da 888casino： If there has been an aspect of this Test moredisappointing than the pitch, it must be the audience.Rahul Dravid, on the very first day, said that he was
Samanth Subramanian23-Jun-2005If there has been an aspect of this Test moredisappointing than the pitch, it must be the audience.Rahul Dravid, on the very first day, said that he was”maybe a little disappointed” at the low turnout, butpointed out that it was tough to get away to watchcricket on a weekday. Saturday brought no appreciableincrease, however, and only on Sunday afternoon wasthe ground filled to even half its capacity. Theoppressive heat and the soulless wicket may have hadsomething to do with it, but what little crowd therewas, right from New Zealand banner-waving cheerleaderSonny Shaw to Parthiv Patel’s classmates, ensured thenoise levels remained high, even if the audience countwasn’t.**************For five days, the scoreboard at the Sardar Patelstadium listed New Zealand players who may not beimmediately recognizable. Natahn Astle and CraigMcMillian, of those players, did particularly well. Daryl Tufey and Danel Vettori were two other similarly misnamed. Astle, incidentally, was just “alittle crocked,” according to Lou Vincent, and hencehis late arrival at the crease. One journalist,however, spotted Astle coughing and sneezingvehemently at his breakfast table, while a New Zealandreporter, after a visit to the dressing rooms justbefore lunch, told of how Astle was resting flat onhis back, and how Mark Richardson was none too bonnyeither. “It just happens sometimes,” said Vincent.”You try to be careful, and then one day you brushyour teeth in the tap water and something happens, oryou just happen to catch the flu.”***************Finally a vehicle with a more extensive securityconvoy than the Indian team’s arrived at the Moterastadium. Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat,arrived silently and stalked into the stadium,surrounded by Black Cat commandos. Narhari Amin, the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association, escorted him to a glass-fronted room next to the AIR cubicle, from where Modi watched Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle grind thebowling. Just before the presentation ceremony, Modiwas kept waiting for almost 10 minutes as officialsscurried about, waving frantically for the teams tocome out of their dressing rooms. Whopping big chequeand trophy presented, Modi left as swiftly andunremarkably as he came.*************************The pitch had the final word, so the final word on thepitch. One Gujarat junior cricketer says that itshould have been no surprise that this wicket playedas it did. Around one month before the Test match,BCCI pitches committee chairman Venkat Sundaram dropped in to assess a 40-over-a-side match played between Gujarat’s Ranji probables. Theside batting first made only 165, and the surface, thecricketer says, played exactly like this one – nothingin it for the fast bowlers and only slow, slight turnfor the spinners. Sundaram seemed happy with that,for the surface was virtually replicated for the firstTest.