The Entertainer leaves the arena...
21st April, venue Barbados cricket ground, at post match presentation ceremony a great (or one of the greatest) cricketer announced his retirement from international cricket. When asked to address the spectators he took the mike and asked a question, “Did I entertain you?” The answer he got was the big “YESSS” from all parts of the stadium. The cricketer in context is none other than Brian Charles Lara. So my choice of topic for this blog is “Entertainment and Lara”.
If we notice the question Lara asked to the spectators carefully, it brings out the basic essence of cricket (or any sport). Cricket is a mean of entertainment which the fans tend to forget. The best instance to support my point is the way we, the Indian cricket fans behaved when Indian cricket team was crashed out of the World Cup 2007 in the first round itself. The response was such that one of my friends announced one year retirement from watching the cricket and another told he would never watch at all. Yes, the defeat was really devastating, but we should not forget that “Win” and “Defeat” are just part and parcel of game and the fun is the most important thing we should extract from a game. The fun may be in watching our own heroes in their best of actions or a better performance from the rivals. Sometimes watching the match between the neutral teams is more pleasurable than watching Indian team in action because of the fact that there wont be an element of “Fan”dom. Watching Adam Gilchrist trashing the Lankan bowlers in the World Cup final was really a great entertainment.
Coming to Lara, we can call him a genius or a gifted batsman with possession of best skills. But above all he was a great entertainer in cricket. For me watching him playing at his best is more enjoyable than watching a movie featuring Amitabh Bachchan (Being a die hard fan of Bachchan saab, with all due respect). I was in school when Lara scored 375 and 501 in test and first class cricket respectively. Since I was in residential school with very less access to TV, I could enjoy those knocks by reading in newspaper. Reading itself was thrilling, how the feeling of live watch would have been! I became a big fan of Lara after that 501 knock and pasted his poster in my room. After I came out of residential school, first time I saw him live on TV was in World Cup 1996 when he produced an excellent century to throw mighty South Africans out of championship in Quarter final stage. The knock of 111 was simply superb. First he started steadily (in fact slowly) which made me wonder whether this was the person I had heard of. The initial foot movements were below par and he was not able to pierce the field. But once he passed the score of 20, the Lara I read in newspaper stories came live. The punching drives off square, beautiful cover drives, awesome pulls and the sight of dancing down the pitch to loft spinners for a six really comprised feast for the cricket lovers. After that brutal knock I witnessed many such great feats from the great Caribbean batsman. Among them the best was the world record breaking knock of 400 against England in 2004. Previous year Australian batsman Matthew Hayden had waltzed past Lara’s 375 to score new world record of 380. But it didn’t take more than 6 months for the great craftsman of batting to regain the record back in his name that too with supplement of another record of scoring 400 for the first time in history of test cricket. His batting prowess was in such a level that next day one of my colleagues (who is not a serious follower of cricket) told he watched the highlights of Lara’s 400 but there was a surprise in store for him. He had actually seen the live coverage. There are many such knocks registered in the name of Lara which are not only great in cricketing terms but also carry a lot of entertainment values. April 21, 2007 will remain as the day of curtains for one of the greatest entertainer of Cricket.
If we notice the question Lara asked to the spectators carefully, it brings out the basic essence of cricket (or any sport). Cricket is a mean of entertainment which the fans tend to forget. The best instance to support my point is the way we, the Indian cricket fans behaved when Indian cricket team was crashed out of the World Cup 2007 in the first round itself. The response was such that one of my friends announced one year retirement from watching the cricket and another told he would never watch at all. Yes, the defeat was really devastating, but we should not forget that “Win” and “Defeat” are just part and parcel of game and the fun is the most important thing we should extract from a game. The fun may be in watching our own heroes in their best of actions or a better performance from the rivals. Sometimes watching the match between the neutral teams is more pleasurable than watching Indian team in action because of the fact that there wont be an element of “Fan”dom. Watching Adam Gilchrist trashing the Lankan bowlers in the World Cup final was really a great entertainment.
Coming to Lara, we can call him a genius or a gifted batsman with possession of best skills. But above all he was a great entertainer in cricket. For me watching him playing at his best is more enjoyable than watching a movie featuring Amitabh Bachchan (Being a die hard fan of Bachchan saab, with all due respect). I was in school when Lara scored 375 and 501 in test and first class cricket respectively. Since I was in residential school with very less access to TV, I could enjoy those knocks by reading in newspaper. Reading itself was thrilling, how the feeling of live watch would have been! I became a big fan of Lara after that 501 knock and pasted his poster in my room. After I came out of residential school, first time I saw him live on TV was in World Cup 1996 when he produced an excellent century to throw mighty South Africans out of championship in Quarter final stage. The knock of 111 was simply superb. First he started steadily (in fact slowly) which made me wonder whether this was the person I had heard of. The initial foot movements were below par and he was not able to pierce the field. But once he passed the score of 20, the Lara I read in newspaper stories came live. The punching drives off square, beautiful cover drives, awesome pulls and the sight of dancing down the pitch to loft spinners for a six really comprised feast for the cricket lovers. After that brutal knock I witnessed many such great feats from the great Caribbean batsman. Among them the best was the world record breaking knock of 400 against England in 2004. Previous year Australian batsman Matthew Hayden had waltzed past Lara’s 375 to score new world record of 380. But it didn’t take more than 6 months for the great craftsman of batting to regain the record back in his name that too with supplement of another record of scoring 400 for the first time in history of test cricket. His batting prowess was in such a level that next day one of my colleagues (who is not a serious follower of cricket) told he watched the highlights of Lara’s 400 but there was a surprise in store for him. He had actually seen the live coverage. There are many such knocks registered in the name of Lara which are not only great in cricketing terms but also carry a lot of entertainment values. April 21, 2007 will remain as the day of curtains for one of the greatest entertainer of Cricket.
posted by Chetan | 3:35 AM
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