Vantage point




Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Audacity of Ignorance

Our friend Dr. Phil Frank Burns, after lamenting about people not writing intelligent posts or articles about cricket any more, lays a splendid turd which is both banal as well as based on plain wrong facts. He says - Madras is not a preferred test venue like Bangalore is. While Bangalore gets a game every year or every other year, Madras gets a game once every four years. And so there is a good chance that Sachin's last innings at one of his most productive venues will be a duck.

Of course, anybody who actually follows test cricket would know that in the period 1998-2008, Bangalore has hosted 6 test matches while Madras has hosted 7. That even if you take other grounds like Wankhede, Eden Gardens, Kotla, Motera... the number will be at the most 6 or 7. That until 2005, Madras was almost getting a game a year or so. That the cricketing season in India usually consists of a home autumn series followed by a home spring series in the following year, and venues are alloted on that basis. So Madras got a test in the 05-06 season, and now the 07-08 season. That the longest interval between tests in Madras has been between this one and the last one - 27 months, so still not close to 4 years. That 06-07 was a World Cup year, so India did not have it's traditional spring home series, only the autumn home series, and that the 2 previous autumn tests in Madras were rain-hit.

Facts are such an inconvenience when you want to convey both banality and victim mentality.