CONCERT AND CRICKET

[gnb]

From the bout of articles that I have been reading on line in The Hindu and this forum, it is hard to miss a resemblance between carnatic music concerts and Indian cricket. The sabhas represent the selection committee, the main artist the skipper and the accompanists the rest of the team. The critics represent the “intelligent” commentators except that the latter report on the game while watching it where as some of the critics write reviews even without attending a concert!
Let us start with the “team” selection. The team members (accompanist) often wonder the basis for the selection. The “skipper” (main artist) says it is the “selection committee’s” (sabhas) job and the latter says just the opposite. Sometimes the "skipper" may include a couple of his/her favourites (ghatam, khanjira) much to the chagrin of the other "selectors". Sometimes, it is the other "selectors" who impose this on the "skipper". In any case these add ons play the role of the 12th man, mostly. In domestic matches i.e. junior slots, the selection of the team is “outsourced” to a favorite senior musician by the sabhas who wields enormous clout while dealing with aspiring entrants into the afternoon slots.
With lot of ill feeling, bickering and bad blood, a “team” may finally be formed and from now on the “skipper” becomes the central figure, as the cricket skipper is, on the field. The “skipper” can come late, ask the groundman (the sound guy in our case) to provide “conditions” suitable for the “skipper” and as with the game’s groundsman, this groundman also leaves the scene as soon as the first ball (vranam) starts, never to be seen again. Players of the domestic games (junior slots) have no power to talk to the groundsman and have to take what is given, which in this case is that most sabhas totally reduce the volume in the hope of saving electricity.
As the game starts, the “skipper” commences to influence the game. The “skipper” may say “keep bowling outside off stump”. Translation “Do not play a long thani or an elaborate alapana”. The “skipper” will decide when to “declare”. Translation “the thani will be just before mangalam”. The “skipper” may out of the blue ask number 5 to open. Translation” there will be an RTP which I have prepared in a complicated thalam”. Number 5, the mridangist is shell shocked and starts shadow drumming in the unannounced thalam much like shadow batting against an imaginary bouncer!
As the game comes to an end, “man of the match” and “man of the series” are all announced which raises even more eye brows. The winners as well as losers, the “skipper” as well as the “team” suddenly attest to the fact that the “game” is a “team effort” and not the contribution of a single player.
The moral in my opinion is while some hierarchy is desirable, the truth that cricket as well as the concert is indeed a team work should not be lost sight of. There may be patches of individual brilliance, but at the end of the day, it is a combined effort. Don’t we have lot of scope for reforms here?

[MaheshS]

GNB - Any chance you can format the post please? It's very hard to read for me, I had to C&P the post into a text editor and then manually introduce the para breaks which makes it a lot easier to read. Thanks.

[MaheshS]

Original post below with some small formatting ... I hope you don't mind GNB!

From the bout of articles that I have been reading on line in The Hindu and this forum, it is hard to miss a resemblance between carnatic music concerts and Indian cricket. The sabhas represent the selection committee, the main artist the skipper and the accompanists the rest of the team. The critics represent the “intelligent” commentators except that the latter report on the game while watching it where as some of the critics write reviews even without attending a concert!

Let us start with the “team” selection. The team members (accompanist) often wonder the basis for the selection. The “skipper” (main artist) says it is the “selection committee’s” (sabhas) job and the latter says just the opposite. Sometimes the "skipper" may include a couple of his/her favourites (ghatam, khanjira) much to the chagrin of the other "selectors". Sometimes, it is the other "selectors" who impose this on the "skipper". In any case these add ons play the role of the 12th man, mostly. In domestic matches i.e. junior slots, the selection of the team is “outsourced” to a favorite senior musician by the sabhas who wields enormous clout while dealing with aspiring entrants into the afternoon slots.

With lot of ill feeling, bickering and bad blood, a “team” may finally be formed and from now on the “skipper” becomes the central figure, as the cricket skipper is, on the field. The “skipper” can come late, ask the groundman (the sound guy in our case) to provide “conditions” suitable for the “skipper” and as with the game’s groundsman, this groundman also leaves the scene as soon as the first ball (vranam) starts, never to be seen again. Players of the domestic games (junior slots) have no power to talk to the groundsman and have to take what is given, which in this case is that most sabhas totally reduce the volume in the hope of saving electricity.

As the game starts, the “skipper” commences to influence the game. The “skipper” may say “keep bowling outside off stump”. Translation “Do not play a long thani or an elaborate alapana”. The “skipper” will decide when to “declare”. Translation “the thani will be just before mangalam”. The “skipper” may out of the blue ask number 5 to open. Translation” there will be an RTP which I have prepared in a complicated thalam”. Number 5, the mridangist is shell shocked and starts shadow drumming in the unannounced thalam much like shadow batting against an imaginary bouncer!

As the game comes to an end, “man of the match” and “man of the series” are all announced which raises even more eye brows. The winners as well as losers, the “skipper” as well as the “team” suddenly attest to the fact that the “game” is a “team effort” and not the contribution of a single player.

The moral in my opinion is while some hierarchy is desirable, the truth that cricket as well as the concert is indeed a team work should not be lost sight of. There may be patches of individual brilliance, but at the end of the day, it is a combined effort.

Don’t we have lot of scope for reforms here?

[gnb]

Thanks for the edit. I am somewhat challenged, language skill wise.

[makham]

On a slightly different wicket but falling under this series:

My 12-year old grand-nephew attends concerts during the season. Asked to comment how he felt after a concert, his cryptic replies are "T20", "ODI", "Test". He has not elaborated the criteria he uses for the classification, but in an intuitive sense, it seemed appropriate. Asked to recall the list of songs in each concert it turned out that the T20 concert had ragas of the type Hindolam, Nalinakanthi, Kadhanakuthuhalam, Hamsanadham and Desh; the ODI had offered the likes of Kamas, Mohanam, Arabhi, Bilahari and Sindhubhairavi, the Test featured heavy weights such as Bhairavi, Todi, Latangi, Saveri and Sahana.

[vasanthakokilam]

makham, Nice. Quite an intuitive classification by your grand nephew. One can always quibble about what belongs in which format but just like the same cricketer plays differently in the different formats, it applies to ragas as well, I suppose. But only up to a point, the Geff Boycott's of the world would be completely out of place in a T20.

[priyaram78]

Very nice post. enjoyed reading it. I love carnatic music but am not fond of cricket. So would like to add two cents......too many cricket matches in different formats being played all year round and also to my chagrin, every match is being telecast on television, which goes on and on in my home, while not many carnatic concerts are being telecast. I wish there is a channel purely and solely dedicated to carnatic music like we have other film music channels. its a dream come true.......for people like me living outside chennai.