Sunday, June 1, 2008

Why George Bernard Shaw loves IPL Cricket!

George Bernard Shaw and IPL. Hey, rather than rushing to point out a mistake, anachronistic in nature, read on...

G. B. Shaw, the eminent Irish Playwright and Critic, remarked about cricket thus: "A game played by eleven fools and watched by eleven thousand fools".

I understand cricket as a game played between two teams of 11 players each. So that makes a total of 22 players. I don't know which side's players he's referring to while making that remark. Anyway let's leave it there.

I love cricket, but I should admit, there've been times when I hated the game altogether: when test matches were held with folks glued to the TV screens for days and the match ended in a draw (I've always felt Test cricket as a sheer waste of time and productivity howmuchever the purists argue about its character and spirit). Maybe this could be the reason why Shaw also resented this game and commented thus.

Now that the match duration has been tweaked to the fashion of almost that of a game of football and its outcomes more definite and interesting (nail-biting finishes including), it seems that the game has been endowed with some more sense of purpose and meaning. Above all, the whole game in this format can be viewed more patiently, and without taking day-offs. So this type of cricketing would surely merit Shaw's consideration and hopefully win his admiration.

Had Shaw been living now surely he'd have loved this kind of cricket!

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