The God of Cricket

April 9, 2014 6:17 PM

A photograph of Sachin Tendulkar in his final Test appearance in Mumbai has been named the 2013 Wisden – MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year. Who is Sachin Tendulkar? Why, he's only the God of Cricket. See this photo and the runners-up on Cricket Australia's site. (Right-click on each photo to access the hi-res version of each one) See Mitchell Johnson's 'stache? It was quite useful earlier this year against England during the Ashes.
posted by NoMich (11 comments total)

I just read "Mike and Psmith", which is 50% about cricket. I don't know if 1930's English public-school cricket jargon is still in effect, but that was some tough going for a 'Mercun with only a vague grasp of the basics of the game. Declaring? That was a novel and interesting strategy. Is it still done?

That winning picture is a good one.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 7:01 PM on April 9, 2014

Yes it's still done.
posted by dhruva at 7:05 PM on April 9, 2014

Was working in Adelaide a few years back, went out for lunch and spotted Sachin in McDonald's with a couple of others from the Indian team. I told an Indian coworker when I got back, and she didn't know whether to faint or to run out the door and get there pronto before he floated off on a cloud.
posted by Wolof at 7:17 PM on April 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

Declaring? That was a novel and interesting strategy. Is it still done?

It's a pretty standard part of the modern game, and it's tactical. Test matches last 5 days and if there isn't a result at the end of the 5 days it's a draw. This is distinct from a tie, which is when each teams run count at the end of all innings are equal. This is exceedingly rare. Declaring is something you'll do when you actually want to win the test and not just play for a draw (disclaimer: I have never captained a national team). Often if the batter is close to a milestone score (any multiple of 50 really), the captain will give them a chance to reach that before ending the innings.

There is also the follow-on where say you bat first and score 500 and then bowl the other team out for something ridiculous like 150. Instead of coming out to bat again and just extending your lead, you can send them out to bat again.

Sports are weird, but I guess if you grow up around them their arcane rules don't seem so strange. Except for Duckworth-Lewis. Forget about it.

As for Tendulkar, he's pretty amazing. I'm Australian, and a lot of these subcontinent players get dismissed (by idiots) because the grounds they play on are tiny, or they're not playing a high enough quality of opponent. Whatever. Tendulkar was great. If I remember right his last tour down here didn't go so well, which is a pity.
posted by dumbland at 7:36 PM on April 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

Also I'll leave this here.
posted by dumbland at 7:39 PM on April 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sports are weird
Well, there was that time on 11 November 2011, in a match between South Africa and Australia with the time at 11:11 with South Africa requiring 111 runs to win and one of the umpires and the majority of the crowd raised one of their legs.
posted by unliteral at 9:24 PM on April 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

What's great about that winning picture is that all of the people who are mere inches from their idol at such an important moment aren't drinking it in; they're all trying to take a shitty camera phone snapshot, and for passing up that moment, none of them were even rewarded with having taken the Cricket Photograph Of The Year.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:48 PM on April 9, 2014

they're all trying to take a shitty camera phone snapshot
That's what Patrick Eagar thought too.
posted by unliteral at 10:01 PM on April 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Declaring is completely normal in test cricket. If you have amassed a good lead and time is running out, it's your best shot at winning rather than having the match end in a draw.
posted by Decani at 11:24 PM on April 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I know Phil Hliyard, who appeared twice in the notables list. He will be well pleased.
Sports photography is an unusual job. He works for a daily newspaper, and is very much an imaging perfectionist. It is a difficult job to sit through 5 days of cricket, taking thousands of images, then cull them quickly down to the few that gets used.
And you need to be a true sports fan - he covers every sport that appears in the paper.
He tells me you know very quickly when you have a great shot, its rare to discover something useable you weren't expecting back on the editing PC.
And also that post production to present the best image is a critical part of his craft (and he started on film).
posted by bystander at 4:20 AM on April 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

My favourite is the one of NZ mourning the missed run out chance. That was a great series.
posted by mosessis at 7:20 PM on April 11, 2014