Prescribe when the band can play
I ATTENDED the last two home matches of the Warriors and could not be more proud of the team.
Given sponsorship issues and lack of big names, they have done Port Elizabeth proud.
Though they lost against the Titans in the final, they can hold their heads high and I, for one, will be there next year for all their home games.
But coming back to the band, on the match on Friday March 17, being St Patrick’s Day, the Castle Corner bar was offering reduced prices on various brands which was popularly taken up, judging by the number of folk lurching out of the exits at the end of the match, some still clutching their plastic mugs like trophies. The large crowd of people around the band near the end of the game seemed to allow the band to sink into a tuneless mess of endless and boring “choruses”.
On the following Thursday, given that it was a midweek match, there were fewer people in attendance, but it was notable that the band played with more clarity and less of the on-and-on vocal accompaniment.
It would seem then that the band left to its own devices could become more acceptable at limited overs games, but certainly there is no place for it at test matches. This is the purist form of cricket and should be respected as such.
I would however like to raise this question: how come that the stadium announcer and the fleeting music between overs is cut off immediately the bowler commences his run-up, but the band can play continuously through play.
Why is there a rule for one and not the other? Just asking.
Malcolm Dodds, Port Elizabeth