A few months ago, I entered my seventies. For the bulk of this period I have been following cricket and when I mused on this, I realised that the mode in which I followed this lovely game, the media I used and even the changes in technology reflect the myriad changes my generation has been privileged to witness.
I would have really started following cricket from the 1960s. Since we were in Delhi then, my father took me to Firozeshah Kotla for one day of almost every Test which was played during that decade. I would also have seen quite a few Ranji Trophy matches live especially during the later part of that period. The Statesman newspaper was my biggest window to the world of cricket and I still recollect spreading it on the dining table and either sitting or kneeling on the dining chair to devour cricket news and scores. There used to be extensive coverage of English County cricket too. So both the Ranji Trophy and the English Championships were part of my knowledge base. Test matches featuring India had live commentary on the radio and added a new dimension. The ABC and BBC also covered Tests played in Australia and England respectively and these were often relayed by AIR on the short wave. The commentary was often accompanied by buzzes and beeps and coverage was at best erratic.
This continued through the 70s though by now transistors had become more ubiquitous and allowed one to carry the commentary with oneself. Many were the days in the later part of the decade where a small transistor would nestle in the slightly open drawer of my office workdesk. During the late 70s, Doordarshan also started live telecasts of international cricket matches, though often the legend 'rukavat ke liye khed hai' would greet you !
The 1980s saw colour TVs coming to India and the 1983 victory in the World Cup totally changed the way we saw cricket and looked at it. More to suit the change in medium, cricket started becoming more innovative with ODIs becoming more prominent, coloured clothing becoming normal for the shorter format and experiments with white balls starting. This was also the period where floodlights started adorning stadia, leading to telecasts targeting later hours.
From the 90s, it has been one long continuous upward journey especially with widened cable and Internet networks. On-field coverage of matches improved significantly with more and better cameras and enhanced camera positioning, slo-mo replays and even more technology invading the cloistered halls of this hoary game.
Within this relatively short span of a half century or so, my cricket watching has made the transition from newspapers to radio to television to live commentaries on dedicated websites to live streaming and even a fairly non-technical person like me wonders what next?
Suffice it to say, whatever comes in is bound to make watching more educative and less stressful. At least, I hope so.
----
