da esport bet： Former cricketers – and a hockey star – queue up to be interrogated by our intrepid correspondent, and bowlers get the rough end of the stick
da bet7： Sidharth Monga16-Mar-2009March 1
Napier. Rains make sure that Lionel Richie can’t perform at the Mission Concert. Somehow 11,000 people gather at the venue, a winery, going where involves a steep climb. Napier’s population is under 60,000. The gates open at 3pm and it takes the organisers until 6.30pm to call the concert off. Is the ICC managing the event?<!–March 2
The sky tonight is clear. Never been so close to the stars. The air is just so clean.–>March 3
India register their first win of the tour – in the first ODI. Mark Greatbatchis around. Formerly a pinch-hitting opener in the 1992 World Cup. Moreformerly a dogged Test batsman. Sells apples now. With Martin Crowe,he owns an apple business, and is planning to start exporting to India. Each applehas a sticker with the name and picture of either worthy. Observe there aremore Martin Crowes than Mark Greatbatches in the carton the latter iscarrying. Mark is not complaining about it, though. Bloody journalist, looking forstories everywhere. Steal four apples as consolation.March 5
Back in Wellington. Cricket fans have ensured all hotels are sold out. Another reason tohate these popular shortened formats of the game. Stay in a hostel calledWellywood, which is actually what the local film industry is called, along thelines of Hollywood, Bollywood and so forth. Can work only in the lounge, theonly place with wireless internet. It’s quite chaotic. There’s a giant TV showing rugby, there’s three guys jamming in a corner, there’s two guys playing table football; the pool table is temptingly untaken. Everybody’s having a good time – save for one guy typing what looks like a thesis. What a nerd.March 7
Christchurch. Feels like home. Know everything about ChCh from the previoussix-day visit. Take the shuttle from the airport, as opposed to a taxi. Travelwithin the city on buses. Use the pass as opposed to paying cash. Somewhat like back in Delhi, where, however, passes are often not required: when the conductor asks to see your ticket, just uncouthly say “staff” or “student”. Sometimes it doesn’t work.March 8
Sunday Bloody Sunday. Poor bowlers. Thirty-one sixes are hit, 726 runsscored. Sachin Tendulkar is 37 short of what could have been a double-century when heretires hurt, with five overs to go. New Zealand give India a scare, butfall short.Read how Vic Pollard used to detest cricket on Sundays. A religiousman, he even declined the 1970-71 tour of Australia because of Sundayinvolvement.
Wear a t-shirt with inscription in Punjabi script. A man on the street reads it out loud. Hamilton is full of Punjabi immigrants
Given the small boundaries – as small as 40-odd metres – the mishits would be sixes any day of the week.March 9
Christchurch-Wellington-Hamilton flight. It’s a clear day, and there arevast stretches of light-blue water underneath. It’s like the sky has beeninverted. There is activity in the waters – ships, which looklike white specks from above. Ever seen stars in the day? Staying with U2,it’s a Beautiful Day.March 10
Wear a t-shirt with inscription in Punjabi script. A man on the street readsit out loud. Hamilton is full of Punjabi immigrants.Meet Glenn Turner. The Practical Perfectionist. The Unpopular PracticalPerfectionist. New Zealand’s own Geoffrey Boycott. He’s married to Sukhinder Kaur, aPunjabi he met on the 1969-70 tour to India. Get Glenn to swearin Punjabi. He is too gentle to have any effect. Bishan Bedi calls him”Singh”. Because Kaurs usually marry Singhs. Glenn Singh Turner it shall be, then.March 11
Watch Virender Sehwag go berserk from the famously rickety press box at Seddon Park. These are portable cabins mounted on scaffoldings. Ian Bothamfamously refused to commentate in one. Learn that said box wasmore than 100-feet above the ground, on the fifth level. Today we have the firstand second levels. Interestingly only the Indian media gets the rickety box. NZC must think it is a tourist attraction.Wonder whether Sir Ian refused because of fear of heights or because there isno elevator. Both equally viable reasons.Lionel Richie as a significant percentage of Napier’s population did not see him recently•Philip Massey/Getty ImagesMarch 12
Call Dion Nash before leaving for Auckland. Set up an appointment for 3pm.Reach his plush sea-facing office at about 3.05pm. Notice “3pm” written onthe back of his left hand.Listen in delight to some of the stories he tells, and his gutturallaughter. One of the less funny ones, but one that could explain just why the injuries never left him alone: “I played my first Test in Zimbabwe. We had to stop the game after 20 minutes, because Robert Mugabe turned up to shake all our hands. And we stopped the game for 10 minutes. All these armed guards were there. Weshook his hand, he walked away, got in his Mercedes and drove off. I havewondered ever since if it was a good thing to have my Test cricket blessedby Robert Mugabe. Not so sure.”March 13
Have dinner with Jude Menezes in a revolving restaurant atop the328-metre-high Sky Tower in Auckland. Jude is a former India hockeygoalkeeper, an Olympian. Remembers a penalty shootout against Pakistan inDhaka. Sohail Abbas was quite the terror then. Goalies used to be scared ofHim. It happened to be his shot. “I had to do something,” Jude says. “I startedgiving him the verbals. ‘Bada striker hai to bol ke maar [If you are such a great striker, tell me where you will hit it].'”And Sohail could do that. He could tell you which side he was going andstill beat you. So he asked me where I wanted him to hit. I asked him fortop-right, and there he went. And he just pulled it too far. Moreverbals flew. The referee couldn’t understand any of what went on.” Indiawon the game because of that miss.