IPL 6: Where is the nastiness, man?

Hugs and bonding all around. What ever happened to good ol’ cricket?

Last night, as is the case with most nights through April and May, there was an IPL game. It was a game between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Mumbai Indians. The game was going along nicely. Chasing a modest target, Chennai were looking almost down and out. I say almost simply because a certain M.S. Dhoni was at the crease.

CSK needed about 40 runs to win off 3 overs and in came Pollard to bowl. He bowled one. Out of the park. Six. He bowled the next. Along the ground. Four. Suddenly, it was manageable. Hope returned. And then Pollard ran in to bowl. Dhoni took strike; he geared up. Pollard steamed in; he stopped. He went back to the top of his mark. The battle lines were drawn.

Pollard steamed in. Dhoni took guard; he geared up. Pollard was at the top of his delivery stride. Dhoni pulled out. This means war. It’s on! Only, it wasn’t. A bit of quid pro quo is something that one expects in competitive sport. In cricket, more so. However, the subsequent reaction, completely made one go ‘meh!’

After the little stunt, Pollard started smiling at Dhoni. Dhoni, for his part, tried on his poker face but it was nowhere near good. A smile escaped his lips. Of course, to stamp his win, he proceeded to take off his pad, elaborately untie his shoelaces and then retie them; but by then the damage was done. The game was beyond nastiness. There was no spite and, as a result, no bite.

In years gone by, we had bowlers gnarling at each other like pit-bulls at the edge of their leashes. Bowlers who got whacked for sixes looked at batsmen like they accused their mothers of certain unspeakable allegations. Batsmen, for their part, looked the bowler in the eye and quite simply said, ‘fetch!’

With the advent of the IPL, all that seems to have gone. Ponting captains the Men in Blue and Dhoni, a team in yellow. Indians and Australians play side by side; Englishmen have their arms around their English counterparts. There seems to be more competitiveness among countrymen than between countries’ men. A case in point: the run-in between Pollard and Bravo last night.

Bouncers, sledging and a bit of jostling – all the elements that made cricket a fun game

Everyone loves a good fight; it lifts both teams, peps up the atmosphere and generally adds that little spice to the game. With the advent of club cricket, as it were, that element of the game seems to be diminishing. Take the India-Australia series that just concluded. If there were one word to describe it, that word would be ‘docile.’ Yes, Australia did lose 4-0 but that was not the point. The Australia of old has also been outplayed at times. However, they had never been this submissive. Perhaps they need another punter at the helm, not a pup. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

The greatest contests in cricket are the ones that have an underlying nastiness to them. There needs to be a fuse in the first place for a spark to light it. In cricket today, that fuse seems to be in short supply. The spark might exist, but in the absence of the fuse, what does the spark light?

The earliest sports in the world pitted man against beast in the Colosseums of Rome. Subsequent sports aimed to be fairer by pitting men against fellow men. The crowds, however, remained homo sapiens. They had had a taste of blood and they loved it. They loved it so much that they wanted it. Thus contact sports. were created. However, that was not enough. Non-contact sports could not be docile now, could they?

Of course not. Thus rivalries cropped up in cricket. And in golf, and in every other sport. And then man apparently became civilized. Hogwash! We need that sporting spirit, man. We need a bit of blood. We need nastiness. We need spice.We need gamesmanship. In a word, we need Sreesanth back.