Lord’s: for men of substance

Lord’s,SCG,MCG,Eden Gardens,Adelaide Oval are all “temples”/ “churches” for the religion we call cricket. The millions that participate in it and never have the oppurtunity to visit the temple do so with as much,if not more,dignity than the many who go to the temple to appear virtuous . The celebration of the game in Afghanistan or Nepal is as noble and dignified as the greats who have given us so much pleasure. Religion is meaningless unless it is practiced as it was intended.

Dignity comes from service to the game. Without any thought of the rewards. And there are a few administrators who would do well to remember this. The vast majority play the game for the sheer love and enjoymnet. It is only a few that actually get paid to play and more power to them for the enjoyment they give us.

Administrators need to be more prudent when accepting revenue from Broadcasters and sponsors. Stanford stands exposed and the judgement is still out on the IPL. The aura of dignity around Lords is somewhat lessened.

The BCCI’s complicity with the corporates will ultimately compromise their charter. Custodianship demands good and transparent governance.

Cricket will survive this temporal loss of dignity and continues to be meaningful even in this twitter twitter world.

Ravi Bopara has emerged as a man of substance.Duleepsinhji made a royal 173 in 1930 against Australia and when he was dismissed his uncle Ranjitsinhji remarked”That boy always played one shot too many” George Hedley the BB(he preferred brown bomber to black Bradman)hit 106 and 107 in 1939. Only Clyde Walcott of the famous “W’s” hit a century at Lords.Bradman’s 254 in 1930 was in the same Test as Duleepsinhji.Clive LLoyd and Kapil Dev have lifted World Cups at Lords. Garfield Sobers 163 Not out in 1966 and Rohan Kanhai’s 147 in 1973 were stand outs. In 1965 John Edrich was felled by a Peter Pollock bouncer but continued on. Jack Hobbs highest score was 316 for Surrey against Middlesex in 1926.
Sir Len Hutton played probably his most expansive innings in 1953 against Australia scoring 145 at Lords The bowling he faced was Lindwall,Miller,Johnson,Benaud and Davidson and hit 16 fours.
And one of the most substantial men was Mike Gatting.

“Lord’s is like a grand piano in the corner of the room. It looks good with or without a player.”
It’s a good-looking ground allright but I can’t control my laughter at the oohs & aahs followed by the pitter-patter sound of the ‘huge’ applause.
Also,to call Lords a Gurdwara/Temple/Church seems quite ridiculous considering in all these religious places there isn’t discrimination on any grounds.
Women-hating members didn’t allow any females of the human species in the ground for a very long time.
Female pet squirrels were allowed though.
Tolerance is one of the great features of Hinduism,but since I’m not Hindu,to tolerate stuff like “Oooh I say,thats a very fine shot”,”Good-Show Good-show” & the typical condescending attitude of those stuck-up judgemental snobs in the members section is almost impossible.

The Oval,even with some of those snobs,for some reason makes you a lot more comfortable.Difference in the atmosphere inside the ground maybe?
Anyways,congrats to England’s test match team for achieving-what is for them-the impossible.
Beating the second worst test team in the world convincingly.

Tolerance is. firstly, a feature of civilisation before any religion or class. There is a Hindu saying which roughly paraphrased says if you have nothing good to say it is better to keep quiet.

Congratulations with a caveat sound hollow. The victors were humble in victory and the losers gracious in defeat. That,to me is the important consideration. Cricket when celebrated transcends the result.

There is also more “comfort” in watching cricket than in watching “snobbish” spectators.

The emergence of Bopara as a legitimate contender for the number three spot and the performance of Swann augur well for the Ashes. For the Windies it was a match they would rather forget.Here’s hoping the”second worst team” can improve.