Sotto Voce

29-Aug-2010

Its Sunday, 8.30 AM, and I’ve been up for an hour and a half. Made my morning coffee, read the newspaper (starting with the sports pages, as is my wont – read about Pakistan’s batting collapse at the Lord’s test), and then went online. First stop, as always, is login to Facebook and open Cricinfo in another tab. Finished with a quick check on Facebook in 5 minutes, and then turned to Cricinfo. First story there is “Lord’s test in spot-fixing allegations“. “Uh-oh!” go I and then spend possibly the most disillusioning 20 minutes I can recall having spent in the last few years, reading through the News Of The World’s exposé.

“Spot-fixing” to some people might sound like a welder doing a quick job of spot-welding on some cracked piping. In cricket, spot-fixing is essentially a method of cheating by pre-arranging passages of play, rather than the overall outcome of the game. Say, that a bookie offers odds of 1 in 3 against the opening batsmen scoring 80 runs in the first 10 overs. After the first three overs, the score is 40. Looks like a fairly safe bet, given that half the target’s been achieved in less than one-third of the deliveries given. Look again – unbeknownst to you, you poor mug, the bookie, through a fixer, has pre-ordained that the players go all out in the first three overs to up the run rate, lengthen the odds, then slow to a crawl. Or it could be as mundane as “player X will bowl 2 no-balls in his 3rd over” and give really long odds – punters will bet on anything – and then when it actually happens, the bookie’s made a packet, the foolish sap who’s made the bet beats himself up over his stupidity (and looks for ways to make-up his loss), and the player is apparently £10,000 richer.

To those of us who live and breathe cricket, it means much more. It means that the fix is in. It means the end of something beautiful and pure. It means that the soul of the game we love and cherish is sullied by sordid back-alley deals between shifty-eyed bookies and players with flexible bodies and even more flexible morals.

Call me old-fashioned; heck, call me naive. But I still believe in the old-school virtues of honour and duty. I believe that sports should make you a better man. I believe that there is no greater honour than playing for your country. God knows, these guys are demi-gods for us lesser mortals precisely because they are so privileged and so good at what they do. I’ve been watching Mohammad Amir, the 18 year old fast bowling sensation and been amazed by his skill and awed by the fact that he’s 18 and already so good. Now, however, to me at least, he’ll forever remain the 18 year old who sold-out his country and even cynically kissed the hallowed turf on getting a five-wicket haul. Look at it this way – in 58 years and 352 test matches, 202 people have represented Pakistan. If that is not an exclusive club, then I don’t know what is. Now it makes you wonder, how many of them….

There’s a small-boy part of me who doesn’t want to believe all this. A part of me that still hopes and says, “say it ain’t so”….

Hilarious scenes from a forgotten gem of Indian cinema -- Bollywood Calling by Nagesh Kukunoor! I saw this movie earlier this evening and decided to edit some scenes out and put it up on YouTube… Enjoy! (especially you Guru!)!!

A friend e-mailed me earlier today with this:

“I know you are in Fed’s corner but request your unbiased insights. For the last 2 years, I”ve been just a lil sick of hearing drooling Fed fans going on and on and on about Fed being the greatest player of ALL times and all that. I’ve put down my thoughts on the same in the debate below – but based on your encyclopaedic knowledge and genuine love for sport, what are your, and I repeat, unbiased views on the topic?”

My reply:

Firstly, I am a fan of the sport… and I like Fed’s game a lot… classical one-handed backhand… watching the ball onto the sweet-spot… footwork… overall consistency and general sportsmanship… However the way I see it is… every champion also has a weak spot… like Shane Warne is unarguably the greatest slow-bowler ever, but against India… well… Michael Jordan was tormented by the Pistons and could not overcome them until Pippen arrived to help… Kobe is the greatest player in the NBA right now… but Bruce Bowen of the Spurs used to give him nightmares… Sampras was "scared" of Michael Stich (says so himself in his bio)…

At one level, Nadal’s game is a matchup nightmare for the Fed… anytime he has to take the backhand over shoulder height and rip it down the line, or cross-court, he has much lesser control… and Rafa consistently just puts on a lot of topspin that makes the ball jump even if it’s hit deep…. also, the sheer physicality of Nadal’s groundstrokes and his retrieving ability takes it out of The Rajah… he has to win the point about three times to actually win it… not to say the Fed does not have the tools to do the job… yesterday, when he got his sliced backhand right, created issues for Nadal cause the spin makes the ball jump into his forehand or away from the backhand, makes it more difficult to control the shot…. but then, he was serving at about 45-50% first serves for the match… you can’t give Nadal those many looks on a second serve and expect to win…. in fact that’s one fundamental difference between Pistol Pete and The Fed… Pete could serve his way out of trouble, almost at will… The Fed’s groundies are that much better though….

However, my frank impression is that Nadal has got into The Fed’s head…. I think that at one level Roger feels that he can beat anyone by playing his regular game, and Rafa is no exception… there is almost a visible reluctance to change the gameplan.. you know, get the first serve in and attack the net relentlessly… and make Rafa pass.. yeah, he will pass you, but he’s doing that anyway… cut the angle and see what happens…. or try hitting the slice backhand to Nadal’s backhand to cut out the cross-court pass…. he’s not trying anything new consistently…. even the chip-and-charge… might just work… nothing else seems to

All credit to Rafa man… I mean… the guy is not just an amazing striker of the tennis ball… but is an absolute physical specimen…. 9 plus hours of grinding tennis within 48 hours… wow!…and frankly, if he can win 3 slams this year, I for one am ready to include him in the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) discussion….

But ultimately dude… my fave player of all time, irrespective of whether the Fed manages to beat Rafa some day, passes Pete’s record, or for that matter if Rafa manages to win the grand slam this year, is Boom Boom Becker…

Accuradio.com is one of the better things in life. Especially if you are a person who likes to think of yourself as having somewhat esoteric tastes. I was listening to the violin soloists sub-channel on Accu Classical last night, and listened to Joshua Bell performing Brahms’ violin concerto in D major and that reminded me of this:

Washington Post- Pearls Before Breakfast

One of the most brilliant articles I’ve read. Ever. And the world kind of agrees, what with this piece winning a Pulitzer and all that. A short summary:

The writer, Gene Weingarten, had a brilliant idea: what if he got a truly great performer (turned out be Joshua Bell, one of the greatest classical violinists alive), and had him perform anonymously in a corner of a Washington DC subway station. Would people still recognise it as great art? Would they throw money in his violin case? Would they recognise him in the first place? What happened that cold morning in DC turned out to be one of the great human interest stories of the age. Folks who have not read the article will probably not really want to read on (but the video posted below is worth watching / listening to anyway).

Weingarten raises some interesting questions regarding the nature of beauty and art. Is it instantly recognisable? Does it automatically reach for your soul (if you’re a Page 3 type, then even if it doesn’t, you’ll still say so, won’t you? -- inside joke, please forgive me)? Or do you need to have some formal training / education to see and appreciate what others may not? End of the day, there are no answers. Only more questions. Kind of like life. Or is it?

Which in turn reminded me of one of my favourite musical idols, Joni Mitchell and her song "For Free"… Ah Joni.. Take a bow!

Talk about fusion! This is awesome!!!