Part 3 – Über Desi goes behind the scenes

Sign prominently posted around the ground

As mentioned previously, we @ Über Desi are too cheap to buy $20 tickets, so instead we got press passes, and unlimited access to the behind the scenes of the tournament.

After obtaining press credentials for the tournament, I had a chance to get up-close and meet and photograph a couple of legendary players including an extremely controversial one. I also got to ask a former Bollywood actress if she was planning a comeback to the movies.

Presenting a collage of personal and events photographs.

Former captains of India and Pakistan respectively, Mohammad Azharuddin and Javed Miandad were the star draws for this tournament. I grew up admiring both of them as cricketers but on a personal level I hate either one of them for what they stood for – Azhar for the match fixing scandals and Miandad for repeatedly breaking India’s heart in close games and his closeness to Dawood Ibrahim.

Unfortunately for the crowd and the organizers, either one of them failed to shine on the field and both of their teams were eliminated from the finals. The other cricketer on display was Richie Richardson, former captain of West Indies. However, he was far too busy match planning to socialize with the media during the league games. That showed in the results. His team won the tournament.

During their interaction with the media, I found Miandad to be down-to-earth and friendly. He joked about how out of shape and out of touch he was. That is true, while batting he used a runner and when he was done retired hurt for the rest of the match, conveniently avoiding the fielding part, something he did even when he was actively playing.

Azhar on the other hand was aloof and detached, maybe that’s his nature or perhaps a result of the (deservedly) negative attention he garnered during the match fixing scandal.

On a lighter note, Sangeeta Bijlani was also present at the event, fieldside cheering on her hubby. Tempted to yell “Oye Oye”, I restrained myself. I did manage to get in a sort-of-dumb question: “Was she planning a comeback?”. Lame. I know. She smiled, not sure she understood the question, and replied “no”.

One thing I realized from this tournament was that cricket in the US is an entirely different ballgame. It is and will always be played by a motley crew of South Asian, Carribean, Australian and British expatriates with local players, see team Canada for instance. Under such circumstances, it won’t be easy and pick and choose who to support based on national allegiances. The best option would be to pick a local team to support and go support them whenever they play in town. On their part, local teams would do themselves some good from marketing themselves better to the cricket loving crowd in their region.

I also seriously doubt how effective BCCI affiliate, USA Cricket Association, will be in promoting the game in the US. There is too much infighting and politics and they don’t understand a simple fact, grassroots. Cricket is a grassroots game. All the international cricket stars you bring in, have zero credibility to the locals. A local lad on the other hand, is a sure bet to arouse interest in the game. For long term sustainability, children have to start playing cricket at the school level for it to become part of the culture. This is already happening in some places, for instance, children in this NY school system have taken up cricket as a school sport (tip Sai via email). Private organizations like CCUSA that take this route have much more of a chance at long term success.

This concludes the 3 part series of our coverage of the first international Twenty 20 cricket tournament on US soil. I hope you liked our coverage, even if it was somewhat amateurish. Hopefully, there are many more in store for us in the future at cricket grounds near us, featuring current test, ODI and T20 cricketers.

Previously:
Part 1 – The tournament
Part 2 – The facilities and the atmosphere

Photo slide show of the entire coverage. [Über Desi on Flickr]

Some personal photos including the ones with players are also up on my personal Flickr account.

Special thanks to Nino DeLoreto, VP- Media and Public Relations, CCUSA for helping us with the press passes.

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