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"It’s a crazy world!"
December 3, 2005, 5:00 pm GMT
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These Indians are crazy, said Obelix with his trademark “Toc Toc Toc” on the head, in one of those landmark Asterix series of books. You know what, he was spot on. How else will you explain our election jamborees, where politicians spend more money wooing voters with booze than they will ever spend on roads and water? How else will you explain the utterly bizarre traffic on Indian roads, where a swanky Merc constantly jostles with an auto rickshaw for road space that is sufficient only a cycle to go with some degree of comfort? How else will you explain the typical Hindi cinema storyline, which is as far detached from your life and mine as the US is from cricket?
Duh!! What was that again? US and cricket? You don’t get it man! These US dudes think cricket is…hey hold on, these US dudes don’t think about cricket at all! Some people might be tempted to say that these US dudes don’t think at all, but that is another long story. So what’s with this US/Cricket thingy? Simple – I am one of those millions of Indians (read crazy) who think that God is Tendulkar, and Tendulkar is God. Well, you know the type. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t! Yessir, I hold the honorary title of being cricket’s craziest fan, and guess what, I am stuck in bright and sunny New York (with temperatures of a sweltering 0 degrees Centigrade!!), watching people kill each other in the name of football.
These Indians are crazy. Just one look at these cricket-mad Indians in the US is testimony enough. Watching Chris Gayle, with the footwork of an elephant, smashing our pie-chuckers (yeah, bowlers) all around the park is not the greatest show in the world, especially if you and 10 others are in one small room, peering into a PC monitor, watching this match on the Internet. Man, watching cricket in the US sucks. You wanna know why?
· The Internet speed (if you can call it that) is such that Shoaib Akhtar will resemble Mohinder Amarnath in runup speed. It is like watching an entire match on super-duper slo mo.
· PCs are for programs. Nothing like watching a match on TV, with a remote in hand to mute Sixer Sidhu and his inspirational oratories.
· No ads on the Net dude! How will I know how much punch my Suzuki has without Sachin telling me? Or why Rahul (and therefore I) should use Castrol for my engine, and All Clear for my dandruff.
· Ok, so you do get some cricket on cable if you cough up some obscene amounts of money – but guess what, you have to redesign your house to make it South-facing!
· Oh yeah, the trivial matter of staying up whole night to watch an India game does not work wonders for your career in these dull times.
But you have got to see it to believe it. You can take a man out of India, but you can’t take cricket out of the man. The fever and passion for the game here is unbelievable – and easy accessibility to fellow sub-continent residents (yeah, the Pakistanis) makes cricket and India’s performance here even more important. Internet or not, if you are the fly on the wall when two Indians in the US meet and get talking, chances are they are talking about the next layoff in their company or why Sehwag cannot be the next Tendulkar.
You know what’s my problem? I got to watch some games the US – and I mean basketball and football. So?? I couldn’t help comparing the overall experience with watching a cricket match in India. The US stadia are no great shakes, but compared to their Indian equivalents, this must be Utopia. Watching a cricket match in any of India’s numerous grounds must be the equivalent of having sex on a dentist’s chair. You have the riveting fun, but the dentist’s drill is right in your face. No legion of passionate fans is treated as shabbily as the paying spectators in Indian grounds. The seats are terrible (if there are any seats in the first place), the food is atrocious, the loos are as clean as Dharavi would be, and the only saving grace is the great game on the ground. These Indian administrators are really tempting fate by having such appalling conditions in grounds. No wonder that our junta in the grounds start pelting stuff, especially is the cricket is not interesting. After all, that is the only thing that keeps the average Jai Kishen in the ground going.
Now if only our administrators could take a bunch of leaves or three from these US stadium organizers, and make cricket watching in grounds a less harrowing experience. Now if only India could clone Shoaib Akhtar without the tampering and chucking streak. If only Sidhu would keep quiet for 2 minutes at a stretch. If only broad band Internet connections lived up to its name. Now if only live cricket could make an entry in the US. If only….
Wishful thinking, eh? Hope springs eternal. I am crazy. Join the gang!
I.I.T Cricket Club
Illinois Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) is renowned all over for its academic accomplishments. Even then, its exploits in the sports arena haven’t been lagging far behind. Being a university of a multi-cultural population the people of I.I.T have always tried to bridge the gap of ignorance of games played by each country. It was with this intention that the I.I.T Cricket Club was established.
Established back in 1997 by a few dedicated individuals the aim of the I.I.T Cricket Club was to bring the game of cricket right to the doorstep of the entire I.I.T community. When the I.I.T cricket club was started the game of cricket was a relatively unknown game to the rest of the I.I.T community. Although faced with a daunting task the members carried on unfazed, organizing various events to popularize this game. It is this source of motivation that still drives the current members of the Cricket Club in pursuing the goal of popularization of the game.
The members of the Cricket Club, in accordance with its aims, had organized tournaments during the summer 2002 for making this game popular amongst the entire I.I.T community. It consisted of the “TECH LEAGUE”, which was a success beyond any imagination. Buoyed by the success of the Tech League, the I.I.T Cricket Club members decided to host another tournament. This time plans were laid to make the second tournament bigger and better than the previous Tech League. These efforts have culminated into the hosting of “SUMMER CRICKET FIESTA 2002”.
The “Summer Cricket Fiesta” tournament had been arranged to accommodate more teams and span more days than the Tech League. It commenced on the 3rd of August 2002 and spanned three weekends, with the final played on the 18th of August 2002.
he Cricket Club has also initiated other significant steps to further kindle the interest of the I.I.T community in the game. It regularly holds telecast sessions of matches being played. The I.I.T Cricket Club purchases the right to telecast the matches from whomsoever is concerned. Then with the help of I.I.T’s efficient personnel routs the satellite signal to venues inside I.I.T. This is done to improve the general awareness of the game. Recently, we enjoyed huge success during the ICC knockout trophy 2002. About 400 odd students turned up in the early wee hours to catch a glimpse of the Indian cricket matches. This itself speaks of the volume of effort that the IIT Cricket Club has been doing to publicize cricket. The tournaments that have been arranged in the recent two months have been the West Indies tour of India and the on-going India’s tour of New Zealand. To say that we are just concerned about India’s matches and not about others would be a shame. We recently covered the Pakistan tour of South Africa by obtaining the telecast rights from Willow TV (an internet portal). We as an organization try to cover the various teams, which play cricket and try to serve every international student in IIT.
Right now major steps are being taken by the club to telecast the World Cup. It must be mentioned that ours is the ONLY CLUB in the Chicago-land area that is telecasting this event for the fans. We hope to reach students from all the neighboring colleges and universities to participate in the once in four years event. As of now we have not yet received any information about the telecast rights for the WORLD CUP, but rest assured as soon as the rights are obtained the schedule will be put up on the web at www.iit.edu/~iitcc. We would request all the inquisitive supporters to check our website and to send us comments and suggestions.
IIT Cricket Club also encourages people who are avid players of the game to play in the Mid-West Cricket Conference, one of the several leagues that span the entire country. This league propels players into participating in various tourneys throughout the Midwest region. It is a part of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA). Students like Arjun Parvathaneni, Arvind Mahadevan, Abhishek Sachdev, Sanjay Natrajan, Ramesh Avernani, and Lesley Ponneri (All students of IIT) have all been playing regularly for various clubs of the Midwest Cricket Conference.
Another significant step has been the organization of the “UNIVERSITY LEAGUE”, wherein teams from different universities compete against each other. Last year the I.I.T Cricket Team had played with the team from St.Louis University. This time plans are on to play teams from University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and Western Michigan University-Kalamazoo. Details about these matches would be provided later on the web site.
The IIT Cricket Club has a Board that manages all cricket activities on campus that
include organizing tourneys with the help of activities coordinators. The board comprises of Rajesh David (President), Krishna Vijayaraghavan (Vice President), Vasudeo Gavaskar (Treasurer), Vivek Nagar (Secretary), Arjun Shrinath (Content Writer), Amit Manthanwar (Web Designer), Mihir Pipalia and Sukhada Agashe (Marketing Group). The list is long and the other invaluable contributors are listed at the I.I.T Cricket Website at: http://www.iit.edu/~iitcc |
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