Remember the good old days?

[Mr. Wicket]

Big high profile match up ahead. Turn on TV, tune into appropriate channel. Final starting in 15 minutes, and you had KNOWLEDGABLE PEOPLE discussing things. Maybe Geoff Boycott and Harsha Bhogle, or Bill Lawry and Richie Benaud (if it was C9) bringing up players' form, tactics, conditions, history at the ground, perhaps some clips from previous matches or interviews with players/ex-players/pundits. Something to actually add a little more context and information for the match ahead, and add to what would follow. Not a FKing laser and dancing show. Christ.

[zubinpepsi]

this is really becoming a big farce.... what a lame finish.. too much really all these laser shows n the wh.ores lining up in the stage.. damnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[Mr. Wicket]

What a ****ing joke that was. Christ, remember the way the last India/Aus tour began? Shastri, Gavaskar, Bhogle and Akram discussing the various minutae of the Indian and Australian sides, the importance of standing tall on the opening day of the series and then followed with some fascinating insights on the bowling composition for the Indian side. Here, when we finally end the ****ing sound and light show, we get Arun Lal. Arun Lal. Please, go eat a gun you irritating little git and let someone who actually understands something about the game commentate. Ah well. JUST ONE MORE GD GAME OF THIS LEFT.

[King]

If you guys don't like it then don't watch it fellas, simple as that. This is Twenty20 and what do you expect? It's about entertainment and ther is not much pre match tactics to discuss. I think you guys are a confused lot. Twenty20 can't be compared to test matches. If you are looking for test match or world cup ODI finals like atmosphere it's just not going to happen.

[Mr. Wicket]

No, this isn't Twenty20. I tuned in half an hour ago to actually see some Twenty20, and all I got was a GD sound and light show with some acrobatics and dancers. At least in the semis the focus seemed to be occasionally on the cricket. I'll pray to my usual deity Shane Keith Warne to pull us out of this mess. Deliver us Saint Shane!

[ludhianvi]

I just tuned in now, so missed all of it Sometimes it pays to be late:tounge_smile: Was this longer than even the opening ceremony.

[talksport]

*****.... I missed all the fun...Now I switch on TV and watching Parthiv instead of Sameera

[King]

No, this isn't Twenty20. I tuned in half an hour ago to actually see some Twenty20, and all I got was a GD sound and light show with some acrobatics and dancers. At least in the semis the focus seemed to be occasionally on the cricket. I'll pray to my usual deity Shane Keith Warne to pull us out of this mess. Deliver us Saint Shane!

The game was to start at 8:15 PM Indian Time. The game started at 8:15 PM with no delays whatsoever. It's unfortunate you tuned in a little early. Obviously there was entertainment planned prior to the start of the game. I understand why you can't appreciate the entertainment part of it because you are interested just in cricket. At every ODI game during the break these days there's always some form of entertainment whether cricket centric or not to keep the crowd at the ground entertained. Not everyone at the ground will be interested in watching the players warm up.

[chanakya]

The game was to start at 8:15 PM Indian Time. The game started at 8:15 PM with no delays whatsoever. It's unfortunate you tuned in a little early. Obviously there was entertainment planned prior to the start of the game. I understand why you can't appreciate the entertainment part of it because you are interested just in cricket. At every ODI game during the break these days there's always some form of entertainment whether cricket centric or not to keep the crowd at the ground entertained. Not everyone at the ground will be interested in watching the players warm up.

elitists will be elitists :D

[DomainK]

It was indeed quite disappointing. The standard of analysis must be brought up. There should be better anchors than Sameer Kochhar and Sonali Nagrani. They dont even know what questions to ask. There should be better analysts than stupid Arun Lal. They are just over doing the glamor bit.

[swami1984]

It was indeed quite disappointing. The standard of analysis must be brought up. There should be better anchors than Sameer Kochhar and Sonali Nagrani. They dont even know what questions to ask. There should be better analysts than stupid Arun Lal. They are just over doing the glamor bit.

seeriously - can we have some actual humour with David Lloyd please?

[The Outsider]

Got to agree with Salil. Instead of laser shows some talk show featuring the commentators wouldn't have done harm at all.

[Rajiv]

What tactics can they talk about a 20 over slam bam game? Pitch is flat, hit and get out

[Mr. Wicket]

Field placings, batting orders, specific roles for certain players, effects of leaders (heck, they put Niraj Patel on the mic for a few minutes during the semi and some of the stuff they were discussing w/ him regarding Shane Warne's captaincy was great to listen to), bowling tactics, and this is just off the top of my head in 10 seconds. Surely can't be that hard to come up with something a bit more useful than the trampoline act or Arun Lal yapping.

[kumble_rocks]

Got to agree with Salil. Instead of laser shows some talk show featuring the commentators wouldn't have done harm at all.

Well my friend , Tell me one North American sports wherein laser shows , dance routines ,loud jarring music etc are not order of the day . Surely , you would agree that part of commercialization of sports does include adding side acts which enhance the mass appeal. How do you expect fringe spectators to enjoy the game minus the cacophony ? And who cares about the commentators anyways ! Just watch the NBA final and their will be hardly a feature about Marv Albert or Doug Collins .

[The Outsider]

Well my friend ' date=' Tell me one North American sports wherein laser shows , dance routines ,loud jarring music etc are not order of the day . Surely , you would agree that part of commercialization of sports does include adding side acts which enhance the mass appeal. How do you expect fringe spectators to enjoy the game minus the cacophony ? And who cares about the commentators anyways ! Just watch the NBA final and their will be hardly a feature about Marv Albert or Doug Collins .[/quote'] That's all fine and good, KR. Just that I don't want to watch my cricket that way. Nothing like Benaud and Lawry talking about the pitch, pitting the strengths of batsmen and bowlers, and the psychological games that are about to be played out. But then again it's arguable whether T20 is cricket to start off with, so guess laser shows, neutron beams, and pion collisions can well be a part of it.

[swami1984]

The game was to start at 8:15 PM Indian Time. The game started at 8:15 PM with no delays whatsoever. It's unfortunate you tuned in a little early. Obviously there was entertainment planned prior to the start of the game. I understand why you can't appreciate the entertainment part of it because you are interested just in cricket. At every ODI game during the break these days there's always some form of entertainment whether cricket centric or not to keep the crowd at the ground entertained. Not everyone at the ground will be interested in watching the players warm up.

umm no - game was supposed to start at 8 pm. There was a 15 min delay. I presume cricinfo is a reliable enough source (don't know what your source is)

[swami1984]

the most annoying thing is that most of the questions to players have been something like: Commentator: So what do you think of the atmosphere? Player: Yeah the atmosphere has been great, we've seen some great crowds. Thanks for the support Commentator: So what do you think of the IPL? Player: Yeah it has been a great concept blah blah

[swami1984]

Well my friend ' date=' Tell me one North American sports wherein laser shows , dance routines ,loud jarring music etc are not order of the day . Surely , you would agree that part of commercialization of sports does include adding side acts which enhance the mass appeal. How do you expect fringe spectators to enjoy the game minus the cacophony ? And who cares about the commentators anyways ! Just watch the NBA final and their will be hardly a feature about Marv Albert or Doug Collins .[/quote'] Yeah a lot of American sports games have awful commentators, like this years Super Bowl had the idiot Joe Buck. I don't want that level of commentary in Indian cricket thank you very much

[coffee_rules]

The fortmat of test cricket is much different from T20. Don't try to confuse the two. T20 is meant for different class of viewers which is not to be ignored from a business POV. Take your test cricket discipline and shove up when it comes to T20. Don't take it, but there are millions who do. They don't care much for test cricket. Business caters for a need.