School cricket fever on

School cricket fever is on again. Inter-school cricket which is the nursery that provides players to the national team is on again with a lot of third term games being worked out.

At the moment the rains that are setting in daily in the evenings has gone to prove a spoiler and many games have ended without a decision being reached.

In the good old days, the present boys, old boys and supporters of schools used to pack the venues where inter-school cricket was played and the cheering and the shouts of encouragement to individual players were deafening.

But today sadly, to say the least not even the schoolboys are present at a school match. During our younger days when the school bell rings signalling a half holiday, we used to rush to the ground foregoing our lunch to watch our heroes in action. Such was the keenness and interest.

Also in those days inter-school cricket was played only on Fridays and Saturdays. But now there are matches played on even week days. And schools play a lot of matches, unlike in the past when a school used to play the maximum of seven matches a season.

Pertinent question

A pertinent question to ask is: where have all the spectators gone? When will they ever return? True you can’t force schoolboys to go and watch the cricketers in action. But the Directors and Principals of schools will do well to ask the boys to go watch and cheer their school cricketers to perform.

Unlike in the past now there are inter-school tournaments. Trophies are on offer to be won and there are also contests for the cricketers. The ‘Sunday Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year’ contest is easily the best being conducted and the cricketers are particularly keen to win the awards on offer in this contest

In addition there are also 50-over, Twenty20 and six-a-side tournaments for school cricketers. The school cricket season goes on for months and it would not be wrong to say that the cricketers are deprived of their studies which is also of paramount importance.

One hopes that with school season yet to get into full swing, that school heads would make it a point to try and coax their boys to get to the venues where their games are played and cheer and make the games interesting and bring back the era of the past where even fisticuffs used to break out in the heat of the moment among the spectators.

In the past the standard of school cricket was so high that it even produced some highly talented cricketers who even made it to the national team. So here’s hoping that the past would be enacted again.

Windies stars return

The best bit of cricket news to break out was the announcement that the two warring parties the West Indies Cricket Board and the Players Association had reached an amicable settlement and that their star players would return for the tour of Australia beginning soon.

Had the two parties indulged in consultation, compromise and consensus the stalemate where their stars were forced to skip playing for the team demanding more pay would not have been.

But now that the dispute has been settled, the WICB must not forget the cricketers who came to their rescue when the chips were down. They must not be allowed into the land that cricket forgot, but be given opportunities where ever possible.

The Australian Cricket Board would also have a sigh of relief now that the Windies will be sending a full strength squad on tour. Had the second string of cricketers toured Australia it would have been a calamity.

The dashing Chrys Gayle is back in the saddle as captain. He is one player the Aussie spectators would love to see. When he gets going he can light up the park and provide spectators with hitting to be remembered.

It is said that when the Windies selectors gathered to pick the captain and the squad, the name of Darren Ganga had also come into the frame. That was because Ganga had brilliantly and shrewdly led Trinidad and Tobago to the final of the Twenty20 in India recently.

But Ganga’s batting form was not what it should have been and it would have gone against his claim for captaincy. Ganga must be disappointed. But it cannot be helped. That’s how the game goes.

It is nice to see the return of Shiv Chanderpaul, Ramnares Sarwan and Dwaynne Bravo. These three are some of the best entertainers going in the game today. Chanderpaul and Sarwan have not played much cricket. But they have the technique and ability to accoustom quickly and should score heavily in Australia.

But another player the Aussies would have loved to see would have been Kieron Pollard who blasted opposing attacks in the Twenty20 in India hitting big, big sixes with little or no effort that sent the crowds into raptures.

But the Windies selectors would have marked him down for the 50-over and Twenty20 matches and would be in kangarooland after the established games are over. He is the latest craze going in limited over cricket today.

Adrian Barath a 19-yeart old batsman in the mould of another Gordon Greenidge is expected to come good. He too showed his capabilities in the Twenty30 in India and if he is not overawed playing in the big time, should be the ideal opening partner to his skipper and together they should make merry.

It is also nice to see ‘Big bird’ Joel Garner going as manager. With his experience of bowling on Australian pitches, he will be of immense value to the fast men on tour.At his peak playing in the unbeatable Windies teams of the 70s and 80s he was much feared by opposing batsmen who had a torrid time in negotiating not only his pace and swing, but above all his life threatening bouncers.

This Windies team cannot be expected to perform the wonders that Sir Frank Worrell’s team achieved on the 1960/61 tour where they had full houses everywhere they played and when at the end of that famous tour they were given a ticker tape farewell.

That team had wonders of the game in Frank Worrell, Condrad Hunte, Cammie Smith, Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai,Wesley Hall, Gerry Alexander and spin wizard Lance Gibbs to name a few.

Can one also forget the first ever tied Test that was played out between these two teams in Brisbane?. While the Windies were led by Worrell, Australia had the leg spinning, big hitting all rounder Richie Benaud as captain and together with their daring captaincy where they got their teams to play attacking cricket, they brought crowds flocking to watch the action.

Can Gayle and Ricky Ponting do a repeat.The end of the tour will tell.