Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Among the more justifiable claims for this former capital of the Raj is City of Joy. Well, since the last visit during CWC96, when it was as murky and as grimy as Kanpur, it has had an impressive facelift.
Everywhere they have made space for parks and while in Kanpur a small stretch of dusty space near the railway station allowed for two cricket games to be played, here in the heart of this quixotic city with its enigmatic ambience you could count at least twenty.
And for those who know where the racecourse is situated, there was a game going on within 50 metres of horses being paraded for a race.
Even the drive in from the modern airport showed how the city’s fathers and mothers have been busy in giving it a better image: Salt Lake and wide open spaces mark the route into the sprawling metropolis with its vibrancy.
Fanie de Villiers once called it the city with a heart, the soul was Mother Teresa. That’s one way of looking at it. Yet you see more impromptu cricket games being played on open spaces by would-be Irfans, Souravs, Kumbles and Dravids than you are going to see on any pilgrimage into the subcontinent. They leave the serious stuff to the guys in whites while they get on with their fun.
OBJECTS OF CURIOSITY
In 1991, the drive into the city, and the hotel where the South African side stayed on that historic first tour, was impressive.
Thousands lined the route with placards expressing their welcome and while it may have been well orchestrated by the Cricket Association of Bengal, you are not going to get an estimated half a million inhabitants lining any road unless they were genuine in their support (if not curiosity of what white South Africans looked like).
It was a journey marked by continuous stops for the public to see the players from the country that, in November 1991, was still run by a white minority government and the visit was only made possible through the aid of the African National Congress.
The pity was that the years of isolation had meant that players of colour had been marginalised and none were capable of representing the united body.
TUG AT THE EMOTIONS
Fast forward to November 2004. In a sense, as with New Delhi, entering Kolkata again after so long leaves you with a feeling that it is not so much the return of the prodigal rather that of the errant wanderer. But that is what India does for you; tugs at the inner emotions.
Kolkata is still noisy, the traffic just as chaotic and negotiating the street outside Eden Gardens almost as bad as seeking a quick single with Geoff Boycott as your partner: risks are always involved in such madcap situations.
Unlike Kanpur, however, the police here don’t smile back when given a cheerful greeting. Like the guards outside Buckingham Palace, they grimly peer out from under their riot helmets; they’re not used to outgoing New Zealand bonhomie.
POLLOCK’S POSITIVES
There is though a major change in the media conference hall where Shaun Pollock smiles cheerfully and sits next to Jacques Kallis; the pair made their South African debut at under/24 level in Sri Lanka in 1995; it just shows you just how far they have come since that debut at Colombo Oval (P Saravanamuttu).
Pollock is on the verge of joining an elite group of players with 3000 runs and 350 wickets. As he plans to be around for a possible four or five more years, the 400 wickets/4000 runs equation is highly probable.
