Balls, oohs and aahs
There has been a clash between two balls—one is cowhide-clad and visible, and the other covered with club-shaped spikes and invisible to the naked eye. The former has got badly beaten in the encounter, albeit temporarily. Therefore, we have not had the pleasure of watching cricket for the past few weeks. This may be one of the reasons why lockdown blues worsened, and the menfolk got so depressed. It may be a few weeks until the all-clear is given for cricket matches, but spectators won’t be allowed until the Covid-19 danger is over.
How will cricketers feel if they have to play without spectators and crowd noise, which drives them? (A cynic may argue that cricket was played without fans even when there was no pandemic. Grounds were virtually empty when Test matches were played, and policemen would outnumber spectators.) But the fact remains that playing cricket without fans is like drinking room temperature milkshake. English fast bowler, Jofra Archer, thinks he has a solution to this problem.
Archer has told BBC that crowd noise should be played at grounds if cricket matches have to be played without fans. "We can play the clapping, the oohs and the aahs and just try to make it as realistic as possible," he has said. This is the only option cricket administrators will be left with in case of games having to be staged without spectators.
If this oohs-aahs method is adopted, matches cannot be telecast, for viewers will wonder how on earth all the crowd noise comes from empty stadia. They will have to be broadcast for canned crowd noise, as it were, to have the desired effect on the audience. Most FM channels use fake laughter when they air their breakfast and drive-time programmes, where men and women chatter incessantly and the jokes they crack go down like lead balloons. Or if cricket administrators have to telecast cricket matches for commercial purposes, without fans, they can hire our local TV guys who know how to make a place seem packed to the rafters even if there is only a smattering of people there. How they show massive crowds at even poorly attended rallies held by the parties they support is a case in point. They use certain angles to show a sea of heads at Galle Face Green during political events that don’t attract enough people to fill even one third of the place.
As for Archer’s suggestion, there is a problem. Not all spectators utter oohs and aahs in unison, for one’s despair can be another’s joy, depending on the sides they support in matches. So who will decide what fake interjections should be played when a catch is taken or the ball is lofted over the pavilion. Objectivity and neutrality are not traits that even most cricket commentators are blessed with; they betray their prejudices when they make some remarks.
Calls for fake crowd noise to be played at cricket grounds, and the unwillingness on the part of cricketers to play without fans show the dependency of the game on spectators. Cricket without spectators will be dead. This is something cricket administrators, especially those in Sri Lanka, ought to take cognisance of. Unless they get their act together and make cricket spectator-friendly, as it used to be, they will have to use canned crowd noise even after the coronavirus pandemic becomes a thing of the past; grounds will be without fans, who are fed up with the way cricket is mismanaged and administrative skullduggery. It is incumbent upon the local cricket administrators and their international bosses to prevent fans from voting with their feet.
There has been a clash between two balls—one is cowhide-clad and visible, and the other covered with club-shaped spikes and invisible to the naked eye. The former has got badly beaten in the encounter, albeit temporarily. Therefore, we have not had the pleasure of watching cricket for the past few weeks. This may be one of the reasons why lockdown blues worsened, and the menfolk got so depressed. It may be a few weeks until the all-clear is given for cricket matches, but spectators won’t be allowed until the Covid-19 danger is over.
How will cricketers feel if they have to play without spectators and crowd noise, which drives them? (A cynic may argue that cricket was played without fans even when there was no pandemic. Grounds were virtually empty when Test matches were played, and policemen would outnumber spectators.) But the fact remains that playing cricket without fans is like drinking room temperature milkshake. English fast bowler, Jofra Archer, thinks he has a solution to this problem.
Archer has told BBC that crowd noise should be played at grounds if cricket matches have to be played without fans. "We can play the clapping, the oohs and the aahs and just try to make it as realistic as possible," he has said. This is the only option cricket administrators will be left with in case of games having to be staged without spectators.
If this oohs-aahs method is adopted, matches cannot be telecast, for viewers will wonder how on earth all the crowd noise comes from empty stadia. They will have to be broadcast for canned crowd noise, as it were, to have the desired effect on the audience. Most FM channels use fake laughter when they air their breakfast and drive-time programmes, where men and women chatter incessantly and the jokes they crack go down like lead balloons. Or if cricket administrators have to telecast cricket matches for commercial purposes, without fans, they can hire our local TV guys who know how to make a place seem packed to the rafters even if there is only a smattering of people there. How they show massive crowds at even poorly attended rallies held by the parties they support is a case in point. They use certain angles to show a sea of heads at Galle Face Green during political events that don’t attract enough people to fill even one third of the place.
As for Archer’s suggestion, there is a problem. Not all spectators utter oohs and aahs in unison, for one’s despair can be another’s joy, depending on the sides they support in matches. So who will decide what fake interjections should be played when a catch is taken or the ball is lofted over the pavilion. Objectivity and neutrality are not traits that even most cricket commentators are blessed with; they betray their prejudices when they make some remarks.
Calls for fake crowd noise to be played at cricket grounds, and the unwillingness on the part of cricketers to play without fans show the dependency of the game on spectators. Cricket without spectators will be dead. This is something cricket administrators, especially those in Sri Lanka, ought to take cognisance of. Unless they get their act together and make cricket spectator-friendly, as it used to be, they will have to use canned crowd noise even after the coronavirus pandemic becomes a thing of the past; grounds will be without fans, who are fed up with the way cricket is mismanaged and administrative skullduggery. It is incumbent upon the local cricket administrators and their international bosses to prevent fans from voting with their feet.
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