Tuesday, January 17, 2006

A Tale of Two Tonnes

Alright, it’s cricket in the news again. With the torrent of runs in Pakistan, our boys have set out to redefine Test Cricket. Sehwag makes it to the front pages as Dravid walks back to the Dressing room, all smiles.

Strangely, the Asian heroes are left searching for the ball, wondering if it hit the bat and if it somehow did hit, trying to figure out where it landed, whenever they tour Australia! The contrast is due to one reason – there, matches are played on cricket pitches. And venues with cricket pitches are a bit different from the grounds where players play in the centre of the ground, on a rectangular patch of turf that stands out from the rest of the ground in that, the patch is shaved off the grass. So, you do get the difference between a Pitch and a Patch, don’t you?

When you bat on a patch, you are only supposed to make a tonne of it. It definitely is difficult to bring Asian roads to world standards; but then, it may not be all that tough to convert patches to pitches! And boys are only supposed to grow up into men – cricket is no child’s play, mind you!