![india s boring cricket india s boring cricket](https://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/470731-AakarPatelNew-1353777496.jpg)
Fast-bowlers: Actually, no fast-bowlers. The quick delivery is the one offensive weapon of the bowling side. The only menace India’s bowlers offer is tedium. At least, Pakistan has proper fast bowlers. India has none and has never had one. Former India captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi speculated that this was because the Punjabi was taller. Whatever the reason, the result is dull cricket. The Indians have now stopped even pretending that fast bowling is necessary. India’s new ball attack in the first Test featured spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the first-innings, and another spinner Pragyan Ojha in the second.
Wickets: Slow and low is a description of our pitches. It also describes Indian cricket’s visual appeal. There is no carry, the word commentators use to describe bounce, which makes cricket in Australia and South Africa so pleasant to watch. The softness of the pitch also affects the sound. Cricket abroad is better to watch on television because of the crispness of sound when the ball bites into the pitch. Here, it is a dull thud.
Chuckers: This should be blamed on the subcontinent, rather than on India alone. Every South Asian nation has contributed to the proliferation of bent-elbow bowlers who should be called for throwing but have been allowed to continue. There’s no end to this and it has become legitimate now.
Heat and dust: Cricket looks bad on Indian television. One reason is lack of carry. Another is the lack of sharpness in the picture. Nature and our environment conspire to produce the brownish images that we are familiar with. Those who used to wake at five am to watch Test cricket in Sydney and Perth may not have done so for Kolkata and Delhi.
Effortlessness: By which is meant lack of effort. To watch great fielding, an essential part of cricket that India has zero interest in, we must observe South Africans and Australians. No Indian cricketer looks athletic, an astonishing thing to say given how much money they make from their bodies.
Commentary: The pedestrian offering of Harsha Bhogle and Sunil Gavaskar, the cliches of Ravi Shastri, could turn even the most exciting sport into tat and piffle. Here it becomes a force multiplier. Boring cricket, boring commentary. The broadcasters have showed mercy in recent decades by bringing in foreigners of quality, like Ian Chappell, but our own, we must still suffer.
Spectators: The banners in our stadiums are embarrassing. Then there is the unceasing, unpunctuated scream of the crowd that makes applause meaningless. The consensual, silent sulk when the other team scores a boundary is the other side to this. Spectators in India must be fenced in like inmates (because for some reason Indians like to throw stuff at people, including cheerleaders, who have wire cages around them). This doesn’t particularly bother those who notice. Our team, losers on sporting wickets, kings of their own domain, will again win in this series and the nation will be so proud of itself.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (48)
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@Deb;India: Thank you.
@JSM
Aakar Patel is a director of Hill Road Media, contributes regularly in publications like DNA, Mint, The Hindu and sundry others. On reflection, I think I jumped the gun and was rather rude while coming with a line as 'And that makes you a very important person. Right?'. May be you asked an honest question. My apology.
How can he claim that their bowlers will rattle India..India has got better pace bowlers , likes of Umesh , Ishant , and Varun Aaron who all can bowl above 150 ..no Pakistan bowler comes close to this pace ...
This article has been published on 24th November and continues to enjoy the ET webpage till date - 30th. The ET was superfast in taking out the execution of Kasab related articles from its webpage. Some of those articles were taken out in period of hours - Why is this difference? I hope it has got some sense other than blaming/rediculing India..
@JSM
'BTW who is Aakar Patel? Never heard of him in India.'
And that makes you a very important person. Right?
BTW who is Aakar Patel. Never heard of him in India.
@Deb;India: loool. good one, man.
@Alapan: Aplapan dear, have he said a single word about Pakistan? It shows your "love" towards Pakistan, you champion.
@rp
'pakistanis like ur article bcos u write against India.'
And that makes you unhappy! Right? Look, Pakistanis have a lot of problems on their hand. Sectarian/militant violence apart, there are usual suspects like CIA, RAW, MOSAD, M5 etc. all conspiring against them 24 X 7. In a situation like this if one or two anti Indian article lift their spirit, even for 5 minutes, can't you be a little generous about it?
Quite off the mark. Cricket in India has always been interesting and recent technical developments have resulted in excellent telecast of the game. I also do not agree about the commentators, except for Harsha Bhogle who, I am afraid, talks nonsense all the time about everything on earth except cricket. He does not not know anything about the technicalities of the game and it is obvious from the absurd mumbo jumbo he mouths in the name of commentary.
pakistanis like ur article bcos u write against India
@HH Cricket is not boring as a cricket fanatic i find cricket the most exciting team sport, it tests your character, fitness and skills. Test cricket is the real form of cricket and i love test cricket most. LONG LIVE TEST CRICKET!
Every sentence written in this article in true. Indian media just create hype but things are hollow still. Nice article.
Cricket is NATURALLY a boring game, let alone test cricket.
Never read such a bad article. The writer is absolute ignorrant though i agree with few points like commentators of india are annoying bare Harsha, but cricket in india is not boring at all, it's just different kind of cricket, spin freindly low bounce wickets where spinners excel is really treat to watch the turn and bounce, similarly in Aus an En pitches are fast and bouncy and fast bowlers are helpful, the point is cricket in not bad just the brand of cricket is different and writer clearly likes one and hates other, which shows that he is not loyal cricket fan.
@ Indian commentators:
After reading comments of Indians I believe freedom of expression doesn’t exist in India & anti-Pakistan comments are considered as patriotism. Please also check following link claiming FOE in India
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20490823
Mr. Akaar Patel...You seems to be just telling to the reader that "I am different"
@Raj Kafir:
Really ??? I didnt know Pakistan was desperate to play in India .. ? and why are you bringing Pakistan into your all indian debate anyway? The blog is clearly written by an Indian. Its being commented upon mostly by Indians. And I dont think anyone has started India bashing which is usually the case when there are blogs posted on ET about Pakistan .. so why is it that you must always bring Pakistan in the middle of you all indian debates .. oh I see .. this is precisely what desperation must feel like .. Carry on please :)
@Akar patel : But we are the world champions till 2015
@Akar patel: But we are the world one day champions till 2015
At least someone has courage to write truth. The truths that nobody wants to accept take the example of Indian commentators.
For sure this is a silly article.Under all conditions and difficulties Pakistan and India has produced best crickters in the world.
All the points are rights sir. But we just do comments and only comments that's it.
indian article and indian comments... theyv got nothing better to do..
Harshly written!! But every point is a fact!!!
Agree with everything you said except that India will win the present series. Wrong. England is going to win it. Cricket is boring whether played in India or abroad. Even T-20 is a slow game compared to other sports. Unfortunately Indians are not exposed to other sports and do not know what they are missing.
it is true that india not able to produce fast bowlers and they are main attraction of the sport.India always done reasonably well at home and pathetic performance at overseas.Great article and really boring cricket in india
oh really..? i thought india was the largest source for revenue for cricket...GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT .....!!!
Aakar, I fully agree with your views. Since this article is published on a Pakistani website, why you have not mentioned the desperation of Pakistan to play cricket in India. Probably Ch. Allah Daad has the answer. Cheers!!!
overall test cricket itself id boring game. What is fun in watching a fast bowler running almost 100 meters throwing a ball and batsman letting it go to wicketkeeper, and then everyone is clapping saying well left.
Had this been written by some Pakistani national on some Indian Portal, He'd better not bother watching the comment section.
Anyways, that's the same I feel about Indian Cricket, They are 'Champions of their own Backyard' with some good occasional performances on Sri lankan Soil due to similarity of pithces and dullness.
It is actually true that it is more fun to watch cricket when it's played in Australia. He is also correct about lack of pacers in India and poor fielding.
It was a fun read. Though there will be a crowd of people offended by the article, still by and large still it hits the right spots. Ultimately what matters for most is winning and chest thumping, aesthetics be damned ..............
Very interesting ..... Except production of quality fast ballers, same can be said about cricket scene in Pakistan ( when there was cricket in the country. But we never looked at it this way. Yes, its true that watching on TV is much more enjoyable when its Australia, England, South Africa and even in NZ is much more entertaining than in Sub Continent.
Dont really agree, I have watched cricket(on TV) in almost every part of the world it has been played on and I can safely say India is one of the best places to see cricket. I dont know why you want uniformity in the pitches,pictures broadcasted,crowd behaviour etc,to me these differences actually add to the flavour of test cricket.I dont know what game you are watching but the one I am watching is one gripping test match played on a pitch the home team has a a considerable advantage on (albeit a slow low one) is'nt this the same when India/Pak tour AUS/SA,home advantage should is gained.Watching good spinners can be exciting as well, you know, just if you understand what is going on!
@aakar - you call the battle between top spinners and batsmen dull? May be you find the faster variety better to watch but I find a battle of batting and bowling irrespective of its pace good to watch. Also your point about unsporting spectators is only partially valid, have you watched a match in Chennai after all in which stadium in India do the spectators applaud a winning Pakistani team! I somehow feel that you don't think too much before writing articles and hence I find them consistently shallow and lacking in analysis.
whine whine whine. get over it. the cricket, if you care to watch, is actually quite compelling.
Wow! It appears that all the usual targets were taken, but Mr. Patel has proved that he can be bitter about almost anything. 1. Fast bowlers - Pakistan has always produced great talent in fast bowling and we have always had a relatively poor crop. Even the ones that we manage to find get injured or have uneconomical action that reduces their longevity (Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma) and they end up compromising on speed to lengthen their careers. It has nothing to do with height - Shoaib Akhtar was the fastest Pak bowler till date and was just 6 ft tall, which is short for a fast bowler. 2. Wickets/ Sound/ Heat and Dust - the TV rights for India are the envy of the entire world. And we provide turning wickets - learn to live with it. If you want to see bounce, watch basketball. 3. Effortlessness - this has much to do with the grounds on which cricketers play before they hit big league; there is rarely any grass in the outfield and you tend not to slide or roll around too much to avoid injuries and scrapes. It is a mental block that fielding coaches struggle with. 4. The rest of the content - predictably pathetic.
i donno but i have a feeling that ET searches for all the anti-indian articles and publishes them......lol
One of the best articles ever written about Asian cricket.
boring article
I thought you would do a caste analysis of cricketers
Looks like everything about India and Indians is embarrasing to this guy! please give up ur citizenship and go to Pakistan? We are fed up with ur negative commentary!