A color is just a color but there are colors and there are colors. I mean what man would like to run in like a demon with one pink ball in hand? Shoaib Akhtar? "Not a chance" one would say, but Shoaib plays county and he'll have to do just that. I mean how can a speed devil like him or Shaun Tait, when the ball is internationalized, brutalize a batsman with a pink ball? One more unfair change against the bowlers.
I love pink on any rose, and I'll grant it looks nice against John Stephenson's dark suit (see picture), but I think I've seen it all in cricket now. Or maybe I'm wrong...and I'll tell you why.
Good friend, Mikey, brought this up from the autobiography of Clive Lloyd. Apparently Kerry Packer's offered the mighty West Indian warriors participating in the Big Boys Play at Night carnival pink uniforms to wear. Mikey goes on to tell me that the West Indian dressing room was naturally in an uproar. Can't blame them. It needed all the delicacy Supercat could summon to explain to the thoughtful organizers that back in the Caribs, pink was associated with certain effeminate tendencies.
Perhaps it was a mindgame or maybe Lloyd's clenched teeth were enough to convince, but I'm told that uniform didn't catch on and was replaced before the first ball was bowled.
I digressed to tell this story to express a fear - pink is an infectious thing - we could soon have lycra clad cricketers in neon colors. More so with T20 set to be a big carnival right upto and into the peaks of Hollywood. One could hear from the early innovators of this game that it adds a bit to the performance...say, speed on the field or some such thing.
Imagine Holland in orange lycras playing Australia in yellow skin-tight lycras...Mathew Hayden...and with pink balls...enough to volunteer for a bullet in the head!
Some team somewhere must have a dash of pink in it...maybe in the associate members? I urge them to give it up before such changes come over cricket.
That said, I'm awaiting a whole new genre of cricketing humor once the pink balls begin to fly across the English skies.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Pink Associations
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5 comments:
I didnt know about Lloyd and his team being offered Pink!! I don't think i've ever seen anything pink on a cricket field apart from maybe a shirt and tie of some commentators, and Sidhu's turban. Has Bhajji ever worn a pink turban, I dont think so.
But your right Berry, I too thought i had seen everything in cricket but pink balls. I think there will be many more Lloyds disagreeing to this one.
Metrosexuals are taking over the world.
The Gays too are all set to have their say in the world now with Pink balls coming up in the picture.
Hard to comprehend the move behind this move. And if the county games aint enough, then the vision of Mike Gatting is even more dangerous -- use in 2009 T20 world championship.
My first visit to this blog. pls do visit mine : ashuscricketdiary.blogspot.com
Soulberry,
ICL has a team, Madras Maveerans (?), in a pink uniform.
Remains to be seen whether the goodfolk in Chennai love it.
I read someone suggest blue or purple sightscreens to go along. The gentleman appeared to be suggesting that the pink ball would be better visible against such a background. I don't know if he was being tongue-in-cheek but I'll certainly be trying out some combinations on Photoshop tonight.
Ashu, I'll be there at your blog. I do read your other blog frequently. (In Pursuit of Happyness) There were times when I felt like postign but it was a personal blog...
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