The Big Screen's Love-Hate Saga With Cricketers

By Parvathy Gopalakrishnan

When lensmen pan their cameras towards the most beautiful faces in the stadium, the excitement on the faces of the “subjects” is hard to miss. The reactions are varied though. Some just shy away, just like the typical girls-next-door, some oblige the shutterbugs with a warm, receptive smile, some ignore (yeah, yeah, the characters that claim that they don’t care), and some, well, they just scream their lungs out!

Ok. Now back to the warriors on field. It hasn’t been too long since the big screen thingy evolved in the cricketing arena. And speaking of big screens, how can one forget the die-hard Zaheer Khan fan in Bangalore, who’d carried with her a placard that professed her undying love for him? And the Big Screen does not miss instances like this!! While Madame head-over-heels-in-love-with-Zak was on cloud 9, Zaheer too was blushing in the dressing room. And then, kisses were blown in the air, with Zak returning the favour by blowing one right back to the lady! The bemused players on field too couldn’t stop the smiles from making guest appearances. Cute! In case you missed that match between India and Pakistan (shame on you if you did, shame shame!), here’s the video:

If this cute big thing has romances brewing, it is also a double-edged sword. Yes. Ask the players, they’ll be able to tell you why. Now that the poor little things reading this cannot exactly ask the players why, I’m here to act as a saviour. A player whacks one past the ropes, and the screening of the shot is bound to bring smiles on his face. However, spare a thought for the bowler who just got belted. Hehe, sometimes, the big screen is a curse!

And if a player drops a catch, he’s dead meat! He not just has to face the scornful gazes of his team mates and bear the jeers of the crowd, and also deal with the guilt pangs, he also has to deal with larger-than-life images of his goof-up being screen across the stadium. Players would just want to dig a hole in a ground, and bury themselves inside it!

On being asked what was the most horrendous thing that had happened to him on field, Ganguly retorted, “I dropped a catch, and I was already feeling dreadful. And the screen showed it six times; not once or twice but six times! I just wanted something that I could cover my face with!” Indeed. Its embarrassment, and that too, of the highest order. When a player wants to move on post the mess, it will just not let him do so.

For instance, Morne Morkels’s fielding nightmare in yesterday’s match against the Deccan Chargers. He fumbled while fielding, letting the ball slip past him for a boundary, and he was so nervous after the big screen shots, that he let another one dodge him, on the very next ball! Such is the influence that this new baby of innovation has. But like it, or hate it, it does help bring about epoch creating instances!