The meat safe and the study desk

As my fellow committee members and I were suggesting names of known personalities to
inaugurate the 19th Anniversary of YACM(Youth Association for Classical Music), i hit
upon the idea of inviting Mr. Randor Guy for the same. As i suggested it to the other
members, some of whom hadn’t heard of him, they ended up asking me to approach him, talk to him and convince him(if necessary) to preside over the occasion. Well, so much for team work. Anyway, brushing that aside, i decided to go ahead with it for two main reasons. Its been the practise in YACM to have one personality(from the music fraternity) and one other from any other field of practise(movies etc..). We had ignored this system last year(2003) and thus i wanted to get it back into practice. Movies and movie personalities are something that’s always fascinated me and thus thinking along those lines, i thought of Mr Randor Guy, who alongwith Mr S Muthiah,are believed to be the authorities on the cultural history of Madras.

I had once met Randor Guy at a common friend’s place.But i did not want to count on that and assume that i knew him and asking him to come would be easy. So i proceeded to get his number from Sriram V of sangeetham.com and called him. A deep voice saying the numbers “0381″ (the last 4 digits of his phone no) responded from the other end. As i asked the voice if i could speak to Shri, er..sorry, Mr Randor Guy, he said “Yes, speaking”. And then i went through a process of self introduction, explained the kind of activities YACM was doing and then asked him if he could preside over the function. He patiently listened and said he was free and then stumped me by asking me “Everything is fine,dear friend, but how do I, being a cinema historian fit into your circle of things?”. I dint know what to say. I told him that it was our practise to call some people from other areas of expertise also, and thus he was more than qualified to grace the occasion. That was it, he was convinced and told me he’d be there. I asked him if he needed to be picked up and he said yes. I deemed it my pleasure. I called back Sriram and thanked him.

Having got elaborate directions from my mom and a collegue, i wreached his house by 5:15 pm as promised. It was a long drive from Aynavaram to Mylapore. He proceeded to tell me incidents/anecdotes about musicians and movies and some of them had me in splits. His inauguration speech was very colorful. I think all those present there on that day would agree if i said that it was his attractive speech that added some excitement to the otherwise morose first day proceedings. He kept addressing me as his ‘dear friend’. Initially, though i was thrilled, i later learnt from someone that he calls just about anyone his ‘dear friend’! Still i dint mind being one of the many. He had to leave in a hurry as he had to proceed to another function at the American Embassy. All in all, a very satisfying evening for everyone in YACM, amongst the audience and personally too. My choice for chief guest had worked!

P.S Am trying to get some pictures of the Inauguration too. will be up soon.

Let me begin by admitting that I did not watch the finals of the Champions Trophy. Though I was enjoying myself elsewhere at the same time as the finals were being played, i would have loved to see the action live! I havent yest been able to see Lara’s blinding catch at mid-wicket, the England innings and more! But im happy I could at least catch the West Indies innings highlights including that mtch winning ninth wicket partnership. Meanwhile I have tried and caught any article/report/interview/pictures about the finals after coming back…the sources have been good ones like Cricinfo, bbc.co.uk, sport.telegraph.co.uk, The Hindu etc..Would love to read more from other sources.

West Indies cricket has always been close to my heart. My parents tell me that I used to be able tell the names of the whole West Indies team of the mid-eighties. During their tour to India in the eighties, my parents/grand dad even took me to see them and got one of those small cricket bats with all their autographs. I cant think of any great reason as to why i like them so much. But they won a lot of supporters during the eighties and earlier by the way they played their cricket. I may have been too young to take not of that then, but i guess West Indies fanatism is something that has always been around at home. My dad’s (an amateur cricketer himself) favourite was Sir Garry Sobers, Garry, as he says in that stylish manner. May he’s passed it on to me, but i dont care. Brian Lara has been my most favourite player ever since i played under-13 cricket. I was floored by his stylish strokeplay, was amazed by the flick-of-the-hip shot, that was named the ‘Natraja’ shot, owing to its resemblance to the posture of the Indian deity, Lord Nataraja. The opening spells of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose are still vivid in my memories.

Though most West Indies supporters, myself included, have been let down by their dismal performances in the recent years, the win over England in the mini world cup has been very heartening. Whether this may be the turn around, we dont know, but there was a wonderful display of commitment and determination by the whole team, all along the tournament. Something they have been lacking lately. So many issues yet to sort out, captaincy, how long is Lara going to be around, etc..but for the time being West Indies Cricket has a reason to celebrate, and so do its supporters.

Come, October 2005, the world of cricket will turn its eyes on Australia, anxious of some great cricketing action, but not just because Australia wil be playing, this time, they will be facing a combined Rest of the World(ROW) team in three one day internationals and a one-off six day test match, yes, SIX days. Hold on, the series has been scheduled to be played between the ‘top team’ in world cricket by April 2005 and a ROW team. In all probability the top team then should be Australia.Any other team having to face a combines eleven featuring australians will be blown away. The prize money for this series is ONE MILLION DOLLARS, and hence the tag million-dollar series has already been coined. The test match will be played at the SCG (Sydney cricket ground) and the one-days under the roof of Telstra Dome, Melbourne.

The last time such an event was held wa sin 1970-71 when Gary Sobers lead a ROW team feturing the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Rohan Kanhai, Tony Greig et al against a strong aussie line-up captained by Ian Chappell (i think!). The world witnessed some of the best cricket action then, with Sobers playing a magnificient innings of 254 at the WACA,Perth. He was out for a low score in the first innings (might have even been a duck) by a frightening bouncer from Dennis Lillee. Sir Don Bradman described that innings of Sobers as the best ever he’d seen.
Action like this has been missing since then. Well, to begin the idea is a great one, commercially as well as sport-wise. Its pretty obvious what the series would do commercially, and cricket-wise it tests the supremacy of the Australian team against the worlds best. For youngsters like me, who have only read about the previous such series, seeing this series should be a great experience. Ive already ear marked Oct, 2005 for this series!

Ah, here we come to the exciting part of ot, who’d be in the ROW team? I’m gonna put my eleven, it would be great if u guys could share your thought on the team too. Michael Vaughan, owing to his sublime form Down Under, will open, along with Rahul Dravid who will be bumped one position above (than his usual one). This makes way for the two greats of this era and proven peroformers against Australia, Brian Lara at three and Sachin Tendulkar at four. Steve waugh once said “If we can get this guy out, it’d be a miracle”. He was talking about VVS Laxman. Undoubtedly, VVS stays at no.5. The all-rounder spot will be a battle between Freddie Flintoff and Jacques Kallis. According to their performances in the coming year, one of them could be drafted. Kumar Sangakkara will keep wickets and bat at 7. The new ball will be taken by Shaun Pollock and Steve Harmisson. They’ll be followd by Shoaib Akhtar and the wily old fox, aussies favorite-foe Mutthiah Muralitharan. I’d dearly love that Stephen Fleming be in there and captain the side, but none of the above players can be traded for him. So the thinking cap will be worn by Michael Vaughan, and assisted by Sachin Tendulkar. Wonder what the one-day eleven should look like…

“Here goes the ICC Super Series, the worlds number one fast bowler, Steve Harmisson bowling to the worlds best batsman, Matthew Hayden….”. Cant wait for it to happen!

After the first week featuring the first half of te eague matches in the Champions Trophy, in England, one cant help but wonder what purpose these matches served. All the matches so far have been grossly one-sided. No upsets were expected, and i even think these kind of tournaments do no good to the weaker teams. This brings to the fore the question whether the formatting of the Champions Trophy is proper or not. Though it brings the best in the top teams, and tests their character of performing in a sudden-death kind of situation, how much does it help the weaker teams? Lets also not forget the pathetic crowd response for these one-sided games involving the weaker nations. For example, teams like Kenya who have played no one-days between the 2003 World Cup and now, have just come, lost two games heavily and go back not knowing when their next game would be (All this amidst the match-fixing issues, Maurice Odumbe being banned for 5 years, and more anger within the team,because they feel unrespected). The ICC must consider restructuring the Champions Trophy so as to ensure more balance in the tournament.

So, here we are, the last four games, virtually the quarter-finals. Australia will beat the fighting New Zealanders. NZ are trotting at 79 for 6, as i write this. The other three matches should be more keenly contested. My call would be England prevailing over Sri Lanka, some Lara Magic pulling off a win for the West Indies and Pakistan defeating India. The aussies still look favorites to lift the cup, i should think.

It’s well known that former Australian captain Steve Waugh used to write diaries on his cricketing tours. I found some transcripts of Steve’s Indian Tour diary during the historic tour to India in 2001. Read on…

Dear Diary, Love Steve
By Buckets
Friday, 2 March 2001

Dear Diary,

Today in Mumbai:

4:00 a.m. – Woke up for an early morning jog around the streets of Mumbai, unfortunately my left arm was underneath my security guard so I couldn”t get out of bed without waking him.

7:30 a.m. – Woke up again, had shower, security guard was annoying, as he likes the water at a hotter temperature than I do.

8:00 a.m. – Went down for brekky, was informed 9 out of ten Indian nutritionists recommend that you don”t touch Indian food, so I borrowed some of Warnie’’s baked beans.

8:30 a.m. – Got to the ground, security guard kept complaining on the bus that the baked beans were affecting me.

4:00 p.m. – We have dismissed India, largely on the strength of me fielding in close and breaking their concentration by letting rip at crucial stages.

4:05 p.m. – Change of innings – Junior informs us that if we lose the game from here, it will be his shout for the rest of the tour.

4:55 p.m. – We have won the game, everyone wants to put on the latest U2 record, but I put my foot down, John Williamson got us this far. I promised the boys that if we win 20 in a row, Cold Chisel might be allowed.

5:00 p.m. – A man called John comes in looking for Junior.

5:45 p.m. – Retreat back to hotel, still in complete cricket whites, despite the fact that I didn”t have to bat.

8:30 p.m. – Check on internet to see if www.muafc.com has been updated.

9:00 p.m. – Junior comes into room, asking if I know what the chances of us throwing another tour match are.

9:30 p.m. – Justin Langer comes into the room, he is very proud of his bruised back. He wants to know if he can field on the pitch in future to deflect all opponents shots into the air. Security Guard tells him ””to get his hand off it””.

10:00 p.m. – I am ready to go to bed, but security guard only has 4 pages left until he has finished the chapter of his book, so the light stays on for another 15 mins.

10:20 p.m. – Before I go to sleep, I pray:

*That Junior still has no live bets in international cricket

*That no other legendary Aust. cricketers die over the next month – we deserve the headlines.

*That what I feel is the security guard’’s baton.

Love Steve.

One more:

Dear Diary,

I am extremely proud of the boys after our 16th consecutive test victory, except for Slats. His behaviour was disgraceful yesterday. He showed a complete lack of sportsmanship to Rahul Dravid. It was Slats” shout after the game, and for some unknown reason he bought Rahul a light beer, when the poor Indian batsman had done nothing wrong by him.

Tonight we are having a party, to help keep the jovial atmosphere on tour. We have to come as our favourite Macquarie University Aussie Rules player. The funniest effort was by Glenn McGrath who wore fake breasts to make himself look like Damien ”Woolly” Woolford. It was a funny night until Junior started running a book on who would throw up first. Punter had A$100 on Jason Gillespie, who was dressed in a red suit as Adam ”The Freak” Frankish, but Marto, in his Sportscene Carlingford Court shirt, collected after putting A$300 on himself. He then skulled 12 vodka and Sachin-Pepsi’’s to claim the prize.

In the end, I had to call an end to the party as all the players were getting pretty intoxticated, and I didn”t want Junior to start telling the story about how I really got the nickname Tugger ( and people wonder why we don”t talk much anymore).

Speak to you soon,

Love Steve.

Reading these, i became more interested in reading more of his tour diaries. If someone knows someway of getting them,please do tell me. Apart fromposterity, these diary notes expose the human inside the great cricketer Steve Waugh was.

The ICC Champions Trophy gets underway in England from tomorrow. Titled the mini-world cup the tornament promises some exciting cricket, more so with more number of teams striking form with their respective seasons so far. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand have shown good form in their respective one-day campaigns. Cmon, we all know the aussies still look favorites. India,West Indies and South Africa may not be playing great cricket at the moment, but all it takes for any of these teams to win the tournament is ‘four’ good days. The format of the tournament is such that, sadly, some of the good teams could be shown the exit door early. I would like to think that the four semi-finalists will be Pakistan, England, Australia and !!surprise surprise!!, West Indies. Yes, considering that West Indies shouldnt have too much trouble against Bangladesh, all it takes is some Lara Magic to see of a out-of-form South Africa (as happened in Newlands 2003 WC). Dont count out New Zealand too, if they see off arch rivals Australia, they could well be on their way to win the cup for the second time. May be they could be christened Mini World Cup experts!

The ICC awards were presented at Alexandra Palace, London. The Masters of Ceremonies were ex-Hampshire captain and famed writer Mark Nicholas and our own Mandira Bedi. More on “what the hell was she doin there” later… Finally the International Cricket Council have come up with a definitive award system for excellence in every aspect. Peer recogonition is always a good thing in sport, art or science. Mathew Hayden hit the nail on the head when he said that there were so many great players in the hall that night. Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya, Inzamam, Jacques Kallis etc.. to go along with the likes of Barry Richards, mike Proctor, Sunil Gavaskar, Cleve Lloyd and so on. The awards were definitive with the statistics between July 2003 and August 2004 being a principle criterion. and most deservedly there was an awrd for the best umpire. One could notice a bit of emotion in Simon Taufel’s voice as he thanked ‘Shep’ and ‘Buck’ for their advise, when he was awarded the Best Umpire. Rahul Dravid bagged two awards, including the ‘to-become-coveted’ Sir Garfifield Sobers award for the Player of the year. Flintoff’s rise was recogonised, as so was Irfan Pathan’s exuberent success. The one-day and test team of the year was chosen well, except for Murali being the casuality for Warney’s inclusion in the test eleven. That’s not what the stats say, may be Murali’s arm had a bit to do with this selection hitch.

The show was presented by the sweet-talking Mark Nicholas and India’s (read Sony entertainment television’s) Manidra Bedi. It was a curious combination – Nicholas suave and unruffled, Bedi flippant and at times unashamedly flirtatious. It really rises the question as to what Ms. Bedi was doing there. Here we have the top most awards for Cricket, conducted by the ICC, happening in London, cricket’s equivalent of the Oscars, and we have a novice in the form of Ms Bedi making a fool of herself with her knowledge of the game in an event featuring the stars of the game, both yesteryear and presnt. It was a bit like the Indian president Abdul Kalam presiding over the Inauguration of the December Music festival of The Music Academy in 2003. With due respect to the President of the Nation, there was no doubt about his ‘knowledge’ in Classical Carnatic Music after the inaiguration was over. It was atrocious! So, coming back to the point, Ms. Bedi, do some homework about the game before you go public. I’m afraid we will be put through more of Mandira’s idiosyncrasies in the ensuing coverage of the champions trophy on Set Max. Wish I’m proved wrong.

Anyone who wants a gmail account, feel free to drop in a line here in the comments section. Dont forget to give your email id.

The weekend did provide some exciting,tense cricketing action, be it the wonderful partnership between Freddie Flintoff and Collingwood, or the 140-odd run partnership between Yousuf Youhana and Inzi, the gritty ninety from Sourav’s bat.

Flintoff and Collingwood had to steady the ship with some cautious play earlier,but once they got their eye in, India were always going to be chasing more than 300. One six, that Flintoff hit of Balaji was awesome. The ball hardly went up some 15 feet over the ground, cleared long-off by some distance and sailed into the crowd. Another pathetic Indian batting display ensured they were beaten and the series lost.

Andrew Symonds seems to have some kind of affinity with the Pakistani bowling. This is the second time he’s bailed Australis out fo trouble after they have lost their top order for not too much (the last occasion being the league match in the World Cup 2003). Must confess, din’t get to see much of his batting. Chasing 270 for a win against the stromg aussie bowling was never going to be easy. Pakistan did not get off to a particularly great start. But the Inzi-Youhana partnership was a treat to watch. Youhana,the more fluent of the two was bound by various constraints, Inzi’s running predominantly. Most times they had to be settling for ones or twos when any other player from the same team or any in the world would be pushing for two and three (even Sourav and Laxman would have two or three on some occasions). But having said all this, thats is the way Inzi plays. Its better for Pakistan, if Inzi plays the way he does and scores some runs rather than, he running hard in the beginning of his innings, and then playing a slack shot of tiredness early in his innings. Youhana was a treat to watch. Seems to be getting his old touch again. Though Pakistan fell short by 10 runs, they can draw some consolation from the fact that they’ve been the team closest to beating Australia, not once but twice (Holland tri-series, included).

The last match of the weekend saw some signs of India coming back to form. Though they were let down again by their batting, they bowled well and Nehra in particular was impressive. Virender Sehwag should be dropped for the Champions Trophy, he should come back, make runs in the domestic circuit and then make himself eligible for selection. He may be an extrordinary batsman,but you are as good as your last performance. You need to perform to earn your place in the team at the highest level. Your records, past innings’ name, popularity etc..will win you more chances but not keep you in the team forever. Antony McGrath shouldnt be playing for England. Never have been impressed with him, he dint do much yesterday either.

With under a week to go for the Champions Trophy, Australia still remain favorites, but im guessing Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka, New Zealand could be the teams to watch out for. Hope India and West Indies can spring some surprises.

My earliest memories of Madras are of waking up in the morning listening to grandmother singing the Lalitha Pancharatna stotram, a short and sweet set of five verses, each of which she would sing in a different raga. This was the right moment to get up for immediately after this, grandmother would sail out to battle with the maid and that was not so musical.

Ours was a joint family, with an aunt or two always in the final months of pregnancy or a cousin sister who was recently married and from whom everyone expected “news”. The song Shri Matrubhootam of Muttuswami Dikshitar would invariably be taught, as it was believed that this song helped in a simple labour devoid of any complications. Within a few years all of us knew it by heart. In the afternoon, DK Jayaraman would come on a bicycle from his house close by. In a series of classes all through the afternoon, he would teach a couple of the pregnant aunts and then also an uncle who was by far the best singer of the family. The neighbours would come in just to listen to uncle and DKJ singing in tandem. DKJ would chat with everyone in the household, reword a couple of songs so that a few neighbours would be parodied in them and have us all convulsed in mirth.

In the evening, I would have my own music lessons, taught by a lady teacher who would come home. My lessons would invariably coincide with those of the girl next door and for a while there was some competition as to who was ahead. She never progressed beyond the Rara venugopabala stage. None of us really had a choice. It was taken for granted that when we were six we would all be subjected to the beginner’s lessons and tested out. If a new male teacher was teaching the girls in the family, then grandmother would invariably be present, just to ensure that there was no hanky panky. The acid test would be during Navaratri when we would all be asked to sing for the Kolu, irrespective of age or sex. If members of the family sang well, it was because of inborn talent while if they fared badly, the guru was roundly condemned. For the neighbours it was the other way round. If they sang well (and this was never acknowledged), it was because of the Guru who had laboured for hours, while if they sang badly (as was to be expected), it was because they came from families with no sangita gnanam.

As we grew up, all of us had to take turns in escorting grandmother to the Music Academy, that Mecca of Carnatic Music. The Academy lobby was a kind of stock exchange for horoscopes for all cousins of marriageable age. We would be shown T Brinda or ML Vasanthakumari as they passed by. As for MS Subbulakshmi, a debate on her saree and jewels would invariably erupt on the way home from the concert. MS had a way of covering her shoulder completely with her pallu and considerable sharpness of sight was needed to note the necklace she wore. Inside the auditorium we would all be grilled on raga identification, our sense of tala (I came off very poorly in this) and would occasionally also be privy to the latest gossip on the musician who was performing.

With grandfather’s death, the joint family broke up and grandmother came away with us to Calcutta. There one had to entertain her each evening by reading the music reviews in The Hindu, Ananda Vikatan and Kalki. When the Swati Tirunal controversy was making waves, Kumudam was our staple diet. We heard very little of Madras other than music.

Coming back many years later to the city, I got married and my wife and I began learning from the same Guru. On coming to know that my wife was expecting our first child, he immediately taught her Sri Matrubhootam. Some things never change in Madras. Hopefully they never will.

The above article appeared orginally in The Indian express and subsequently in www.sangeetham.com. It was written by V Sriram, in his unique and wonderful style.

For more than a decade Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar have waged a compelling see-saw battle for recognition as the premier batsman of their time. If you prefer batsmen who score runs quickly and artistically while also looking to dominate the bowling, then it was simply a matter of personal choice between this pair.

However, Lara has shown with his incredible first-ever Test match quadruple century (that also made him the first man to regain his world run-scoring title), he has moved ahead of Tendulkar in one area — the art of aging slowly as a batsman.

A player can only achieve such a monumental run scoring feat if he’s willing to try and dominate the bowling. Consequently, it’s worth noting that Lara’s scoring rate in amassing his four hundred was comparable with what he achieved during his triple century a decade ago when he broke Sir Garfield Sobers’ world record. Lara’s spirit is still indomitable, whereas recently Tendulkar’s strike rate has slowed perceptibly and only occasionally does he embark on a boundary spree, being more content these days to accumulate a good deal of his runs from the safer shots in his repertoire.

The new millennium appears to have revitalised Lara as in that period he has outscored Tendulkar (at a slightly inferior average) and is now almost certain to beat his right-handed rival to become the fourth man to pass ten thousand runs. This is a turnaround to rival the surging Indian economy, as following the period after Lara initially claimed the world record, fame appeared to have turned his head and he became disillusioned with the game.

It’s also a remarkable feat for Lara to regain his record so quickly (Hayden held it less than six months) and to achieve this distinction ten years apart proves conclusively he has regained his unquenchable thirst for runs. The fact that he also joined Sir Donald Bradman as the only players to twice pass three hundred in Test cricket adds to the list of coincidences he shares with the Australian legend.

Bradman scored his triple centuries against the same team (England) on the same ground (Headingley) and Lara duplicated that performance by punishing England each time at the St. John’s ground in Antigua.

The big difference between Lara in 1994 and now is there were no sixes in his first record score and four in his second. He takes more risks these days while Tendulkar has changed his approach from one who liked to dominate to a more passive player. This means Sachin is more susceptible to being dismissed by good bowlers.

Lara’s amazing ability to regularly compile big scores puts him on a level with prolific Englishman Wally Hammond, just behind Bradman and well ahead of Tendulkar(Wally Hammond of England scored 7249 runs from just 85 tests. He averaged over 58). Lara’s propensity for accruing big scores is all the more amazing when you consider that for the large part of his career he’s had minimal batting support in the West Indies side and none to speak of after number seven. It must have been Lara’s big fear when he set out from an overnight three hundred and thirteen to try and become the first man ever to reclaim the prize batting record that if Ridley Jacobs got out there was no one else to provide adequate support.

In addition to the exceptional skill and endurance required to amass huge scores Lara has also shown a lot of guts and mental strength. It would have been easy for Lara to adopt the attitude: “I’ve held the record once why bother with it any more,” especially with his team performing so badly.

Instead he buckled down and his monumental performance in Antigua provided the Caribbean with some much-needed cricketing joy at a time when the game must have been losing its lustre in the region.

Having witnessed Lara’s magnificent two hundred and seventy seven at the SCG the season following Tendulkar’s two masterful centuries in Australia (1991-92) I placed the West Indian slightly ahead in the rankings. Lara, with his propensity for piercing the field rather than clearing it especially when facing the spinners, appeared less at risk of being dismissed than Tendulkar. However, from 1995 until just recently Tendulkar was clearly superior to the left-hander and was undoubtedly the best in the world.

Now, Lara has raised the bar for all batsmen by breaking cricket’s equivalent of the four-minute mile. Most importantly he has set Tendulkar a challenge; not so much to beat his score but to rekindle his old batting philosophy and indulge in one last head-to-head battle.