British response to mega event of year a trifle dullComing into London town from war-and-sex-crazed Washington, I've completely missed what I am told is a World Cup frenzy back in India. The only thing going around here in England is hay fever, for which it is high season. Save the full page coverage in the British papers, there really isn't much visible excitement. Of course, I must confess I am habituated to the Yank penchant for hoopla. As much as the Americans can turn any little event into a circus, the British are equally understated. The joke goes that an English cricketer in the 1940s persuaded his wife, after much cajoling, to watch the Australians play Essex. Bradman's team clubbed the hapless attack for 721 runs in a single day. Asked at the end of play how she enjoyed the game, the ladyship, who spent much of the day knitting, replied, ``Quite nice, thank you, although it was a trifle dull.''Press peeved at being passed byPart of the reason why the British press is cold tothe event is said to be the enormous screw-up in issuing credentials to the media for match coverage. It turns out that the process of determining accreditation was given to a private agency not entirely conversant with the game or its eminence in the media.The result: many prominent papers and scribes have not got accreditation to cover important games. Of the 30 games in the league stage, many papers have got credentials for 15 or even fewer games. One British scribe swore that this was not an apocryphal story. When Wisden, the Bible of the cricket world, called for credentials, a memsahib from the accrediting agency is said to have fluted, ``What kind of paper is Wisden? We've never heard of it.''The BBC Asian Service has been denied credentials. Former England fast bowler Paul Allott had to designate himself a radio technician to get his accreditation. Dicky Rutnagar, one of the old time cricketing gurus, said he was so disgusted with the whole cock up that he was going to stickto covering the county circuit.The fact remains that many English grounds are small, and press facilities are limited. A game like West Indies versus Pakistan in Bristol would attract not only hordes of British and Carribbean scribes but also the hackpack from other countries, not counting Pakistan. The Bristol press box can handle only 24.So the question being asked now is: Why let England host the Cup? Er, Mr Dalmiya may have something to say about this one.The upside though is one can traverse this small country rapidly, flitting from county to county, venue to venue, virtually day after day. Most of south and central Britain is within a couple of hours by train. But then, scurrying off at the crack of dawn from London to Leicester, Derby or Nottingham, sitting through an eight-hour game, threading the deadline, and hurtling back to London late at night and starting all over again early next day is enough to give anyone bug eyes and frayed nerves - enough to say Dunkirk instead of Dunsinane, as Idid in my copy on Friday. And we still have six weeks to go. Expect more fatigue induced errors!
