The English Game: cricket tests the boundaries
As I was making my way to the theatre for Richard Bean's superb new play, I passed a cricket game in progress in Guildford's Stoke Park. The sun was still shining, the shadows were lengthening, and the scene looked like an English idyll of peaceful contentment.
That, of course, is cricket at a distance. Up close - particularly if you are playing as a low-ranking batsman with a match to save, or as an incompetent fielder with an impossible catch to take - cricket can be a hell of fear, panic and recrimination.
Bean, one of our finest and most prolific dramatists, has played a good deal of club cricket over the years, and has the knackered knees to prove it. His play is a sometimes spiky valentine to the game that has absorbed him for so long, as he depicts an amateur London team, the Nightwatchmen, on a hot August Sunday.
All the cricketing action takes place off stage. What we see is the team on the boundary before, during and after the match, cracking jokes, gossiping idly, winding each other up and fretting about the match in progress.
It is no mean technical achievement to bring more than a dozen characters, with ages ranging from 13 to 89, to dramatic life, and Bean is excellent at the dynamics of male relationships - the joshing banter, the genuine sympathy, the sudden moments of cruelty, tension and rivalry. And, though Bean is hardly the first to seize on cricket as an emblem of England itself, this often wildly funny play proves a satisfying and at times provocative state-of-the-nation drama.
By and large, the team are a tolerant, easy-going bunch. There's a Hindu among the players who is also gay, and a black man, but there is no sense of prejudice except from a boorish guest player mistrusted by all.
But there is an extraordinary passage when one of the most likeable and longest-serving members of the team, and a former radical Sixties firebrand to boot, turns on radical Islam and the fact that we are sleep-walking into an Islamic caliphate. He describes suicide bombers as "racists, fascists and bastards", deplores the credulity of right-on, anti-American attitudes, and insists that "self-hatred is the cancer at the heart of our nation".
It's always dangerous to assume that any character's words represent the view of the playwright, and here another character, a sympathetic GP, leaves the team because he is so upset by his friend's remarks. But this play seems to me to mark a defining moment on the English stage when the conventional liberal pieties that largely obtain in our theatre are finally put under fierce scrutiny, and Jihadist Islam is at last denounced as a malign evil.
It is, however, only one aspect of a splendidly rich play, and Sean Holmes's production for the Headlong company, beautifully designed by Anthony Lamble, finds all its strengths.
Robert East combines the angry and the rueful as the devoted cricketer who hates what is happening to England, Sean Murray is continuously hilarious as a garrulous middle-aged rock star, while Fred Ridgeway achieves a memorable combination of meanness of spirit and emotional neediness as the visiting player.
(c) Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008
Ishant Sharma inspires mobile, online games
NEW DELHI: Endorsement offers continue to pour in for India spearhead Ishant Sharma and the beanpole pacer would soon feature in a mobile and an online game created around his performance.
The lanky speedster, playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Kolkata Knight Riders, entered a tie-up with Jump Games and Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd -- gaming divisions of the Reliance Entertainment -- which would see him feature in a mobile and an online game.
The mobile game, called Ishant Sharma Cricket Fever, features a 10-over match with the pacer bowling at other players.
Power Bowler is the browser-based cricket match, which would allow the user step into Ishant's shoes and bowl five overs to a batsman.
"Today the youngsters are no longer content with usual ways of playing a game. They want it across all means of communication media, be it television, mobile or the internet," Ishant was quoted as saying in a release here today.
"I'm excited about this new online and mobile avatars as it gives me another opportunity to connect with the cricket crazy people," he said.
(c) 2008 Times Internet Limited
Indian Premier League merchandise on sale online
NEW DELHI: Indian Premier League cricket fever is all set to spread online with the merchandise of Chennai and Punjab teams being available on shopping website eBay for avid fans from Tuesday.
Right from Lassi Glasses to Mugs to Badges, the merchandise of the two IPL teams, Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings are on sale on the website.
The merchandise are offered by eBay in association with Hot Muggs, a brand owned by Rajesh Metal Industries.
Rajesh Metal Industries has entered into a licensing rights agreement with Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings to produce select merchandise.
Also, these would be marketed under the Hot Muggs brand in retail stores. The official merchandise would be available on eBay India throughout the IPL series.
"We are delighted to partner with Hot Muggs to power the sale of these exquisite IPL merchandise as part of eBay's attempt to cater to the wide interests of its online shoppers. We are sure true cricket fans will be thrilled to buy and own the merchandise at great prices," Deepa Thomas, Senior Manager for Pop Culture, eBay India said in a statement.
While a red coffee mug featuring some of the Kings XI Punjab players including Yuvraj Singh, Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth would be available for Rs 250, mugs having Chennai Super Kings would be on sale for Rs 250 and Rs 300, respectively.
(c) 2008 Times Internet Limited
They don't know cricket, but know their business
Geoffrey Hampson doesn't know much of the rules of cricket. But, as the CEO of the Vancouver-based Live Current Media group, he pulled off a major coup by upstaging many mainstream media companies and bagging a $50 million (Rs 200 crore) contract to host the IPL's online content.
"I don't understand the sport completely but I do have some good tutors," the 50-year old Hampson said on a lighter note when asked how he got interested in his company's biggest ever single deal.
"I'm picking up the basics of the game and have some people of Indian descent in the company to help me understand the nuances," he told the Hindustan Times in a phone interview. Until Thursday, the 22-employee company was unknown in India. It was quite a surprise when the IPL and the LCM announced they had inked a 10-year-deal on online content.
The LCM will manage and run two websites to generate revenue, IPLT20.com and BCCI.tv. The IPLT20.com was launched on Friday.
According to the LCM, now fans from around the world can have complete access to the 44-day long season. The site offers access to official league content including audio-visual content, photographs, live scoreboards and summaries, match results, Fantasy Cricket, player interviews, profiles, schedules, statistics, ticketing and fan interaction through polls, contests and newsletters.
As per the terms of the deal, LCM will make a guaranteed payment of $5m a year - $3m for the BCCI and a separate $2m for the IPL - for the online rights. After that, revenue will be shared between the partners based on advertising, sponsorship and merchandise sales through the two websites.
It will be a social networking site revolving around the cricket sport. It would also have a fantasy cricket application for Facebook. The video footage and pictures of the IPL fixtures will be for sale on the website, however no live streaming of games will be offered.
Hampson said that the big numbers of $5 million a year made business sense. "We are very confident of the commerce part of the deal." He added that there was a tough bidding process involved in clinching the deal but LCM's ownership of cricket.com definitely played a positive role. The LCM thrives on its assets - some of the most sought after web addresses online. The company owns about 800 web addresses, of which 30 are premium names, including cricket.com, boxing.com, karate.com, brazil.com, indonesia.com, greatbritain.com, malaysia.com, vietnam.com, body.com, number.com, leisure.com, call.com, electronic.com and one of the largest e-commerce sites, called perfume.com, which alone generates $10 million revenue a year.
Hampson said that the LCM's major focus is "building destination hubs for passionate people. When we were expanding our horizons, the passion in India about cricket led us to the country. It was at a time IPL was shaping up. We approached them and the rest is history."
This is the company's first foray into the Indian market and it hopes to bring the North American model of e-commerce - by which online shoppers pay a premium to buy memorabilia and autographed items through a licensed vendor, to India.
(c) Hindu Times
Was the Kanpur pitch doctored to suit India?
Although India came back to draw the series with South Africa, their performance at Ahmedabad was so bad it left questions about how good they really are. The Kanpur pitch really helped MS Dhoni's men, leaving this Indian writer less than happy about how his team managed to square the rubber.
India managed to come back and level the series with South Africa with a win at Kanpur.
Ahmedabad exposed the weakness of Indian batting against genuine seam attack - and the South Africans were lucky not to have faced any Indian pace bowler in form.
Had Ishant Sharma played at Ahmedabad, things could have been different and the Proteas would not have won so comprehensively. It was sad to see the pitch being doctored so blatantly to suit the home team in order to level the series. The Proteas had to take it and they did not whine or complain. They relied on their strengths and their pace bowlers made sure that India did not capitalise on their advantage.
Since the wicket was prepared to help India square the series, I will not give our team credit. I feel it is unfair to prepare a pitch so blatantly to negate any advantage to the visiting team. I wish all wickets in India were prepared to suit either side, so that bowlers do not get run down. In fact, the Chennai should be disqualified.
India should be worried about a number of things - the BCCI's greediness seems to be growing by the day. They do not seem to care about the welfare of their players. There is too much cricket and the players will burn out with this kind of scheduling. No-one seems to raise any complaints against this - the Cricket players have no choice. At least the BCCI must take efforts to build a huge talent pool from which players of high quality can be taken while others rest. India needs double the number of quality pace bowlers to keep up with the demands. MS Dhoni is going to break his back soon.
South Africa did well in this series. They came with a goal for their young team to get experience playing on the sub-continent.
The future for South Africa looks very good. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini were impressive. Once Andre Nel returns, they will have a formidable pace attack. In my view South Africa are the real number two in Test cricket. If they can come to India and go one-up by beating the home team comprehensively, it shows their potential. India had to doctor the pitch to come back.
On a separate note, I don't know how the future of Test cricket is going to be, if IPL becomes a success. Many top international players may not show a keen interest in excelling in Test cricket. Their focus will be on early retirement and being available for a 45-day tournament. It would be prudent to make a deal with these players rather than banish them.
The BCCI needs to be dismantled and replaced with a new system that runs things professionally, providing care and attention to its players, improving standards, and setting up up an infrastructure for talent spotting.
This series stood out as a healthy and decent sporting contest, a credit to both sets of players. But in some ways it was a boring series. I was surprised to see empty seats in the stadiums. This series, like the Pakistan one last November, was hastily inserted.
This should have been a stand alone series for the year, with probably five Test matches. India should change schedule to play one home series and one away series with major teams and other one-day tournaments with other teams.
(c) SportBuzz
Monetizing cricket
If the face-off between BCCI and the media is not resolved quickly, it would be a disaster given the cult following of cricket in the subcontinent in general and India in particular
The face-off between the media and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI, over the rules for photographic and online coverage of the first ever DLF Indian Premier League, or IPL, throws up very vexing questions for which there are no pat answers. And this is regardless of how the dispute is eventually resolved.
To recap, the dispute was triggered because the rules, released on Thursday, require that media photographers, accredited to cover the event, sign off their copyrights. It is also not the first occasion for such a conflict. Cricket Australia, BCCI's Australian counterpart, had last year made a similar demand ahead of the Test series between the host country and Sri Lanka. They eventually backed down following resistance from the media.
Essentially, the underlying principle in both instances is the same. Seeking to maximize their revenues, the cricket authorities in both countries want to monetize every aspect of the game. On the face of it, say legal observers, this argument cannot be faulted. Especially since it is a privately organized event, for which entry is based only on tickets.
Yet, going down this path is questionable. For those unable to witness the event, especially those who cannot afford to pay for entry, the media, including print publications, is the only alternative. In other words, the public would lose out if the face-off is not resolved amicably. This would be a disaster given the cult following of cricket in the subcontinent in general and India in particular.
Further, the question arises: How does one fix the monetary value of a photograph published in the media? Not only does the circulation vary across newspapers and magazines, alternative platforms such as the Internet queer such an estimate even further.
In all likelihood, there would be a compromise. It may not be the end of the matter, though. The fact that BCCI pushed its case, despite the fact that Cricket Australia had backed down less than six months ago, suggests that the issue will return. It will be in fairness to all parties concerned that both sides debate the matter thoroughly. Else the conflict may arise again- at the cost of sports viewers.
Copyright (c) 2007 HT Media
Million-dollar Roy uncertain
Andrew Symonds has admitted the door is still ajar for him to go to Pakistan after Hyderabad shelled out US$1.35m for his Indian Premier League services on the presumption that he would not tour.
Amidst a warning from captain Ricky Ponting that he may be in breach of his Cricket Australia contract if he opted not to tour the region, Symonds insisted that he was yet to make a final decision.
"The door's ajar, but you know where I stand on it," Symonds said.
"At the time that decision happens I'll have to make a decision that I'll have to stand by. Safety is at a premium, that's all it is really.
"Make as big or little a deal out of it as you like, but to me that's the problem we're faced with, otherwise I'd be saying I'll go there and play cricket.
The news will disappoint Hyderabad, who secured the services of Symonds for the highest amount of any overseas player, and second overall to Indian one-day and Twenty20 skipper MS Dhoni. Their bid was most likely based on the presumption that the outspoken Symonds would not tour Pakistan and thus be available for all of their IPL fixtures.
If Symonds is available for 25% or less of the matches, Hyderabad are not obliged to pay out his full wage.
Ponting, echoed by CA spokesman Peter Young, said that Symonds' non-participation in the Pakistan series would put him in breach of his CA contract.
"Whether it's unfair or not, we've all signed off on the contract," Ponting said.
"That's where the grey area will come out of this. There will be lots of safety and security measures put in place and there'll be all sorts of security checks done throughout Pakistan over the next few weeks to let us know as a player group whether it's actually safe to tour or not. If it is seen to be safe and you don't go, I think that's where the breach of your contract would be."
Young added: "The situation with the 25 players who have signed CA contracts is that they have signed a contract which binds them to play cricket as and when CA schedules cricket. To not play cricket as and when CA determines would put a player into a breach of contract situation."
Australia are currently down to play three Tests and five one-day matches in Pakistan, with ongoing negotiations likely to result in the offer of a shortened series.
(c) 2000-2008 Cricket-Online
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