In what was an apparent bid to protect the Australians from terror strikes, knowledge of the match, while it was being played, was withheld from the public leading to empty stands and poor TRP ratings.
When this correspondent reached the ground, tipped of by his sources, he found only seven people and two dogs watching the match. In a country that worships cricket and ads featuring cricketers, such a spectacle was far from natural.
Not a bomber in sight
The correspondent did try and speak to some of the “spectators” but most of them pretended to be sleeping in an obvious move by the government to avoid the press.
We did however manage to speak to Arnab Bondhopadhya, who quite cryptic in his answers too. When asked whether anybody prevented him from coming to the ground, all he did was nod, without taking his eyes of the match, and answer, “Yesh, my bhife”
He, however, did open up a bit during the lunch break. “This is the 363rd match played by the Board President’s XI and the 43rd time that a captain is leading them who does not feature in the test team. This is also the 89th time that the captain of the Board President’s XI has hit a century and the 47th time he has done it in the second innings. For Yuvraj Singh…”
Attempts to get any information out of him failed as he stonewalled the correspondent using an extremely clever tactic, shown above, of evading my questions.
Although the match was shown on TV to maintain a show of normalcy, the Government’s machinations made sure that it garnered TRPs less than even that of the telecast of Parliament debates on Lok Sabha TV.
The BCCI President, Sharad Pawar, has assured us that the actual matches between India and Australia will be held normally. “After all”, said Mr. Pawar, quoting Virender Sehwag, “Delhi is not like Pakistan”.
As the two images of Chandi chowk(left) and Anarkali Bazaar(above) clearly show, Delhi is not like Pakistan
7 comments:
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Test Match is losing viewership. Although it's the sternest test for cricketers.
The formatting of the last two pics is kinda messed up. There is nothing to the left and above the caption! At least that the way it is on Chrome.
Lolz@ "My Bhife." Are we going to see more of Mr. Bondhopadhya? Ravi Kumar needs a vacation
Loved the caption on the first photo ...
@nobody
Well, it's displaying correctly on IE (hangs head in shame to admitting to using IE). Anyways, the pic with the Lal Quila is obviously Delhi.
And Mr. Kumar is back, I'm afraid.
@Tazeen
Thanks.
@Kartikey
Yes it is.
And quite frankly I'm undecided on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Sterner test for the players, no doubt, but is that how the merit of a sport is to be decided?
no, not just Test Cricket.
However, the merit is not in the runs scored, not always. It lies in cricket itself; in the ability to play the drive gracefully, and if inventing a new shot, then executing it with grace and the quality it requires.
Again, grace is extremely subjective, isn't it?
If you were living in 19th century china you might find grace in smal feet while certain Africans find grace in a woman's long neck.
For the record, though, I personally agree with your views: Test cricket is more "graceful" but then what is or is not "graceful" changes with time.
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