he has seen or played against. For the offspinner, I chose Prasanna, more of a chess player than a cricketer, a man with a great action, temperament and talent. Almost all the great players who played him at his peak in the late sixties reckoned he was the finest spinner they had faced and I don't intend to commence arguing with Sobers, Tony Greig and Ian Chappell.
Now thats my dream team & one of the little points which comes to my mind as I peruse this list is the quality of catching and fielding - imagine a slip consisting of Gavaskar at first, Sobers at second, the Don at third, Hobbs at fourth and Viv at gully - I am sure one ball will not pass through those hands!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Kishore Kumar in the early 50s
Last night, I was desultorily perusing some articles from my father’s collection of clippings from Filmfare and Illustrated weekly and it suddenly stuck me – we all know the Kishore Kumar who sang – and sang such that he displaced Rafi and remained numero uno for 17 years till his death – for Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and a whole host of actors in the post 1969 Aradhana phase, but perhaps his gems in the early fifties aren’t as popular today, a today where every song seems as transient as a firefly in a summer evening.
That set a chain of thought and research and I thought it would perhaps be an interesting exercise to identify some of the gems from the period when Kishore wasn’t considered the singing equivalent of a Rafi or a Mukesh or even a Hemant (well, Salil was at the point of summoning Hemant to sing on Kishore for his Naukri). It would also be an interesting exercise to understand how and why the great music directors of that age, Naushad, Madan Mohan and the rest to ignore the fresh, fun, fabulous and fantastic Kishore so totally. Naushad for example never recorded a song with Kishore in the fifties when he was arguably at his peak, I don’t think he ever found himself in the same recording studio as Kishore (reader pl leave a comment!). OP and SJ for all the transformation they brought to the Hindi Film music scene utilized Kishore only for the movies where he was the actor and even in such cases, used Rafi to sing for an on screen Kishore for various reasons (SJ in Sharat, OP in Ragini). Perhaps only Dada Burman recognized the depth and vitality in Kishore’s voice and used him quite magnificently as the voice for Dev Anand through the fifties in a string of classics – Jeevan Ke safar mein rahi (Munimji), oonche sur mein gaye ja (house no 44), ae meri topi palat ke aa (Funtoosh) and even for non Dev Anand starrers like Bahar (Kasoor Aapka on Karan Dewan). While OP and SJ found Kishore eminently suited for singing for his own maverick style of acting, it required a personal request from Ashok Kumar for Salil to deign to give a musically untrained Kishore a hearing. So could I pick my favorites of Kishore (only solos pl) from the time when he was known more as the reigning comic star rather than the most loved singing voice in the country? For ease, I have considered movies released before 1957 and thus movies like Asha, Musafir Shararat, Awaz (with the Salil classic – Araram Tararam duniya ke kaise) and Chalti Ka Naam Gadi get eliminated
1. Marne ki duaen kya mangoon (Ziddi, Khemchand Prakash), his first and therefore needs to be on the list. The Saigal influence is obvious in this song and Khemchand Prakash needs to be congratulated on identifying this voice and the genius behind it. Thanks to youtube, we can even hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KCGt1za0M
2. Arji Hamari Ye Marji Hamari (Naukri, Salil Choudhury), Naukri is one of the forgotten classics. Kishore was superb as the singing star giving a glimpse of what is in store – with the amazing voice & modulations and his onscreen persona opposite a cute looking Sheila Ramani. Hear it hear to understand why I rate it so highly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoa_hPG7ig&feature=related
3. Ek Chhoti se naukri ka (Naukri, Salil Choudhury), minimalistic music, maximum results. Hearing this one wonders why Salilda was once accused by Pandit Ravi Shanker to make the tune more complex than what it should be. I do stand corrected that technically this is a duet but at least this isn’t a duet with a female singer and thus perhaps can make its way in this list! One can see the classic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSdldDEGHI&feature=related
4. Chhota sa ghar hoga (Naukri, Salil Choudhury). I just cant help but get this song in the list. The song for which an incensed Salil initially refused to give the unemployed hero a singing break and instead was about to summon Hemant Kumar to render this classic. Would Hemant been able to sing the aaa, aae re part the way Kishore so evocatively did? Well, it is only left to imagination as one hears the classic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRfgKRy-W7E&NR=1
5. Kunven mein kuud ke (Parivar, Salil Choudhury). Another Salil number. When I began my research on the early fifties numbers, I was quite prepared to find a clutch of SD classics and perhaps a couple of others, it is quite incredible to note the number of Salil classics I unearthed in the early/middle fifties. Hear this and let me know if this shouldn’t be one of Kishore’s comic leitmotifs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBUSEhlRuI
6. Nakherwali (New Delhi, Shanker Jaikishen), a song I heard in school and was immediately humming it. I still remember one of my classmates and I were studying for our Class Ten exams late in the evening in Calcutta with Vividh Bharati playing at a very low volume as a background to our concentration when this song came along. Wordlessly my friend looked at me and then turned to the radio to turn the volume higher and a for a few seconds we forgot the exams on the morrow and instead enjoyed a perennial classic. This song just makes one wonder why SJ were so frugal in employing Kishore when they were at their fifties zenith. Hear it hear and wonder whether Kishore and SJ should have been made for each other - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAqfsRgX_gE&feature=PlayList&p=4AD116A3E9306A81&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=12
7. Are Bhai Nikal ke aa ghar se (New Delhi, Shanker Jaikishen). From the same New Delhi comes the other Kishore classic, hear it here and wonder SJ did justice to the talent they had at their path breaking disposal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ7n9Dyy74M&feature=related. New Delhi had other classics including the third Kishore number (Milte hi nazar aap) and most notably the Lata number – tum sang preet lagayi which had the SJ imprimatur written all over it, while the Kishore numbers didn’t really sound like the SJ of the fifties, did it? SJ’s reluctance to employ Kishore was probably best exemplified in Shararat (1958) where Kishore lip synced a Rafi classic – Ajab hai dastan teri yey zindagi. Arresting stuff when put over in the voice of Rafi but perhaps leaves a little bit to be desired in the Kishore voice, doesn’t it?
8. Aisi Shaadi Se Hum (Baap Re Baap, O P Nayyar). Simply impossible for anyone but Kishore to sing. This song has snatches of several songs which became hits later on (the yodeling in this song bears marked resemblance to the Main hoon Jhumroo number and on can hear snatches of deem nei tobu naam taar dingo from the Bangali Lokuchuri). Hear it here and let me know if you know a more funny song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIEHBJt9RNI&feature=related
9. Jeevan Ke safar mein rahi (Munimji, S D Burman). A classic that has stood the test of time. A debonair Dev and a coquettish Nalinin Jaywant made for lovely watching. Not just this Kishore-Lata tandem (well tandems are allowed in this list, duets aren’t), all the songs were superb and we saw SD Burman alternate Hemant and Kishore on Dev – something he did quite consistently – alternating Hemant, Rafi and Kishore on Dev & with remarkably few exceptions till Gambler. Hear it hear and lets again understand why it stood the test of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt_sZNMUJs0
10. Oonche Sur Mein Gaye Ja (House no 44, S D Burman). This movie was a musical jewel and perhaps the younger readers and enthusiasts would more likely remember the Hemant classics on Dev Anand (Chup Hai Dharti, Teri Duniya mein jeense se) or even the Lata number picturised on a resplendent Kalpana Kartik (Phailie hui sapnon ki baahen) but the pick for me was the Kishore number. Hear it for yourself and let me know if Kishore’s exhilarating pace was meant for the naughty Dev. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUYchyLiwnM
11.12, 13 I am sorely tempted to make this a best 13 and not a best 10 as there is no way I can miss the three Funtoosh classics (Ae meri topi palat ke aa, Denewala Jab Bhi deta and Dukhi man mere). Just see them here and let me know if Dev and Kishore weren’t but made for each other!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ZIo6hsBBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57mevzgnFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpRRm5-0WhA
14. Chhahe koi kush ho (Taxi Driver, S D Burman) I was about to end this at Funtoosh when I realized I haven’t done full justice to Kishore- SD-Dev combination – how can I leave out Taxi Driver – a movie where Dada Burman made Kishore compete for the vocal superiority with Talat Mahmood on a playful Dev? A Taxi Driver which won SD his first Filmfare award for the Talat classic – Jayen to Jayen kahan. Hear Mastram here and become one – the joi de vivre is perennial isn’t it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUAIs5MFhrc and let me know if SD’s constant mix and match of Talat, Hemant, Rafi and Kishore on a debonair Dev was good value.
I do realize I have missed some classics from Ladki (1953) and the Karan Dewan enacted Bahar (1951) and I haven’t included the songs sung for Raj Kapoor in Pyar but this small list should be enough for everyone to look at the pre-’56 Kishore afresh – a time when he was a singing, comic star and not the voice of the superstars of the seventies. I think younger readers and Kishore fans would be delighted to peruse the early Kishore – a Kishore before he became almost synonymous with Pancham.
Well, those are my fourteen - a fourteen that showcases a Kishore when he was starting out, a Kishore before he became the best known male singer in the country and a Kishore when he had to ask music directors to give him a chance to take him seriously as a singer...
Why did it take him 2 decades to reach the pinnacle? Even die-hard Rafi fans like me wonder - did the great music directors of the fifties err by not using Kishore enough? What magic could a Shanker Jaikishen have achieved if they had lavished their magic on Kishore less sparingly than they actually did? Points to ponder...
That set a chain of thought and research and I thought it would perhaps be an interesting exercise to identify some of the gems from the period when Kishore wasn’t considered the singing equivalent of a Rafi or a Mukesh or even a Hemant (well, Salil was at the point of summoning Hemant to sing on Kishore for his Naukri). It would also be an interesting exercise to understand how and why the great music directors of that age, Naushad, Madan Mohan and the rest to ignore the fresh, fun, fabulous and fantastic Kishore so totally. Naushad for example never recorded a song with Kishore in the fifties when he was arguably at his peak, I don’t think he ever found himself in the same recording studio as Kishore (reader pl leave a comment!). OP and SJ for all the transformation they brought to the Hindi Film music scene utilized Kishore only for the movies where he was the actor and even in such cases, used Rafi to sing for an on screen Kishore for various reasons (SJ in Sharat, OP in Ragini). Perhaps only Dada Burman recognized the depth and vitality in Kishore’s voice and used him quite magnificently as the voice for Dev Anand through the fifties in a string of classics – Jeevan Ke safar mein rahi (Munimji), oonche sur mein gaye ja (house no 44), ae meri topi palat ke aa (Funtoosh) and even for non Dev Anand starrers like Bahar (Kasoor Aapka on Karan Dewan). While OP and SJ found Kishore eminently suited for singing for his own maverick style of acting, it required a personal request from Ashok Kumar for Salil to deign to give a musically untrained Kishore a hearing. So could I pick my favorites of Kishore (only solos pl) from the time when he was known more as the reigning comic star rather than the most loved singing voice in the country? For ease, I have considered movies released before 1957 and thus movies like Asha, Musafir Shararat, Awaz (with the Salil classic – Araram Tararam duniya ke kaise) and Chalti Ka Naam Gadi get eliminated
1. Marne ki duaen kya mangoon (Ziddi, Khemchand Prakash), his first and therefore needs to be on the list. The Saigal influence is obvious in this song and Khemchand Prakash needs to be congratulated on identifying this voice and the genius behind it. Thanks to youtube, we can even hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KCGt1za0M
2. Arji Hamari Ye Marji Hamari (Naukri, Salil Choudhury), Naukri is one of the forgotten classics. Kishore was superb as the singing star giving a glimpse of what is in store – with the amazing voice & modulations and his onscreen persona opposite a cute looking Sheila Ramani. Hear it hear to understand why I rate it so highly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoa_hPG7ig&feature=related
3. Ek Chhoti se naukri ka (Naukri, Salil Choudhury), minimalistic music, maximum results. Hearing this one wonders why Salilda was once accused by Pandit Ravi Shanker to make the tune more complex than what it should be. I do stand corrected that technically this is a duet but at least this isn’t a duet with a female singer and thus perhaps can make its way in this list! One can see the classic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSdldDEGHI&feature=related
4. Chhota sa ghar hoga (Naukri, Salil Choudhury). I just cant help but get this song in the list. The song for which an incensed Salil initially refused to give the unemployed hero a singing break and instead was about to summon Hemant Kumar to render this classic. Would Hemant been able to sing the aaa, aae re part the way Kishore so evocatively did? Well, it is only left to imagination as one hears the classic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRfgKRy-W7E&NR=1
5. Kunven mein kuud ke (Parivar, Salil Choudhury). Another Salil number. When I began my research on the early fifties numbers, I was quite prepared to find a clutch of SD classics and perhaps a couple of others, it is quite incredible to note the number of Salil classics I unearthed in the early/middle fifties. Hear this and let me know if this shouldn’t be one of Kishore’s comic leitmotifs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBUSEhlRuI
6. Nakherwali (New Delhi, Shanker Jaikishen), a song I heard in school and was immediately humming it. I still remember one of my classmates and I were studying for our Class Ten exams late in the evening in Calcutta with Vividh Bharati playing at a very low volume as a background to our concentration when this song came along. Wordlessly my friend looked at me and then turned to the radio to turn the volume higher and a for a few seconds we forgot the exams on the morrow and instead enjoyed a perennial classic. This song just makes one wonder why SJ were so frugal in employing Kishore when they were at their fifties zenith. Hear it hear and wonder whether Kishore and SJ should have been made for each other - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAqfsRgX_gE&feature=PlayList&p=4AD116A3E9306A81&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=12
7. Are Bhai Nikal ke aa ghar se (New Delhi, Shanker Jaikishen). From the same New Delhi comes the other Kishore classic, hear it here and wonder SJ did justice to the talent they had at their path breaking disposal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ7n9Dyy74M&feature=related. New Delhi had other classics including the third Kishore number (Milte hi nazar aap) and most notably the Lata number – tum sang preet lagayi which had the SJ imprimatur written all over it, while the Kishore numbers didn’t really sound like the SJ of the fifties, did it? SJ’s reluctance to employ Kishore was probably best exemplified in Shararat (1958) where Kishore lip synced a Rafi classic – Ajab hai dastan teri yey zindagi. Arresting stuff when put over in the voice of Rafi but perhaps leaves a little bit to be desired in the Kishore voice, doesn’t it?
8. Aisi Shaadi Se Hum (Baap Re Baap, O P Nayyar). Simply impossible for anyone but Kishore to sing. This song has snatches of several songs which became hits later on (the yodeling in this song bears marked resemblance to the Main hoon Jhumroo number and on can hear snatches of deem nei tobu naam taar dingo from the Bangali Lokuchuri). Hear it here and let me know if you know a more funny song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIEHBJt9RNI&feature=related
9. Jeevan Ke safar mein rahi (Munimji, S D Burman). A classic that has stood the test of time. A debonair Dev and a coquettish Nalinin Jaywant made for lovely watching. Not just this Kishore-Lata tandem (well tandems are allowed in this list, duets aren’t), all the songs were superb and we saw SD Burman alternate Hemant and Kishore on Dev – something he did quite consistently – alternating Hemant, Rafi and Kishore on Dev & with remarkably few exceptions till Gambler. Hear it hear and lets again understand why it stood the test of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt_sZNMUJs0
10. Oonche Sur Mein Gaye Ja (House no 44, S D Burman). This movie was a musical jewel and perhaps the younger readers and enthusiasts would more likely remember the Hemant classics on Dev Anand (Chup Hai Dharti, Teri Duniya mein jeense se) or even the Lata number picturised on a resplendent Kalpana Kartik (Phailie hui sapnon ki baahen) but the pick for me was the Kishore number. Hear it for yourself and let me know if Kishore’s exhilarating pace was meant for the naughty Dev. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUYchyLiwnM
11.12, 13 I am sorely tempted to make this a best 13 and not a best 10 as there is no way I can miss the three Funtoosh classics (Ae meri topi palat ke aa, Denewala Jab Bhi deta and Dukhi man mere). Just see them here and let me know if Dev and Kishore weren’t but made for each other!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ZIo6hsBBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57mevzgnFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpRRm5-0WhA
14. Chhahe koi kush ho (Taxi Driver, S D Burman) I was about to end this at Funtoosh when I realized I haven’t done full justice to Kishore- SD-Dev combination – how can I leave out Taxi Driver – a movie where Dada Burman made Kishore compete for the vocal superiority with Talat Mahmood on a playful Dev? A Taxi Driver which won SD his first Filmfare award for the Talat classic – Jayen to Jayen kahan. Hear Mastram here and become one – the joi de vivre is perennial isn’t it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUAIs5MFhrc and let me know if SD’s constant mix and match of Talat, Hemant, Rafi and Kishore on a debonair Dev was good value.
I do realize I have missed some classics from Ladki (1953) and the Karan Dewan enacted Bahar (1951) and I haven’t included the songs sung for Raj Kapoor in Pyar but this small list should be enough for everyone to look at the pre-’56 Kishore afresh – a time when he was a singing, comic star and not the voice of the superstars of the seventies. I think younger readers and Kishore fans would be delighted to peruse the early Kishore – a Kishore before he became almost synonymous with Pancham.
Well, those are my fourteen - a fourteen that showcases a Kishore when he was starting out, a Kishore before he became the best known male singer in the country and a Kishore when he had to ask music directors to give him a chance to take him seriously as a singer...
Why did it take him 2 decades to reach the pinnacle? Even die-hard Rafi fans like me wonder - did the great music directors of the fifties err by not using Kishore enough? What magic could a Shanker Jaikishen have achieved if they had lavished their magic on Kishore less sparingly than they actually did? Points to ponder...
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Garden of Eden
Eden...the name evokes a feeling of tranquility, green palms swaying gently in the breeze and a sense of contentment...none of these were in display when I landed at the Eden the morning of the day after the day of Valentine to witness the second test match between India and South Africa.
A stunning bowling performance from Dale Steyn and a work-over from Morne Morkel had the famed Indian batting line up collapse to a rare home innings defeat (funny but all three innings defeats in the past couple of decades have come at the hands of the Proteas) in front of empty stands in Nagpur but the Indian bowlers stuck back after two barren sessions on day 1 of the test to leave India in - on paper possessing the finest batting talent on the planet - a significantly better position. As I was taking my seat, India had taken the last wicket and Sehwag and Gambhir were about to commence. What transpired in the next 4 hours was amongst the most skillful batting one could hope to see. The same bowlers who has so terrorized the Indian line up were shown up as ordinary, the ball fled to the boundary with astonishing regularity and once Sachin and Sehwag came on together, it was a sight for the Gods. One was perfection personified, all technique, head still, hitting the ball with the full face of the bat and the other, all bristling aggression, skillful without being a slave to technique.
The Eden is an amazing place to watch cricket, you probably get better views in Chepauk or Lords or in Sydney - being smaller and perhaps better oriented grounds - but the sheer joi de vivre of the Eden crowd makes up for everything.The crowd is very eclectic, diverse, extremely knowledgeable & extremely friendly...in the days when I was a student in Calcutta and a regular to the Eden during test matches, serious bonding would happen over the five days of the test match. The sense of humor is something unique to Calcutta and the noise, corwds, discomfort and pollution does nothing to diminish the wise cracks that constantly emanate from the crowds much like the Sehwag cuts that punctuate the square boundary with metronomic regularity.
I was entering the Eden after more than a decade and half & more than half of the Eden was under renovation with the seating capacity considerably reduced but the feeling of nostalgia was incredible. I could almost 'see' Binny bowling from the High Court end getting rid of 3 quick Pakistan wickets late on the fourth day trying to set India to an improbable victory with us kids desperately shouting ourselves hoarse in an ultimately futile task in '86, I could almost visualize the bat flying out of a hopping Gavaskar's bat from a Marshall flier in '83 stunning a full house crowd and a lean & not mean Azhar elegantly square driving with a late minute flick of his wrists a Richard Ellison outswinger to the square cover boundary in '84. Beautiful memories and add the memories of actually playing on the hallowed turf - a turf where India's perhaps greatest victory was won - in 2001 against a mighty Australian side.
It was heartening to note that the crowds still throng the Eden for a test match at a time when matches are being played in empty grounds in the rest of the country, the sense of humor is intact (well, the language has changed from almost pure Bengali in my school days to a mixture of Hindi, English & Bengali now but which does nothing to diminish the spontaneous humor), the crowds are perhaps even more of a diverse set now with the yuppie crowd in significant numbers & the oranges are still on sale at the entrance to Gate 11. Brilliant, some things dont change and hopefully they never should.
The crowd, the pitch, the ground, the tradition of Eden - all beggar one question - why are so few test matches being played at the traditional Test Match grounds in India? Why doesn't the BCCI decide on a set of cities for test matches - Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi & Kanpur as cities which will host at least one Test match a year & allocate the other tests to the non-traditional centers like Nagpur and Mohali? I am sure Sachin wont have felt very happy crossing Lara's record in front of an empty Mohali stadium nor would Dale relished bowling in front of blue plastic seats at the Jamatha in Nagpur - nothing drives a sportsman more than a bunch of vociferous spectators and when the crowd gets going at the Eden, there is no more exhilarating sight in Cricket.
Ask Vishwanath and the ovation he got after a magnificent 97 in '75-75 against a rampant Andy Roberts or Tiger when he was clapped off the field with his bold moves early on the final morning to win the test match against the finest battery of fast bowlers after being roundly booed for the same tactics which didnt yield any results for an hour or more. Ask my father who still nostalgically recounts this test match for me.
A stunning bowling performance from Dale Steyn and a work-over from Morne Morkel had the famed Indian batting line up collapse to a rare home innings defeat (funny but all three innings defeats in the past couple of decades have come at the hands of the Proteas) in front of empty stands in Nagpur but the Indian bowlers stuck back after two barren sessions on day 1 of the test to leave India in - on paper possessing the finest batting talent on the planet - a significantly better position. As I was taking my seat, India had taken the last wicket and Sehwag and Gambhir were about to commence. What transpired in the next 4 hours was amongst the most skillful batting one could hope to see. The same bowlers who has so terrorized the Indian line up were shown up as ordinary, the ball fled to the boundary with astonishing regularity and once Sachin and Sehwag came on together, it was a sight for the Gods. One was perfection personified, all technique, head still, hitting the ball with the full face of the bat and the other, all bristling aggression, skillful without being a slave to technique.
The Eden is an amazing place to watch cricket, you probably get better views in Chepauk or Lords or in Sydney - being smaller and perhaps better oriented grounds - but the sheer joi de vivre of the Eden crowd makes up for everything.The crowd is very eclectic, diverse, extremely knowledgeable & extremely friendly...in the days when I was a student in Calcutta and a regular to the Eden during test matches, serious bonding would happen over the five days of the test match. The sense of humor is something unique to Calcutta and the noise, corwds, discomfort and pollution does nothing to diminish the wise cracks that constantly emanate from the crowds much like the Sehwag cuts that punctuate the square boundary with metronomic regularity.
I was entering the Eden after more than a decade and half & more than half of the Eden was under renovation with the seating capacity considerably reduced but the feeling of nostalgia was incredible. I could almost 'see' Binny bowling from the High Court end getting rid of 3 quick Pakistan wickets late on the fourth day trying to set India to an improbable victory with us kids desperately shouting ourselves hoarse in an ultimately futile task in '86, I could almost visualize the bat flying out of a hopping Gavaskar's bat from a Marshall flier in '83 stunning a full house crowd and a lean & not mean Azhar elegantly square driving with a late minute flick of his wrists a Richard Ellison outswinger to the square cover boundary in '84. Beautiful memories and add the memories of actually playing on the hallowed turf - a turf where India's perhaps greatest victory was won - in 2001 against a mighty Australian side.
It was heartening to note that the crowds still throng the Eden for a test match at a time when matches are being played in empty grounds in the rest of the country, the sense of humor is intact (well, the language has changed from almost pure Bengali in my school days to a mixture of Hindi, English & Bengali now but which does nothing to diminish the spontaneous humor), the crowds are perhaps even more of a diverse set now with the yuppie crowd in significant numbers & the oranges are still on sale at the entrance to Gate 11. Brilliant, some things dont change and hopefully they never should.
The crowd, the pitch, the ground, the tradition of Eden - all beggar one question - why are so few test matches being played at the traditional Test Match grounds in India? Why doesn't the BCCI decide on a set of cities for test matches - Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi & Kanpur as cities which will host at least one Test match a year & allocate the other tests to the non-traditional centers like Nagpur and Mohali? I am sure Sachin wont have felt very happy crossing Lara's record in front of an empty Mohali stadium nor would Dale relished bowling in front of blue plastic seats at the Jamatha in Nagpur - nothing drives a sportsman more than a bunch of vociferous spectators and when the crowd gets going at the Eden, there is no more exhilarating sight in Cricket.
Ask Vishwanath and the ovation he got after a magnificent 97 in '75-75 against a rampant Andy Roberts or Tiger when he was clapped off the field with his bold moves early on the final morning to win the test match against the finest battery of fast bowlers after being roundly booed for the same tactics which didnt yield any results for an hour or more. Ask my father who still nostalgically recounts this test match for me.
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