Comments on: The Gully Cricket League

By: Biswajit

Biswajit — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:24:10 +0000

So true!!!
and technically the “Indian team” does represent a private entity and not the nation.

By: yourfan2

yourfan2 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:40:32 +0000

You are making a big mistake here GB. I will disagree with you on this one. You must remember that cricket now is going thru what baseball went thru years earlier. All these innovations etc that cricket have a baseball influence on them. In America, the baseball franchises are worshipped. Not the players. It is true that player team loyalty is a great thing. But given the IPL, players have found out that they should be loyal to only thing in life- money. Same thing in baseball- the old Red Sox fan who thinks that baseball is still a pastoral sport would shrug off the drug controversy and think that the player who left Red Sox this year is a traitor while the one who did not leave is a “loyal” guy. The latter simply did not have a better offer from any other franchise, or was bound by a contract.

Now given the situation India is, we still and will continue to support national team cricket games, as we dont have anything else to support. We cant play any other sport, nor do we have the inclination to be good in any other sport. Nor is there any support at any level. So this is the opium of the masses. Now with 2020, we get into zonal and local teams. Still, given the intra-cultural differences, you will identify yourself more with the Kolkata team than the Punjab one. A decade or two later, with more people moving around, these lines will be blurred, the nation will be even more richer, people will have money and people will develop these loyalties like that. Trust me. That is what these administrators hope for. People need entertainment. So if 2 guys go to a sports bar in Delhi in 2015, they will say, “Oh I am a Delhi fan”, irrespective of Virender Sehwag plays for Chennai or not. Same thing ….like Yankees or a Mets or a Red Sox thing. “I support the “team” “, will be the motto. In a facebook era, eventually, whether you like it or not, you will find yourself gravitating to one of these clusters.

If you, one who appreciates good cricket, does not….no worries….the masses will do it…and like it…and eat it. Is it good? Again…as I said…in the absence of NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, that is all you got. So you will have something on TV so that when you go to that sportsbar in 2015, you will say…hey Chennai…thats my team. So why do the players play such nonsense games?….money. Sometimes, such tournaments…as the recent one …can be quite entertaining one too. The only way to stop a hundred premier leagues all around the year is therefore to have a competition sport, which will have its share of eyeballs (like say MLB2 in winter cant happen as its NFL time). We dont have any other sport. So its cricket all the way baby….anyyy kind.

By: Trayambak

Trayambak — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:18:32 +0000

I think arnab is busy with preperation of his book release , because I dont think any other engagement is worthy enough to keep him away from keyboard.

By: Neeraj

Neeraj — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:56:36 +0000

Agree on the absence of loyalty in franchise-formats. I was having a conversation with a colleague about the rabid behavior of football fans (not the much revered “foot” version but the bastardized run-with-it travesty in America) and he corrected me by pointing out that I must have seen College Football fans. He further clarified his point by comparing College Football – where university loyalties run high and the blood flows unstaunched – to the NFL where star players could just as well land up in a different jersey for the next season. There was no point in being loyal to a team or a player because they just didn’t “feel it”.

By: Munna Mobile

Munna Mobile — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:14:52 +0000

Ages since we heard about the erstwhile ‘rising star in the Indian movie firmament’ – Nabh Kumar Raju.Any updates ?

@himesh – Tut tut..When was the last time you got de-wormed ?

By: himesh reshammiya

himesh reshammiya — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:44:36 +0000

u stopped blogging? Or is it a strategy to space out your posts like my movies to get maximum atttention from fans?

By: Naveen

Naveen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:34:09 +0000

GB, Please comment on: http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/oct/26/pak-convinced-about-india-aiding-taliban.htm

By: Debashish Ghosh

Debashish Ghosh — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:46:35 +0000

I recently went to see David Beckham play in Los Angeles against Barcelona (in a friendly game). He had recently returned to LA Galaxy after being on ‘loan’ to AC Milan I believe, for about a year. He was booed by the local crowd as he walked out onto the field.
I thought I’d mention this since you stated in this post that the soccer players play for one team at a time. Now, to be fair to the comparison that you have made with this 20-20 league, while it’s true that Beckham did not exactly turn out for AC Milan just because LA Galaxy ‘did not qualify’ for EPL I’d probably still be hesitant to fully agree that the soccers players play for “one team at a time”.

By: Tejaswy

Tejaswy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:28:53 +0000

Dear great bong,

You life in gully cricket is just like my life in gully cricket.In Delhi I was made the “beech ka bicchu”.The primary job of the beech ka bicchu was to run and fetch the balls which were left off by the keeper. He had to field for both teams and he could not bowl.But of course he got to bat in both the teams.

This was done because the beech ka bicchu had superior batting and bowling skills when compared to the rest of the team members (Good for nothing, no batting, no fielding, no bowling, AKA all rounder)

But then there was this one time I won a very important match for my loosing team, I accidentally nicked the ball to the third man for 4 runs.
We won , My team actually won!!!!!
Boy i was so happy that i could not sleep that night.

By: dix

dix — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:01:49 +0000

@Dip

Hope English football doesn’t go indian cricket way. Thats the only solace I find in sports channels these days.