After two thoroughly awestruck days, I have grown a bit more familiar with the G now. It also helps that I stay at a place which is extremely close to the G. For the first two days, I couldn’t figure out if what I was watching was special or where I am watching made it special. But today, it’s reached a comfort zone.  I am still awed by the stadium experience, but in a less-gasping, more balanced way.

After all these years of cricket watching, I still struggle to reach the fulcrum between altitude and distance.  But like I said yesterday, I seem to have come closer here at the southern stand. I can’t have enough of the top tier view.  It’s just beautiful.

When we left home in the morning, we were discussing about the quantum of lead for India by the end of day. Within a session, the equation changed completely. Before we could even ponder the worst case scenarios, Australia had the now all-too-familiar top order collapse. By the end of the day, I was talking to an Australian who thought India were the clear favorites to win the match, while some of us were wondering if we should emotionally hedge ourselves by punting some money on Aussie victory. What do you call this phenomenon? Reverse endowment effect, perhaps?

Hang on. Did we witness such fluctuating fortunes on a drop-in pitch? So, it’s not entirely difficult to produce a good sporting drop-in wicket, huh? What are we whining on and on about for a decade now? I would rather have this drop-in pitch than the organic ones in most stadiums in the world today.

While I absolutely cherish every aspect of the MCG cricket watching experience, I have a very clear preference for watching fast bowlers bowl here more than the spinners. I would prefer a Chepauk or a Trent Bridge over MCG (not that it’s a much lesser experience)  to watch a spinner at work, because I don’t really need the altitudinal beauty that the MCG adds. In fact I would prefer to be as close to the ground level as possible to fully appreciate the flight and the movement, and the MCG gives that too but with farther distance from the place of action than Trent Bridge or Chepauk.  But to watch fast bowling, there’s not a better place. It’s the most awesome theater.

I can’t envy the generation which grew up watching Holding/Marshall and Lillee/Thomson bowl here enough. While I thought about it, it also struck me that I have never seen a test match live where the quality of fast bowling was as good as what we have witnessed so far in this match. I have seen McGrath & Gillespie at their best in Chennai and Steyn & Morkel on a featherbed, again in Chennai. So, purely in terms of reputation, I have seen better fast bowlers in action before, but not better fast bowling in an entire test match. Here, we have 6 good bowlers who have consistently bowled well.  Forget live, I can’t remember the last time I saw fast bowling as consistently good as this even on TV.

The test match promises to be a humdinger. I hope it gets the final day it deserves. At a time where 55 has become the new 50 for batsmen, such tests offer so much hope.

 

“One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort.  A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”  ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Rarely do I disagree with Chuck, especially not on the abovementioned quote. But today, I have to slightly alter my agreement with the statement. Yes, a moment is the most you could ever expect from perfection, but sometimes your expectations could be surpassed. Be prepared to cherish it, if and when it strikes you. Today was one such day for me. I experienced perfection for nearly 2 hours.

To fully absorb the panoramic view of the MCG from the top tier of the Southern Stand is quite a surreal experience, even intimidating actually. Initially it’s scary to stand up without any support for the fear of gravitational pull. The stand is so beautifully constructed that it maximizes the capacity without pushing the field of action too far away even for the farthest spectators, which results in the stand being extremely steep. With far less distance than what an altitude of the top tier typically warrants, you get to have the most stunning view to watch a cricket match ever.  Pigeons are flying below your eyeline. There are only 3 floors of a rather tall Hilton hotel above your eyeline. You look up the sky and look down; you’ll feel a bit dizzy. But keep looking down on the field and it’s absolute bliss.

Add Tendulkar in divine form into the mix. And that straight drive, man….ahhhhhh.

 If that is not perfection, then nothing is.

If Cricket has any bit of relevance in your life, you must visit MCG once in your life and watch a match from the top tier of the Southern Stand. I can’t explain the feeling. I don’t think anyone can. I experienced perfection for 2 hours. Yes, it’s that same damned unexplainable fleeting feeling. But for 2 full hours.

It was everything I expected it to be. And then some more. Surprisingly though, for someone who’s used to seeing matches in smaller stadiums, the size of the ground was not the most striking aspect of MCG. In fact, that it appeared perfectly normal to my eyes was what struck me. It can’t be appearing normal. It shouldn’t be. I had always thought MCG is a huge stadium.  Of course it is. That’s what we saw on TV for all these years. But here I am, standing in the Bradman stand and wondering if it was all an illusion on TV. Then I started walking around the stands to get to the place where Indians were practicing, and that’s when the sheer magnitude of the stadium hit me. It’s huge. It’s wide. It’s long. It’s an amphitheater. It’s one of the few grounds in the world which makes you wonder about the difficulty of being a 3^rd man fielder before you can think about pitch, toss, team composition et al.

It’s both ironic and appropriate that the first two countries that I watched cricket in, beyond India, are England and Australia. I wonder if any other sport has such contrasting grounds as Trent Bridge and MCG. One is as accessible as it gets and the other is the most awe-inducing. One makes you feel closer to the game, relate to the players at so many levels, it makes you want to hug the ground if it’s possible. The other draws the line clearly. It places the athlete in a pedestal. It puts you in your place – you are just the spectator. And once it puts you where you belong, then it treats you royally. It allows you to absorb greatness from a vantage point, to stand in awe, to create myths.

It’s almost uncanny that the stadium in which the match takes place influences a fan’s experience as much as it does. At least so it was for me. When I see a short ball being pulled away for a six in Trent Bridge, I admire the shot for sure, but the bowler is still occupying my mind space. I almost feel for the guy. Of course he knows he shouldn’t have done it, but he did. He’s human. TV is a cruel device in that sense that it inanimates the whole experience. It’s easy to be cold. It’s an armchair critic’s best friend. And when I see the same short ball being pulled away for a six in MCG, my mind has no space for anything but glorifying the batsman, to marvel at his ability to pick the length early, to back his instinct, and to execute it perfectly to clear a rather lot of real estate. I am not sure if MCG inspires greatness from players but it surely elevates it for the viewer.

If Trent Bridge makes you want to hug it, MCG would make you want to prostrate at its feet.

 

 

When I was a kid, my dream was to save one lakh rupees.

When I grew up a bit more, I thought if I earn 50k a month I would be a contented man.

At around the same time, I had added a visit to the MCG to my bucket list.

Looking back now, I can dismiss the first two as naiveté.

Today, I took a stroll around the G.

I met Ponsford who was perhaps setting off for a run, yet another one in his marathon collection. There was Lillee a few meters away in all his brutal beauty, and Bradman too, basking in the familiar delight of yet another pom-bashing I reckon. Then there was the superstar, Keith Miller. If someone had told me that he ruled the world, I would have believed it. As if to get me out of the time machine, there was Warnie too, in that quintessential posture where every part of his body synchronizes to produce the magnus effect , only that looking at the ball wouldn’t give any clue of that to the batsman yet.

I did what I wanted to do 20 years back.

I was as thrilled as I had first entertained the idea.

And I haven't even been to the museum yet. Nor did I get to go inside the ground. Just the stroll around the G.

 

Oh yeah, this is yet another piece on Sachin’s 100^th. Trust me you have a choice to stop here.

Oh, you’re still with me? You didn’t read Mukul Kesavan’s column yet? Go read.

Woah! Still there? Now, I have got a captive audience.

Tell me honestly, this has been a frustrating time, no? When did the 99 happen? 12^th March or something? This year or last year?

How long can we go on like this? When do we indulge in our favorite debate again – Is Sachin the greatest batsman of all time? Melbourne, you say? Let me list down all that you have said to date:

20^th March 2011:

He would do it today, man. Sach wants to get rid of the burden of the 100^th before the most crucial match against Australia. Also, Chepauk has always been his favorite hunting ground. Give me 2:1 odds dude, I’ll hit.

24^th March 2011:

Glad that he didn’t make the hundred in the last match.  Some inconsequential game against a poor WI team. Cometh the moment, cometh the God.  How many times has Sachin failed against Australia in a crunch match? Today is the day. Surely. This is going to be the doppelganger of March 23, 2003. It’s meant to be against Australia, in a world cup knock out game. Can’t get better than this.

30^th March 2011:

So near yet so far against Australia, man. It’s all written, I guess. He made his debut against Pakistan. His greatest ODI innings came against Pakistan in a World Cup knock out match. And this match is even bigger than the Centurion one.  Has there been a more high profile ODI match ever before? This is it.

02 April 2011:

It’s good that he didn’t get it against Pakistan. Why would you want to have such a flawed innings for posterity to mark such a grand occasion? Think about it, a world cup final (Sachin’s most cherished dream) in front of a home crowd. Can he get a better stage than this? And it’s so apt that we are playing SL in the final – revenge for ’96 Kolkata.  Who writes his scripts, dude? That’s it. I am ok even if I die tomorrow. A Sachin hundred would seal the world cup today. Forget the odds dude. Let’s go even.

23^rd July 2011:

It would have been awesome if God had scored the 100^th in the World Cup final. But, honestly I would rather have him score his 100^th in tests. Also, he’s never scored a hundred in Lords (ya, ya, I am not counting the Diana memorial match).  It’s meant to be at Lords, machi. It’s just meant to be, you know.

1^st August 2011:

It’s been a terribly long wait, yaar. But come to think of it, it’s only fair that Sachin’s 100^th epitomizes the chunk of his career. It just had to happen this way. Team absolutely floundering abroad, a Sachin masterclass at one end, with absolutely no support at the other end. The more the team has progressed, the more it has remained the same. Sigh. At least we would have the consolation of the 100^th. 

22^nd August 2011:

Terrible series, man. We should salvage some pride by drawing this match. Sigh. This is so 1990. Hang on, the situation is not all that different from what it was in the Old Trafford test, no? It all started there – the first hundred, a counterattacking match saving hundred. It’s so appropriate that his hundredth will be so similar in character to his first.

25^th November 2011:

He’s looking good, no? It has to happen in Mumbai, da. This is where he grew up learning the craft. This is where he made his mark as a young prodigy. In a perverse way, it’s also appropriate that it comes against a not so great West Indies team, because Sachin is still the torchbearer of the Bombay school of batting and the khadoos attitude. It goes onto show that his preparation, his sense of responsibility, and his commitment as a batsman doesn’t waver just because it’s a lesser team.

Yawn.

Fair enough. But Boxing day, dude. Does it get bigger than this? Sachin in Australia. Can the script get any better?

Hang on, but Sydney is his favorite ground, no?

&^%#**** 

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This was originally published here.