Cricket in the late70's and early 80's
Anybody remember the cricket telecast during the black and white era. The camera quality was atrocious in those days. The zoom was...no zoom at all. The spectators in the stadium had a much better perspective than people sitting at home and watching the match on TV. The fielders appeared at a long distance flailing their arms and legs. First of all, the batsman hitting the ball was a rarity for most of the batting was a lesson in defensive play. And if a batsman did hit the ball, the camera was swivelled to the opposite side. Suddenly the cameraman realised that the ball had gone in a different direction. So with one jerky movement, the camera was somehow moved to the place where the ball was hit. By that time the ball had already been returned to the bowler. But one thing was a blessing, at that time we never realized but now you can appreciate...no advertisements at the fall of wickets or at end of each over. So at the fall of a wicket, the camera used to follow the dismissed batsman all the way to the pavilion and then follow the new batsman all the way to the pitch. The camera used to follow the bowler to the start of his bowling stride. The West Indian bowlers had a long run up, so I remember Malcolm, Holding, Garner , Roberts run ups. There was one more huge West Indian bowler...Patrick Patterson who had a eccentric run up. But you could recognize all these great players only by their body language since each had his own peculiarity. If Malcolm was a small man , he put the fear in the batsman's eyes, by the speed of his runup before delivery. Holding and Roberts had a very lazy runup but they stung like cobra. And Joel Garner had height advantage. Patterson intimidated with his huge physique. But there was one batsman who seemed to have an answer to all their questioning deliveries, his name - Gavaskar, Sunil Gavaskar. A small man but such mental abilities and a straight drive, out of this world. Just see any of his innings on YouTube. His head very still when he batted and hours and hours of concentration. And what can one say about Vishwanath - the square cut and the late cut being his specialities. Vengsarkar stood tall with his square drives. And what a spinning quartet - Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkatraghavan. If Bedi had a pure left arm spinners action, then Prasanna asked difficult questions with his loopy, flighted deliveries. Venkats offspin was exquisite. And what can one say about Chandra's action...those wiry hands were capable of bamboozling the best batsmen. It is said that even he did not know what he was going to bowl next. Again watch his YouTube videos. Seeing is believing. And all of them were great fielders , if the ball came within their reach, that is. Especially Bedi and Prasanna did not believe in the chase while fielding. The fast bowlers...were not fast, their job being only to take off the shine on the ball and then hand over to the spinners. And then along came a tall, athletic lad. The man who could bowl fast. The man who could hit big sixers. The man , who , along with Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath, transformed India into a fighting unit. He was Kapil Dev Nikhanj. Suddenly India had its first pin up cricketer. The man who brought the world cup to India, to the astonishment of the cricketing world. The West Indies were stunned!! Talking of the West Indies, who can forget their great batsmen, who batted as if the pitch belonged to them. The stride of King Richards from the pavilion to the batting crease reminded you of a lion's gait. And he destroyed the bowlers, such was his brutality in batting. Clive Lloyd, the Super Cat - the bat appeared like a toy in his long hands. If you have seen any father wielding his toddler son's plastic cricket bat, you will understand. The greatest opening pair - Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes - the opening bowlers were dispatched with aplomb to all parts of the ground. Then there were the Indian artists in West Indies team - Alvin Kallicharan and Rohan Kanhai. In Australian team I remember 3 bowlers who grabbed attention - Lillie, Thompson and Len Pascoe who looked like huge steam engines thundering in, to bowl. Bruce Willis was a great fast bowler for England, I can still remember his slanted fast run up.
And then there was Pakistan cricket team. It was a team of great individual performers who always played great when playing against India. There fast bowlers were next only to the West Indians, led by the pathan himself - Imran Khan. He looked like a Roman god playing cricket. He destroyed Indian batting line ups so many times ably supported by the likes of Sarfraz Nawaz. Abdul Kadir was a spinning great, putting Indian batsmen in a spin. His run up was so peculiar, you hoped that the batsman would survive. And what can one say about their batsmen led by the flamboyant Zaheer Abbas. When he batted, it felt that force was not at all required to despatch the ball to the boundary, such was his exquisite timing. Within no time he had crossed his hundred and it happened many times against the hapless Indian bowling attack. Javed Miandad and Muddassar Nazar - when they were at the crease against India, we hoped that the partnership did not cross the 200 mark, these partnerships being so common.
The Indian fielding was divine, that is, the fielders stood rooted to their assigned position like divine idols. Though the catching was good, the athleticism was lacking. With great reluctance anybody chased after a ball or dived. The white clothing remained in pristine conditions throughout the day, except for some sweat. Diving for a catch or to stop the ball from racing to the boundary, was an exercise indulged in by the wicket keeper, Syed Kirmani and the slip fielders.
Coming back to the camerawork from that era - we could only see the the whites of the attire and the visible face and hands, appeared black. The facial features could only be deduced, you could never be sure who it was on the TV screen.
The Indian team and the TV technology has come a long way from those vintage years and is now real world beater which does falter many times.
Yatin
Anybody remember the cricket telecast during the black and white era. The camera quality was atrocious in those days. The zoom was...no zoom at all. The spectators in the stadium had a much better perspective than people sitting at home and watching the match on TV. The fielders appeared at a long distance flailing their arms and legs. First of all, the batsman hitting the ball was a rarity for most of the batting was a lesson in defensive play. And if a batsman did hit the ball, the camera was swivelled to the opposite side. Suddenly the cameraman realised that the ball had gone in a different direction. So with one jerky movement, the camera was somehow moved to the place where the ball was hit. By that time the ball had already been returned to the bowler. But one thing was a blessing, at that time we never realized but now you can appreciate...no advertisements at the fall of wickets or at end of each over. So at the fall of a wicket, the camera used to follow the dismissed batsman all the way to the pavilion and then follow the new batsman all the way to the pitch. The camera used to follow the bowler to the start of his bowling stride. The West Indian bowlers had a long run up, so I remember Malcolm, Holding, Garner , Roberts run ups. There was one more huge West Indian bowler...Patrick Patterson who had a eccentric run up. But you could recognize all these great players only by their body language since each had his own peculiarity. If Malcolm was a small man , he put the fear in the batsman's eyes, by the speed of his runup before delivery. Holding and Roberts had a very lazy runup but they stung like cobra. And Joel Garner had height advantage. Patterson intimidated with his huge physique. But there was one batsman who seemed to have an answer to all their questioning deliveries, his name - Gavaskar, Sunil Gavaskar. A small man but such mental abilities and a straight drive, out of this world. Just see any of his innings on YouTube. His head very still when he batted and hours and hours of concentration. And what can one say about Vishwanath - the square cut and the late cut being his specialities. Vengsarkar stood tall with his square drives. And what a spinning quartet - Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkatraghavan. If Bedi had a pure left arm spinners action, then Prasanna asked difficult questions with his loopy, flighted deliveries. Venkats offspin was exquisite. And what can one say about Chandra's action...those wiry hands were capable of bamboozling the best batsmen. It is said that even he did not know what he was going to bowl next. Again watch his YouTube videos. Seeing is believing. And all of them were great fielders , if the ball came within their reach, that is. Especially Bedi and Prasanna did not believe in the chase while fielding. The fast bowlers...were not fast, their job being only to take off the shine on the ball and then hand over to the spinners. And then along came a tall, athletic lad. The man who could bowl fast. The man who could hit big sixers. The man , who , along with Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath, transformed India into a fighting unit. He was Kapil Dev Nikhanj. Suddenly India had its first pin up cricketer. The man who brought the world cup to India, to the astonishment of the cricketing world. The West Indies were stunned!! Talking of the West Indies, who can forget their great batsmen, who batted as if the pitch belonged to them. The stride of King Richards from the pavilion to the batting crease reminded you of a lion's gait. And he destroyed the bowlers, such was his brutality in batting. Clive Lloyd, the Super Cat - the bat appeared like a toy in his long hands. If you have seen any father wielding his toddler son's plastic cricket bat, you will understand. The greatest opening pair - Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes - the opening bowlers were dispatched with aplomb to all parts of the ground. Then there were the Indian artists in West Indies team - Alvin Kallicharan and Rohan Kanhai. In Australian team I remember 3 bowlers who grabbed attention - Lillie, Thompson and Len Pascoe who looked like huge steam engines thundering in, to bowl. Bruce Willis was a great fast bowler for England, I can still remember his slanted fast run up.
And then there was Pakistan cricket team. It was a team of great individual performers who always played great when playing against India. There fast bowlers were next only to the West Indians, led by the pathan himself - Imran Khan. He looked like a Roman god playing cricket. He destroyed Indian batting line ups so many times ably supported by the likes of Sarfraz Nawaz. Abdul Kadir was a spinning great, putting Indian batsmen in a spin. His run up was so peculiar, you hoped that the batsman would survive. And what can one say about their batsmen led by the flamboyant Zaheer Abbas. When he batted, it felt that force was not at all required to despatch the ball to the boundary, such was his exquisite timing. Within no time he had crossed his hundred and it happened many times against the hapless Indian bowling attack. Javed Miandad and Muddassar Nazar - when they were at the crease against India, we hoped that the partnership did not cross the 200 mark, these partnerships being so common.
The Indian fielding was divine, that is, the fielders stood rooted to their assigned position like divine idols. Though the catching was good, the athleticism was lacking. With great reluctance anybody chased after a ball or dived. The white clothing remained in pristine conditions throughout the day, except for some sweat. Diving for a catch or to stop the ball from racing to the boundary, was an exercise indulged in by the wicket keeper, Syed Kirmani and the slip fielders.
Coming back to the camerawork from that era - we could only see the the whites of the attire and the visible face and hands, appeared black. The facial features could only be deduced, you could never be sure who it was on the TV screen.
The Indian team and the TV technology has come a long way from those vintage years and is now real world beater which does falter many times.
Yatin
No comments:
Post a Comment