Cricket Safari

 

 

From Johannesburg’s revamped Oliver Tambo International Airport, to street corners across the city, glitzy shopping malls and hotel lobbies, everywhere I turned there was a more than a gentle reminder that big time Cricket had returned to safari-land again this September with the ICC Champions Trophy. Catchy slogans popped up. “Last Man Standing”, “The Gloves are off” and “Guard of Honour” supplemented by the tournament theme of “Nation vs Nation.” The Champions were truly in town. All this, despite the fact that the nation as a whole is gearing up for football’s quadrennial extravaganza that is ominously descending on the rainbow nation, in less than nine months time.

As far as approaches go, there is no ground in the world that has as dramatic a “first view” as Supersport Park in Centurion, just outside South Africa’s administrative capital Pretoria. As we sped towards Centurion, from desolate countryside, we were suddenly confronted by a magnificent patch of perfectly manicured green, surrounded on three sides by grass banks dominated by a massive grandstand at one end of the park.

The facilities were among the best in the world for players and media alike. The Grandstand had all the amenities, but was the absolute wrong place to watch cricket at that ground, as I discovered quickly.

The grass banks were the answer for anyone wanting a fun day out at the cricket. Giant speakers blasting various remixes of DJ Otzi’s “Hey Baby” and other dance chart scorchers, a parade of colourful short tops and bikinis, all lounging on the lazy grassy expanses, rows of “party” houses on stilts that masqueraded as corporate hospitality areas, and the two most vital aspects of life on the grass banks: Braais and Boots.

I was wandering around the ground and noticed several identical stone slabs with holes in the centre placed at almost equal intervals from each other. There must have been close to 30 or 40 such slabs. As it neared close to match time, several early birds went and reserved a slab for themselves and set up giant umbrellas, sheets to sit on and a row of picnic baskets around it. Out of curiosity, I went and asked what the fuss was all about and heard the term “Braai” for the first time. It was simply Afrikaans for Barbecue, but it was not just a matter of translating it. “Braais” were an integral part of South African culture. If the cricket ended up providing a bit of entertainment, fine. If not, they were happy to relegate it to a mere side-show. Being a meat-loving nation, Braais provided a choice of all kinds of Game meat and not mere chicken, fish and lamb. When the match was in full swing and all Braais were going at once, it made for quite a culinary carnival.

Back in Johannesburg, the second venue for the 2009 Champions Trophy will be the Liberty Life New Wanderers Stadium. Cricketing memories overflow here from an Indian perspective. The famous Test match win of 2006 when the dressing room was drenched in champagne (a lot of it I felt on my shirt and hair!) and the historic ICC World T20 win in September 2007 lead the way. It is also the ground which in my travels around the world rates at number one for atmosphere.

Nicknamed the “Bull Ring”, my star rating certainly is helped by the fact that all the matches I have watched there were cracking good games. Apart from that, the Bull Ring will never be quite the same abode of mortals any more after gladiators from Australia and South Africa battled out the greatest game of them all in March 2006, the hosts chasing down an apparently impregnable record score of 434/4. I watched every ball on television, my mind racing back to try and imagine the atmosphere out in the middle. Even my imagination had goose bumps! From the first time I went and stood on the edge of the boundary line I could tell exactly where the nickname the Bull Ring came from. The feel of being on the field was akin to that of an ancient day gladiator thrown to the lions with the crowds all baying for his blood.

In 2006, the Wanderers inspired India to win a historic Test match and the excesses of the Indian celebration and even the invention of the Sreesanth “dance” was further evidence of the power of the “Bull”. 2007 was the final icing on the Wanderers cake, as the entire stadium reverberated with the smell of the champagne spilt from Dhoni’s celebratory bottles on the grass around the lush outfield. I can still smell the whiff of success. What remains is another encore come October 5, 2009.