Just changed the template in my blog to green ( hoped Pakistan would win , they did not and still have some shade of green in Australian dress ). Was watching the match played at Barbados and saw that all the stands had been named after their famous cricket players. One could see the Joel Garner stand , the Gary Sobers pavilion, the 3Ws ( walcott, worell , weekes) stand, the Greenidge and Haynes stand. Even had a Cozier and Short media center. This is how much the Barbadians idolise their cricketeers. In late 90s one can remember Anderson Cummins being dropped from the West Indies team and the Barbadians protested by boycotting the match itself for a short while.
In contrast in India ,we have some stands at the Wankhede named after Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar. We have the stadiums named after Gandhis ( every conceivable landmark in a city is named after either Rajiv , Indira or Mahatma Gandhi in that order , Congress still does not have the courage to name something after SONIA ). Every city in India must be having an MG Road for sure. In the South , the names are slightly closer to the game itself ( MA Chidambaram in Chennai , Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore named after the Board Presidents during that time ). Kochi went for the same Nehru stadium when they built a new one and which will be used by the YET TO BE NAMED Kochi Team.
Friends here were mentioning that Kochi Kokonuts will be an apt name for the franchisee now that the WARRIORS name has been taken by PUNE. Thankfully our passion for wildlife has stretched only to TIGERS in the names and still cant match the Australian BULLS, REDBACKS , WARRIORS, TIGERS etc.
As we run out of space in stadia , we will soon see each corner in the stadium with a name ( cow corner and country will soon become extinct terms now that Sydney Hill has been torn down and replaced with a stand ). New Zealand still would have some hills and grazing sheep watching cricket as TV rights and viewership have become far more important than local public watching.
Coming closer home, we will still have the odd Sher E Kashmir stadium or Bhagat Singh Stadium to commemorate our martyrs or remember the whole Indian team itself which recently got buried in the Carribean.
2 comments:
The part on the Gandhis and the part on the Bulls, Setbacks etc very nice. Loved the latter very much. Couldn't agree more.
'New Zealand still would have some hills and grazing sheep watching cricket as TV rights and viewership have become far more important than local public watching.':) Now thats some subtle satire there. This post came alive for people like me who don't measure up anywhere close to your cricket 'knowhows' and 'know whats'!!
In fact, I dont think there are any better countries in naming their local teams than the US, and maybe Australia...
In USA, I was having a conversation yesterday with a business associate. He asked me if I follow the NFL. I said that after being a fan of ALL BLACKS in rugby for 10 years, NFL seems to be less of a man-sport for me to enjoy.
Then, I told him that I used to follow NBA till 2004. What followed was a discussion on all NBA teams from Bulls to Heats, Lakers and to Jazz, and the players who played in those teams for the last ten years.
Funny how your piece can be easily related to that....
Good writing, and as Johnnie Walker would say... keep blogging :-)
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