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March 14, 2006

The view from the throne

While India were knocking off the runs they needed for victory in Chandigarh, I was stuck back at the hotel for a couple of days suffering from the result of some gastric difficulties. It’s not been anything terribly serious, but I did feel the need to have a couple of days eating only naan, drinking only water and having a lavatory all to myself.

It’s been strange watching on the television after spending so much time watching from the press box recently. The reality is that the view on the television is a lot better although you miss the atmosphere, the banter and the noise of the drumming is a little quieter. I’ve also missed the lunches which have been absolutely superb at the Punjabi Cricket Association.

I am not alone in this view. A number of the commentators, including Dean Jones and Nasser Hussein, have been mentioning it on air. Whatever I’ve picked up must have come from another source, otherwise Dean and co would be back at their hotels sweating and alone, and not on air endorsing the delights of the PCA lunches to a considerable audience of people that don’t have access to them.

Television has been my usual vantage point for cricket over the last ten years, but it’s been a little odd going back to viewing it that way after just a few days with the press corps. There you see all the commentators and queue up with them for coffee and biscuits, but on television you actually get to hear them, and in my sickened sate I’ve found it comforting to return to this more familiar relationship. The Sky boys have all been in good voice, although someone whose commentary I’ve not experienced before is Dean Jones, who amuses me an enormous amount. Yesterday he did a five minute piece to camera on the subject of cricket bats. He opened it with the remark “Personally I reckon that over the years bats have got better by about 30 to 40 percent”, which sounds to me like a bit of a guess, but he did it with the necessary conviction to make it sound like hard scientific fact.

He also said “Back in Australia 70 percent of bats are bought for people by their mums. Well it’s really worth getting your dad’s help as well”. These are the sort of insights into the game that I’ve been crying out for ever since I first became interested in cricket.

When he brings out The Dean Jones Book Of Bumper Cricketing Facts I’m definitely going to ask my Mum to buy it for me, although I appreciate that it will be worth getting my Dad’s help as well

Posted by Miles.Jupp at March 14, 2006 10:23 AM

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