Does cricket writing get much worse, exaggerated and cliched?

[Mr. Wicket]

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/432378.html

I have never watched cricket more intently. Australia in India 2000-01, and the 2005 Ashes were both engrossing drama, but neither made me want to not miss any part of them as much as India in Sri Lanka, 2008, did. Sehwag played the innings of the year in Galle, Murali was his devious self, Jayawardene silken, the umpiring decision reviews had to be watched, Ishant bowled a rousing spell, but it was Ajantha Mendis who demanded every ball be watched. And it was challenging, to watch every ball of long spells closely, trying to read from behind (I was watching on TV) what it would be - regulation offbreak, carrom ball breaking away, the two-fingered googly, or the non-spinning carrom ball. It was rewarding, too, for this was a bowler unlike any I had seen. In July 2008, Mendis was a complete mystery. He didn't grow in the public eye, he spoke only Sinhala, his captain didn't talk a lot about him in public and admitted to not knowing - at times - what fields to set for Mendis because he didn't know what he was going to bowl. The function of Mendis' left hand could not be overstated; it was like the final salute. Abdul Qadir used to hold it up in the air before he started to run in, Mendis' left came down with the index finger stuck out, ruling the batsman out even before he had bowled. When he beat the batsman, he grinned in a sinister manner; he knew a secret the batsman didn't. The run-up was a letdown, innocuous-looking even: no angular run, no contortion, no getting the body into unnatural positions. He didn't impart much violence onto the ball, he seemed to merely caress it out of the hand as if sending a trained pet out to show the world another trick.

It's like the worst of Arun Lal and the worst cliches of Navjot Sidhu combined with the idiotic fandom of a blind Pakistani kid who'll spew constantly unintelligible drivel overhyping a random young newcomer to the heavens. Cardus, Fingleton, Rajan Bala and plenty of other fine writers must have turned pinwheels in their grave as Monga produced this pile of crap.

[graphic23]

If we ignore the fact that it was a horrible choice for a magic moment, the amount of hyperbole in the article makes for an awful reading - comparing the moment to something like Australia 2001, or the '05 Ashes. :banghead: The last line of the article is the killer - and I dont mean that in a positive way. It kills you if you read it more than once. Ever since ESPN took over CI, Sidharth Monga's articles (this one and the batting pair in heaven (:WTF:)) have arguably been the worst part of it. I dont even bother reading anything on that site anymore - almost every article is trash, and all of them are cliched, have the same style, and use the worst analogies possible :banghead:. Argh.

[Mr. Wicket]

Monga's writing follows the law of diminishing marginal returns. The more he writes, the less anyone gets out of anything he writes.

[vvvslaxman]

Definitely below average. Very cliched, opinionated, I like Akash Chopra's writing though.

[Mr. Wicket]

Nothing wrong with opinionated. Roebuck is opinionated as hell. So are Mike Selvey and Fazeer Mohammed. But they can at least write intelligently without sounding as if they've just swallowed a SAT-prep book full of analogies and vocabulary to absorb.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

ha ha.. thanks for introducing Sidharth Monga to me.. Never read his articles before this and no prize for guessing whether I'll read them in the future.. thanks for the warning guyz..

[Chandan]

I've stopped reading these kinds of columns on CI because they are irritating as hell. I use the site just for cricket news and I think that way, it is much better. I don't like Bal's columns either these days. I must say that CI has deteriorated a lot in past 2 years. No wonder authors like Amit left it.

[Mr. Wicket]

Yup, the scorecards are about the limit of CI's utility. Such a shame to see how the writing quality has just plummeted since Disney/ESPN bought 'em.

[DomainK]

All I can say is :WTF: