TRAVIS HEAD
even the summer showers have proved elusive. Nature has presented a hot and sultry cauldron, and as pitches bake, underlying moisture escapes and the grass wilts, batters nd more allies in the playing surface.
Loaded dice
In Bengaluru, IPL matches tended to get moisturised by impromptu rains. The game’s tenor changes, one-sided scripts alter, and everyone is in with a chance. This year, though, has been a dry aair in the Deccan Plateau. The only natural quirk that most grounds deal with is the dew at night but even that aects the way a spinner grips the ball. Again the dice gets loaded in favour of the batter.
The IPL has always been a bowler’s nightmare. More than a decade ago, even a great like Dale Steyn had to deal with the mayhem in§icted by AB de Villiers. It is not as if aggressive batters suddenly emerged from the woodwork. There was always the great Viv Richards or closer home Kapil Dev. Later, there was Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and many more. It is a legacy that nds wings through Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma even if there are whispers about the former’s strike-rate.
But as the IPL and other T20 leagues spin their own frenetic yarns, how many knocks do we remember? Is there anything as eternal as V.V.S. Laxman’s 281 against the Aussies at Eden Gardens in 2001? The current trend is about a series of exclamation marks on successive nights, but the morning after, fortied with black coee, seems to dissipate memories.
At times this feels like book-cricket, which we all played during boring lectures at school and college. Flip open a book, see the last digit and calculate the score, and if it is a zero, moan a bit and mark a batter’s exit. Looks like fans have signed a Faustian pact with rapid pleasure while forgetting about enduring joy.
Once upon a time there was a case for aesthetic-annihilation too, pardon the alliteration and the obvious oxymoron. Readers would remember Kapil hoisting four consecutive sixes o Eddie Hemmings, Sachin lashing out against Henry Olonga or Mohammad Azharuddin wading into Lance Klusener, but even those §ashes of brilliance are fading.
Sport is not just about re§exive highs, it is also about nostalgia’s depth. The IPL and its batting marauders have set a scorching pace but a few weeks down the line, will all this linger?