Cricket without boundaries

from Photographers Blog:

Editing thousands of cricket pictures a day

Sports and Action photography is all about timing. It’s about reacting. It’s about being in the right place at the right time and it’s about execution.

These are all qualities of the athlete and those of the photographer covering them as well. Each sport has predictable and unpredictable moments. For instance, in cricket, photographers will have opportunities to capture jump shots, players diving to make the crease, diving to take a catch, diving to field the ball, a bowler leaping in the air as he bowls, a batsman screaming in joy on reaching his century, etc. Understanding the timing of these predictable actions allows a photographer to capture the peak moment; when the action is most dramatic.

Before I start editing I always have a brief chat with the photographers about what could be the day’s great picture. The staff never fail to deliver and meet expectations. I briefed two photographers covering matches from the quarter-finals onwards not to forget to look for emotion in the players and the fans. A good number of the best shots come from the crowd. I received a bunch of nice pictures of the crowd from the final.

While editing pictures from the semi-final match between arch rivals India and Pakistan, I thought I should leave the confines of our New Delhi desk and photograph the match in Mohali. The Mohali semi-final match had a few news angles attached to it. Firstly, India and Pakistan were playing each other after a long time; secondly the Indian Prime Minister and his Pakistan counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani were watching the match in the stands after the latter accepted an invite from Manmohan Singh to watch the match. It was a historic moment where one could see the prime ministers of two nuclear-armed countries sitting side-by-side enjoying the game. But in the end, I am glad I edited their pictures.

from Photographers Blog:

Clash of two cricketing titans

The second quarter-final of the cricket world cup was a clash between two huge teams. India, the world's no. 1 team with its power batting lineup. Australia, three-time world champions who have reigned supreme over the game for 12 years. Whoever won, it would be a huge story. Whoever lost, it would be a huge story.

We headed to the stadium at around 10am, well before the 2.30pm start. Traffic was backed up a long way. There was only one road leading to it and we weren't sure if it was fans waving flags and blowing horns, buses and four wheel drives, scooters or the cops that were in charge. Fellow photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds got nervous because on his last 3 trips to stadiums, the vehicle he's been in has blown a tire. Lucky we made it in one piece. There were thousands of fans queuing in the searing heat to get into the ground, watched over by the usual stick-wielding police in khaki suits.

I installed a remote camera high on a TV tower above the stands, hooked up by usb cable to a laptop, both powered by a 25m extension cord we rented for 150 rupees (about 4 dollars) from a local shop that usually rents them out for weddings. The remote would capture the action from a different angle and would fire whenever I wanted it to from my field side position. I had the laptop running on a data card so the pictures would automatically be downloaded and transmitted to our editing system live, so that we didn't have to wait for the break inbetween innings to get the disk and edit pictures. It was going to provide some great pictures from the match.

As it got closer to the start of the match, fans packed the stadium and the familiar chants began - "Jeeta bhai jeetega!! Indiaaaaa jeetega!!!" (We'll win brother, we'll win, India will win!!!) I was torn, as someone who was born in India but has an Australian passport, I wasn't sure who to support. I decided to support New Zealand, my other nationality, to evade having to choose.

Australia had a fairly tame start to the match. Captain Ricky Ponting scored a century as Australia posted a total of 260. Amit Dave, Andrew and myself were burnt to a crisp in the unforgiving Gujarat heat as we covered the innings. At least I had water on my side; they forgot to bring any for the photographers at Andrew and Amit's positions.

from Our Take on Your Take:

Cricket line-up turns violent

The cricket World Cup being played in the sub-continent has provided some dramatic matches but also its share of incidents. Your View contributor Abhishek N.Chinnappa was on the scene to capture this dramatic moment when fans lining up to buy tickets for a match were hit by police.

View this week's Your View showcase here.

from Photographers Blog:

2011 Cricket World Cup: Let’s play

As the cricket World Cup draws closer, the pulse rate of the players and their fans from the 14 participating nations is surely rising.

The build up to the quadrennial event, the equivalent of the FIFA soccer world cup, has been nothing short of spectacular. Despite the game grappling with a spot-fixing saga and an under-prepared Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata losing the hosts a marquee match against England, the enthusiasm of having a “good game” seems to have taken over. Like the previous editions, the 10th ICC world cup will also see some of the great cricketers saying “Goodbye” to the gentleman’s game and all of them would want to lay their hands on the coveted trophy.

Fans will be seeing Ricky Ponting, Muthaiah Muralitharan, Sachin Tendulkar and probably Jacques Kallis for the last time at a world cup but it will be Sachin, who will want to etch his name on the winners’ trophy more than anyone else. The master blaster has achieved almost everything that is there to achieve in the game of cricket but the world cup has remained elusive.

There will surely be new heroes found for their respective nations and new stars will appear on the horizon. But there are already some who I will be keenly watching during the 45 day event. From India, the most exciting youngster to emerge since the master blaster has been Virat Kohli. In the limited opportunities he has got, Kohli has proved that he is the man for the future.

Colin Ingram from South Africa will be another young lad to watch alongside Ahmad Shehzad, Umar Akmal (from Pakistan), Darren Bravo from the West Indies and Angelo Mathews from Sri Lanka.

In the bowling department, spinners will hold the key on the slower and turning tracks of the subcontinent. It might not be the run feast that is anticipated on the pitches in this part of the world but batting should be easier if the batsmen are willing to grind.

from Photographers Blog:

Before a ball is bowled

Reuters Photographer Parivartan Sharma takes us to the town of Meerut, north of Delhi, where cricket balls are still being made the old-fashioned way - by hand. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will co-host the 2011 Cricket World Cup starting on February 19.

The Making Of A Cricket Ball - Cricket World Cup Preview from Vivek Prakash on Vimeo.

from Photographers Blog:

Sachin Tendulkar in all his cricket glory

I have always followed 'cricket' and 'news' but 'cricket news' has fascinated me like nothing else.

I was in school when news broke that a young boy was going to be part of the Indian cricket team to tour Pakistan under a new captain -- Krishnamachari Srikkant. No one in the world had any doubts about the talented young boy from Mumbai but to throw him in the deep end to face the pace battery of Pakistan, led by Wasim Akram and the spin wizardry of Abdul Qadir, who had earned himself a sobriquet of "Googly" for foxing the batsmen world over, had many questioning the wisdom of his selection.

But Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar -- who would prove to be the real baby-faced assassin of all bowling attacks and a nightmare for bowlers of legendary stature like Shane Warne -- had other ideas.

It was in November 1989, when Sachin was packing his bags for the Pakistan tour, that my school sports coach was giving batting tips to us ahead of a game against a school rival.

Although I doubt my coach had ever watched Sachin play, he was full of praise for the then 16-year-old. I am sure he must have gone through the interviews and column spaces dedicated to him to find a replacement for the aging middle order of the Indian cricket team in late 1980s. Most of the talking and writing revolved around two young schoolmates from Mumbai who had shared a world record partnership of over 600 runs -- Sachin and Vinod Kambli.

The duo would play many games -- Test matches as well as One Day Internationals -- but Sachin has since outlived many careers. He is not the oldest person on the circuit but he has played more years and more games than all the current active cricket players.

from Pakistan: Now or Never?:

Pakistan under siege: cricket becomes a target

"Everything is officially going to hell." The verdict of a reader quoted by All Things Pakistan said perhaps better than anyone else why the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore marked a defining moment in Pakistan's agonising descent into chaos.

Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach were wounded when gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort to the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore.  Five policemen were killed.

The death toll was small by South Asian standards.  But what defined it -- beyond the audacity and apparent sophistication of the attack -- was the assault on the identity of a country where cricket, as in neighbouring India, is a national obsession.

"An ambush targeting the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this morning has literally sent waves of disbelief and shock across Pakistan," said a post on Metroblogging Lahore. "Citizens of Lahore are specifically terrified at the extent of sophisticated weaponry used by terrorists in an incident that caused unprecedented damage to the country's image and its cricketing future."

"Why can't we ever just have a slow news day ... every day there's something new," complained another post on Twitter.

South Asia is no stranger to violence, from the days of partition onwards. But there seems to me to be something qualitatively quite different in what is going on now, in which brutality and the alienation of the local population is not so much incidental but central to the method.

To play cricket or not to play?

The militant attacks in Mumbai have shaken, saddened and angered people across the world, not just in India. It has thrown up so many issues which go way beyond winning and losing as seen on a sports field.

The Indian cricket board have worked hard to resurrect action on the field by persuading England to agree to return to complete a two-test series, offering all support to allay fears of their players for their safety.

The Indian media have been busy reporting the aftermath of the attacks and there has been furious debate in the British media whether it is proper for the England players to return to India this soon.

Whether sports should go on in turbulent times has been debated for ages. At the 1972 Munich Games, Olympics chiefs decided the show would go on despite Palestinian gunmen killing 11 Israeli athletes and officials.

Cricket teams are refusing to travel to Pakistan because of security concerns by teams in the wake of many suicide bombings.

Some even doubt whether the sub-continent can hold the 2011 World Cup.

Should cricket go on in India in the middle of the latest crisis? Can Indians turn their minds to their first love?

Ganguly takes off his shirt one last time

It wasn’t the way Saurav Ganguly wanted to walk off into the sunset. A century in Nagpur, the final test of India’s most successful test skipper, would have made it memorable.

Instead, the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ was dismissed first ball in his final innings, becoming only the second cricketer after England’s Billy Griffith to score a century in his first test innings and a duck in his last.

India went on to win the test, sealing their first series victory over Australia in seven years. But Ganguly’s bid to go out with a bang had fizzled out.

Or so we thought.

After the match and the presentation ceremony, his admirers clamoured for the 36-year-old left-hander to come out of the players’ dressing room.

Ganguly obliged, took off his shirt and hurled it into the midst of his delirious fans.

Are Australia going down under?

Has the meltdown begun for Australia’s triumphant cricket team? That is the big question. It was not just India handing them a record 320-run defeat, the match also showed up a flat Australian team who were well behind from start to finish.

Australia are suffering much more by the retirements of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist than they would admit. Their replacements have come nowhere near making an impact on the game.

Their leading batsman Matthew Hayden has repeatedly failed and express paceman Brett Lee was so bad he was not given a bowl an entire session in the Indian second innings in Mohali.

Australia’s meticulous planning has also been called into question.

Their batsmen fell to the swing bowling of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma while their bowlers have struggled to find any movement.

Captain Ricky Ponting admitted his team were outplayed in Mohali and was confident the number one test team would bounce back. A week’s break is expected to help the tourists pick up the pieces but will they really be a force in the Delhi test starting on Oct. 29?

India are favourites to win the Delhi test and clinch the series.