In countries like England, Australia and India, cricket makes it to the news pages much easily than other sports. And so a demonstration of archery during lunch interval on the third day of the first NPower Test between England and India at Lord’s got buried in the hype and hoopla of the events in the vicinity as bad light helped India pull off a dramatic draw in that Test.Though the event at lunch break could not make it to the news pages, the organisers of the event succeeded in their endeavor of marketing archery to a cricket audience. “The idea was to show the crowd what archery is like in the UK,” said Alf Davies of the Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), speaking to The Indian Express from London.The archers during that exhibition included a few experienced internationals, some new club members, a compound and bare-bow archer and a 10-year-old boy Frankie Keenan. “The crowd enjoyed every bit of it and Frankie became the star of the event. The applause from the crowd as they left the field said it all,” added Davies.Why archery and at Lord’s? “Lord’s being the venue for the archery competition in the London 2012 Olympic Games, we were keen to stage a tournament in advance to help raise interest in the sport,” said Iain Wilton, MCC’s head of communications.And what better way than holding an exhibition triangular tournament at the Mecca of cricket on August 6 for the first time in its 220-year history. The idea to involve India, England and Australia—three cricketing giants— clearly indicates what the organisers intend to achieve. Australia have been replaced by China because the former could not field teams in both men and women sections. “Originally the tournament was to be held among India, Great Britain and Australia as they are strong cricket and archery nations, but the Australian federation was unable to send recurve teams and we replaced China becasue they will host the Olympics in China next year,” said Davies. Organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the GNAS, the competition will take place soon after the completion of the 4th Meteksan Archery World Cup in Dover. This will also help bring in some of the world’s best archers from the three nations competing at Lord’s.Announcing the tournament, MCC’s secretary and chief executive, Keith Bradshaw said: “I’m delighted that we will be staging this genuinely historic sporting contest. It will be particularly exciting to welcome Chinese competitors to Lord’s for the first time.”And the Indian team will have a lot to cherish from their experience at Lord’s as they will be sitting in team’s balcony there. “The Indian men's team will sit on the balcony where the Indian cricket stars were waiting to bat less than three weeks earlier and the Ladies will be in the other, the England changing room,” said Davies.
