|
On Monday, January 8, 2008, the YMCA Pavilion
Grounds, Nandanam, was being prepared for a cricket match. So,
what’s new about this? Well, only that the players were not just any
other cricket players but musicians who had made it to the venue to
play cricket after a hectic kutcheri season (December season).
Margazhi is the season for fine arts in Chennai, but for a few years
now, the YACM (Youth Association for Classical Music) conducts an
annual cricket match in January in which musicians – veterans and
upcoming artistes - participate with equal enthusiasm. The event
kickstarted at 9 30 a.m. and went on till 5 p.m.
The first match was between the teams of K V
Gopalakrishnan and B S Purushotham. Both the teams were equally good
and the viewers were in for a treat! The matches were 12 overs a
side with 4 bowlers bowling 3 overs each.
B S Purushotham’s team, batting first, scored at
a brilliant run rate throughout the game and their score was 83
runs. K V Gopalakrishnan’s team needed 84 to win from 12 overs. The
bowling team seemed in control for most part as they kept picking up
wickets at regular intervals. Finally, they needed 9 runs to win off
2 balls when a six and a four were smashed, giving K V
Gopalakrishnan’s team a seat in the finals.
The second match was between N Guruprasad and V K
Manimaran’s teams. V K Manimaran’s team, batting first, after being
just 27 off 6 overs, accelerated towards the end and ended up
scoring 94 runs! It was a uphill task for Guruprasad’s team! They
were going great guns when they were 47/1 in 4 overs until they
opposition got 2 vital breakthroughs and then Guruprasad’s team was
never able to come back into the game.
The much anticipated final began at 2 p.m., with
K V Gopalakrishnan’s team bowling first. They ran through V K
Manimaran’s team, making them wrap up for a meagre total of 54. This
total was chased very easily and comfortably by the winners!
The winners and runners-up were awarded medals by
Vijay Siva. Many musicians feel the music season is incomplete
without this match! The event was star-studded. Some of the stars
who made it this year – Mannargudi A. Eshwaran, Vijay Siva, P
Unnikrishnan, T M Krishna, Ravikiran, K N Sashikiran, Poongulam
Subramanian and so on.
Though the objective of the event has been to
bring the musicians together and unwind after a hectic season, the
musician cricketers, sporting bright T-shirts and supporting
different teams, played like proffessionals.
On the whole, the CRICKET KUTCHERI ’08 was a
grand success!
Anantha
|
