England in India

[sid_19840]

Just heard this from cricinfo,feel sorry for the fans there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4890448.stm

 

[icyman]

If the match had have gone ahead, Andrew Strauss and Virender Sehwag would have led the two teams, with skippers Andrew Flintoff and Rahul Dravid opting to take a break.


I thought Solanki lead in Rajasthan.

 

[JamesyJames3]

When the game got called off this morning...it almost felt like a victory!

Wooo, go England!

 

[harishankar]

Too bad that the fans react in a violent manner. It's frustrating, but rain has ruined the last few ODIs in Chennai as well.

The BCCI need to tell all the local associations to refund ticket money. I know that many associations don't refund in case the match is not played. This is just plain greed and against the principles of natural justice. Incidentally there was a court-case regarding this, I'm not aware of the result.

Naturally the fans get mad when a game is called off because they not only lose the cricket, they lose the money as well.

 

[SaiSrini]

Send the rain this way please.

In a SAE obviously, I'm not paying postage!

Well our lads have done well to avoid a whitewash....

was that a 'tongue in cheek' or a serious comment?

if serious, then thats dumb. england have not avoided a whitewash, the rains have robbed india of an official whitewash.

even if india win 6-0, it will be considered a whitewash, though not officially.

Too bad that the fans react in a violent manner. It's frustrating, but rain has ruined the last few ODIs in Chennai as well.

The BCCI need to tell all the local associations to refund ticket money. I know that many associations don't refund in case the match is not played. This is just plain greed and against the principles of natural justice. Incidentally there was a court-case regarding this, I'm not aware of the result.

Naturally the fans get mad when a game is called off because they not only lose the cricket, they lose the money as well.

even though the fans are to be pitied, violence is not the manner in which they vent their frustration. who knows whether it will spoil the reputation of the ground and put it in danger of not hosting future international matches. Eden Gardens was too big & too popular to be avoided for international matches. But will Guwahati be treated the same way? I doubt so!

When the game got called off this morning...it almost felt like a victory!

Wooo, go England!

Victory?

Sad, England supporters now have to rely on the nature to avoid embarassement.

 

[puddleduck]

Sad, England supporters now have to rely on the nature to avoid embarassement.

What are you on? For about 10 years nature was all we ever had to avoid embarrasment, was like our unoffical 12th man

 

[jkartik]

lot of protests happened and apparently they have agreed to give the spectators a refund !

assam cricket officials blamed umpires for cancelling the match and called
it as a "bad decision" ! they said if football players can play even during
heavy rains, then why not cricket which is a MUCH SLOWER & Less agressive game than football.

courtesy : local news channel.

although i quite agree with them...

 

[harishankar]

even though the fans are to be pitied, violence is not the manner in which they vent their frustration. who knows whether it will spoil the reputation of the ground and put it in danger of not hosting future international matches. Eden Gardens was too big & too popular to be avoided for international matches. But will Guwahati be treated the same way? I doubt so!

We have to take into account the fact that cricket associations and officials all around India and particularly in the smaller centres in the North treat the paying public like trash. It is a known fact that many ticket-holders are left standing in long queues outside stadiums while hooligans and thugs and influential people manage to get in without paying a penny.

The way cricket associations treat the game is frightening sometimes. They take too much for granted. That there'll always be people queueing up in droves to watch games live. I doubt that will continue. Look at Test cricket now in major centers and that is something which should warn the BCCI about the waning interest in Cricket today. A decade or so ago, I remember that Test matches attracted good crowds in major centers. Today that decline cannot totally be attributed to the popularity of ODI cricket.

What's a cricket match without the crowd? Yet the paying public is the worst treated among all cricket fans especially in the subcontinent. People who come to enjoy the game in the stadium get treated worse than crap by the police and officials, not to mention local bullies and dadas in some of these smaller centers and sometimes even in some major centers.

Crowd trouble rarely arises from the majority in any case. Genuine ticket holders will rarely be the cause of trouble, though they might be impelled to take part in trouble if some mischief makers instigate it in the first place. It's a question of heated emotions giving way to rational thinking -- the crowd mentality...

Under trying circumstances crowd behaviour can be volatile. Everybody knows this. The local associations have themselves to blame for mismanagement and attitude towards the public.

 

[icyman]

Yup they apparently had a fight with Rudi regarding the decision to call off.
But what could poor Rudi do...
They could have had a Twenty-20 match,however there is no infrastructure for that type of cricket in India-BCCI

 

[harishankar]

then why not cricket which is a MUCH SLOWER & Less agressive game than football.

It's not a question of slower or less aggressive but the actual playing area (that is the pitch and its surrounding areas including the bowler's footmarks). Since the play is concentrated on a smaller area than football and the actual game requires much higher standards of ground conditions than football. The game can also be very easily influenced by ground fielding and so I think the umpires had no choice but to cancel play.

Football is a much rougher game anyway requiring a different set of skills and is easily adaptible to wet conditions.

 

[puddleduck]

According to Strauss cricket was just not feasible. Even 20-20. The area around the bowlers run ups was all far too wet so there would have been quite a high possibility of injuries.

Someone mentioned that "if you can play football in that weather why not cricket?" Well footballers do not charge at an area then jump up looking to land side on

 

[sohum]

You're talking about England as if they are Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or Kenya.

England would probably not mind being Bangladesh at the moment.

 

[icyman]

The run-up area and the slip cordon were still wet.
The ground was far away from International Standards.
I have long felt that the ICC should first inspect the grounds and the facilities it offers before awarding International Status.
As far as I am concerned Guwahati,Indore do not deserve the International Status.

 

[sohum]

Someone mentioned that "if you can play football in that weather why not cricket?" Well footballers do not charge at an area then jump up looking to land side on

Not to mention that the fitness of football players far surpasses that of cricket players.

As far as I am concerned Guwahati,Indore do not deserve the International Status.

I don't think you can really blame them for having a bad drainage system, seeing that the area was hit by a cyclone just days ago. It probably wouldn't have made much of a difference even if they had a state-of-the-art drainage system.

 

[harishankar]

Not to mention that the fitness of football players far surpasses that of cricket players.

Footballers use a different set of skills and muscles. They are probably shorter, squarer and heavily built while cricketers tend to be leaner, taller and sometimes less athletic. But it's a general observation. I don't think that we can make a sweeping statement, especially considering that "fitness" level is a very nebulous region which is applied to different sports in very different ways.

A boxer is totally different from a gymnast, but who can be said to be fitter. The boxer because he has a muscular frame and stronger physique or a gymnast because of his/her body flexibility?