India in Australia: Stepping into cricket’s cauldron

Welcome to the wild, wild, west of the cricket world. For good measure, you end up spotting more than a couple of locals donning cowboy hats at the arrival terminal, after a five-hour flight from Sydney, which can feel like an eternity. But they are mere teasers. You don’t get a real feel of it till you get to the WACA. For, here at this enigmatic venue, anything goes.

The WACA? You wonder whether there’s a more powerful acronym in the sporting world. Not just for its snappy sound but also for the effect its mere mention can have on any team touring these parts. For many, this has been their Hell’s Gate, or considered so anyway.

No-one’s ever too sure about Perth. Some call it boring. Some call it a breath of fresh air. Some say it’s the most expensive city in the country. Others insist on it being the biggest revenue-generator for Australia. Those from the more urbane east coast can’t find enough reasons to warn you from heading west. The coffee’s bad, the restaurants shut at 9-even on the weekends-and of course it’s always either hot, hotter or hottest. Or they just say, “It’s sooo Perth.”

But there is always a consensus on one aspect though. That the WACA is the most exciting cricket ground in the world. The MCG and the SCG might have iconic status. But it’s watching a game at the WACA that’s on everyone’s bucket-list-even for the snooty likes up in Melbourne and Sydney.

The first thing you learn as you take a free ride on the city buses and land at the gates of the WACA is the Western Australian salute-the constant swatting action that is enforced upon by the most annoying and unrelenting flies you will find in the world. They’re all over, and all around you. Then your gaze falls upon the unique light towers, six of them, all still concrete with the lights themselves looking over the ground dotingly, almost like a very tall guy craning his neck downwards. It’s only one of the many facets of the stadium that remain archaic.

Growing up, we’ve all seen hordes of Australians sunning themselves on the grass-banks while chugging on amber colour liquids, all the while cheering on their beloved Australian team. But it’s not till you get to the WACA do you experience your first encounter with a grass-bank. For, everywhere, else they have given way to towering stands, adorning sponsors’ tags and merchandise.

The WACA has sprawling green-banks on either side of the oddly-shaped ground. But it does make you think about how inebriated one should be to brave the Perth heat, that too without any overhead protection.

Odd shape

Speaking about its odd-shape, here at the WACA, a batsman tucking a ball around the corner towards fine-leg isn’t just an oft-used euphemism, especially if he’s facing a bowler from the Prindiville Stand end. For, the ground actually has a corner on one side, where two fences actually meet at right-angles.

Perth itself is more laidback than any other city you go to in Australia. But it’s all helter-skelter inside the WACA even if the overall setting might be more serene than bustling.

But then there’s the WACA pitch. No centre-square in the world has a reputation that precedes it quite like the one here. Fast, bouncy, menacing, batsman’s nightmare, you name it. And after a brief spell where the bowlers weren’t quite getting their way in the mid-2000s, the WACA regained its place in the batsman’s bad-books a few years ago. The baking sun also ensures that the pitch cracks alarmingly at times-like when the late Tony Greig once lost his keys in a divot or Geoff Marsh his bat.

It’s here that India will play two of their World Cup league games. One of them will be against West Indies, who in their prime were at home here more than even the locals. They were the sheriffs of this western outpost.

Where the wind blows

Cricket at the WACA is also dependent on where the wind’s coming. The Fremantle Doctor, that flows in from the sea breeze brings some respite for the batsmen. But when it’s coming the other way, from the desert, run-making can often seem like finding an oasis in the outback.

It’s not that those from WA aren’t aware of the weather. And you’ll find large tubs of free sun-screen dispensers located every 150 yards with warning signs saying, “Hat-Trick, Use a hat and sun-screen and save yourself from the heat.” You disregard them at your own peril. It’s akin to a batsman undermining the menace that rests under the WACA surface.

With the World Cup in mind, the association has built a new media centre on the pavilion side of the ground. But the rest of it still remains archaic, with the concrete steps outnumbering the lifts-unlike in any other venue in this cricket-mad country.

In the city, the convenience stores are manned by Indians but they sell Lekker Billtongs, revealing the high density of South African presence in this sparsely-populated region.

“We’re not like anywhere else. Why can’t we be like everywhere else?” It’s a common dilemma that the Sandgropers-as people from this state are referred to-have to deal with on a daily basis. But it doesn’t matter, for there’s no place on earth like the WACA, even if the conditions here might make teams feel like they are walking into this furnace.