The big shots

The magnitude of the event first struck me when I saw the coverage in the papers. In a country where we jump with joy if cricket gets a 1" x 1" piece in a hidden corner in the last page of the free newspaper, it was amazing to see the extensive media coverage. The event in question was the IA T20 Super Challenge (Olam Cup). Based on the concept of the IPL, it was a 2-day T20 tournament involving four teams - Eastern Riders, Western Challengers, Northern Spice Devils and Southern Kings (Viv's team).

They had some sort of a quota system and each team comprised three Singaporeans, three players from the region in India that the team was named after, three 'foreigners' and two Under-19 players.

"What do they mean -- 'foreigners'?" I asked.

I was so not prepared to hear the answer. In recent weeks, Atapattu had been the only celebrity cricketer who had come to Singapore (he's the National team's new coach). He was not playing this tournament. But Sanath Jayasuriya was! And so was Upul Tharanga. In the Eastern Riders team.

I went with Viv for the opening ceremony dinner and who did I see seated 20 feet away? Sunil Gavaskar! Holy cow, the man is still so handsome! Apparently, the high Commissioner was going to bowl the first ball of the tournament to Gavaskar! We were joking about how the High Commissioner must have been practising like mad for the last few days, and what would happen if he really got Gavaskar out for a duck.

As our friends Reghu and Aathira are in Singapore, we decided that the three of us would go for the second day's matches. The supporters had been asked to wear the team's colours. Unfortunately for me, Viv's team's colour was a jhataak yellow! Why why why? Sheesh. I did not have any yellow clothes. So we went shopping on saturday. I found a yellow dress but no, no no no. No. I did not buy it. It was too jhataak. I did not want to buy something that I would have no use for after the match. So in the end, I decided on a jhataak yellow bandanna instead. I think I pulled it off okay, at least compared to Viv who actually came home on Saturday looking like a cross between Govinda and Rajanikanth. He had his team yellow pants on and a sky blue T-shirt. Ahem.

On Saturday, Viv's team won the first match against the Northern Spice Devils, but lost to Jayasuriya's Eastern Riders team. Jayasuriya made 102. But I was thrilled because Viv had taken Upul Tharanga's catch. I can only imagine the elation of the guy who got Jayasuriya out. Stuff to put on his cricket resume!

The Western Challengers also beat the Northern Spice Devils, so they were in the semi-finals with the Southern Kings. Now I have two good friends in the Western Challengers team, and though both of them are supremely talented (one is the record holder for the second fastest century in T20, while the other is the record holder for scoring a double century in T20), for some reason they believe that when I turn up for their matches, it brings them good luck. So the semi-finals on Sunday morning was a weird one. I was there in my yellow bandanna, supporting Viv's team, but the Western Challengers were happy to see me because "Sayesha always makes us win". Gulp.

The organisers had proudly displayed a newspaper at the venue on Sunday. It was the Straits Times article about the event, and the photo was from the Southern Kings vs. Northern Spice Devils match. And... the wicket-keeper in the photo was Viv.


















If you didn't believe how jhataak Viv's yellow was, I bet you do now.

My friend Reghu is an avid photographer and he has one of those giant cameras which just don't go with the whole "The world is trying to make things smaller" campaign. He took some really awesome action shots of the semi-final. I had my tiny digital camera on me, which also has a huge superstition attached to it. Every time I switch to video mode, Viv's team gets a wicket. It proved true in this match too. And just when I decided to keep it permanently on video mode, the battery died on me. :/

The Western Challengers had a huge group of supporters, while we were only a handful. In fact, the announcer joked, "We welcome the team and the five people in the stands". Thunk thunk thunk.

We were a bit perplexed because one of the Western supporters (the most violently passionate one I'd say) kept yelling "SIXER! SIXER!" whenever the Southern Kings scored a single. After a while, we realised she was actually yelling, "SINGAL! SINGAL!" Sheesh.

Every time the match turned in the favour of the Western Challengers, the song "Chale chalo" from Lagaan would start playing, and every time the Southern Kings did well, the song "Naan adicha thaanga maate, naalu maasam thoonga maate" would start playing. I had no idea what that song meant until Viv translated it for me later. "If I hit you, you can't withstand it. You won't sleep for 4 months". Double sheesh.

Anyway, we were in for a disappointment as the Southern Kings lost the semi-final to the Western Challengers. I went over to congratulate my two friends and inform them that from now on, ahem, I would be charging for every appearance.

And so it was the Western Challengers vs. the Eastern Riders in the finals. The Western team managed to get Jayasuriya out for real cheap, but Tharanga blasted his team to victory.

T20 really is my kind of cricket. I can't wait for the tournament next year. Erm, I hope they get Shane Bond.

And more importantly, I hope that Viv's team gets a better colour. :/