The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Laxman not missed, really

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Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Sport - Cricket

Laxman not missed, really

A. Joseph Antony

HYDERABAD: No placards lamented his absence, nor did fans of Hyderabad’s very own V.V.S. Laxman protest his exclusion.

It’s against the awesome Aussies that his wristy artistry comes to the fore and no less than Steve Waugh acknowledged it with his recent quip, “hey, why did he pick on us?”

With a trip Down Under due in December, Laxman’s followers would long to see his one-day revival, a la Matthew Lawrence Hayden.

Scoreboard errors

If Hyderabad has hopes of becoming a prominent international cricket destination, it should go back to the basics.

For starters it could do with a decent scoreboard for spectators to keep a tab on the action. Friday’s display was pathetic, with names of batsmen at the crease blanked out.

Four players who didn’t take the field — Sourav Ganguly, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Karthik and R.P. Singh — however figured on the board. Strangely, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t find a place!

No better

The electronic giant-screen display was no better. Between blackouts, it seemed partial to the ads more than the action.

One Telugu movie spot seemed to get ‘stuck’ time and again.

It was only about an hour-and-a-half after the game started that the screen began beaming the goings-on in the middle.

With the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium packed to the brim, a toehold on a nearby hillock seemed hard to find.

Other viewers perched themselves on nearby high-rise buildings.

Some spectators set out as early as 6.30 a.m. to be in time for the start.

Braving teeming traffic and street snarls, they snaked their way in, the hardships paling into insignificance against their passion for the game.

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