Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

‘IPL has democratised the game’

A. Prasanna Kumar

“The Indian Premier League (IPL) has democratised cricket, given the common fan greater access to the game and generated huge interest,” feels Prof A. Prasanna Kumar, former Andhra University Rector and seasoned sports commentator.

Drawing parallels between the Gentlemen v Players era, the conservatives and the modernists, he thinks traditionalists would view the IPL as trivialisation of a great game. The skimpily clad cheer girls, the noise, the hype and hoopla, they’d certainly frown upon.

In an age where money runs thicker than blood, few can withstand its charms and cricket’s no exception. Amid rampant commercialism, Adam Smith’s adage that money is necessary but does not bring happiness seems to ring true.

To the modernist, the IPL means more excitement and fun. Television, being the best medium for sport, beams instant enjoyment over huge distances. Gone is the need to go many miles to see a match. The game’s aesthetics may be blunted, but then it needs to move with the times, keep pace with its speed and purists will have to live with these changes.

Professor Prasanna, who for three decades shared the mike with the likes of former Indian captain Ghulam Ahmed and cracked a ‘century’ of cricket matches, covered for All India Radio from the state to the international levels, also reported for Davis Cup and Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) events. Effortlessly, he flitted between cricket and tennis, inspired by the likes of John Arlott and Christopher Martin Jenkins, whose vivid description on BBC radio, transported listeners from distant lands to Lords and Old Trafford.

In contrast, some contemporary commentators talk too much, especially on TV, where the visuals unfold the action before viewers, who in the sub-continent are already well-versed with the game and its vagaries. Add to this the put-on accents in a vain bid to ape their western counterparts, where the audience is overburdened with excessive description, giving grammar the go-by and syntax short shrift!

Looking back, Professor Prasanna recalled a match at Hyderabad between the visiting MCC and South Zone. With no gadgetry or fancy gizmos to assist them with identification, Dennis Amiss was mistaken for Bob Woolmer and vice versa. Listeners would however trust the commentators, who Professor Prasanna promptly dubbed as ‘common traitors.’

To get the drift, one must take a look at Game of Memories, (available at Akshara, Hyderabad, and Ashok Book Centre, Vijayawada for just Rs. 90) an anthology on cricket written by Professor Prasanna. No article exceeds 1000 words, pinning the reader to its pages, in an age where attention spans lasts little more than 10 minutes! Studded with snippets and interesting asides, it has many delights between its covers for fanatical followers of the game.

With a foreword by no less than G. R. Viswanath, it’s a compilation of articles Professor Prasanna wrote for leading newspapers. His profiles of cricketers who graced the game down the ages, elevate mere mortals to towering greats. Without being verbose, the common thread running through the collection exemplifies why brevity is the source of wit.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail