Before the internet....

[Gambit]

how did you discuss and follow the game? Today, you read articles on CI and ICF. You come here and vent your frustrations or celebrate with other fans. The day after a game, cricket was discussed at the school bus stop, en route to school, during periods and recess. My source of all cricket knowledge used to be Sportstar. I used to buy a copy every week without fail. Used to pour over every word, every article and every interview. Loved their stats section. In fact, come to think of it, I used to watch more games 'live' back then than I do now.

[apocalypse]

Sportstar for me also. Most of the time discussing match next day in school. I have seen many matches in groups. Sometime friends used to come or I used to go at their place. When I came to hostel, we used to watch all the game together in the tv room. That ambiance is truly un-describable.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[apocalypse]

Living in UP (Uttar Pradesh, you always had electricity cut... so even in case of TV days, transistors were very common BB

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Predator_05]

My source of all cricket knowledge used to be Sportstar. I used to buy a copy every week without fail. Used to pour over every word' date=' every article and every interview. Loved their stats section. In fact, come to think of it, I used to watch more games 'live' back then than I do now.[/quote'] Yeah, likewise. Sportstar used to be a top class magazine. I still have posters left over from the 1996 England series and beyond...couldn't take all the magazines with me, so i just took the posters instead. Even after i left India, i still had a subscription to the Sportstar for about 3 years. You could probably find STACKS of Sportstar mags lying somewhere in the basement of my parent's house (unless they threw them out...). I also bought this magazine called "Cricket Samrat". I'm not sure whether it's in circulation now, but that was one hell of a magazine. Tons of information relating to domestic cricket, and columns from Bedi, Hadlee, et al. I still have a Rahul Dravid poster from a '97 edition of CS - pictured playing a cover-drive from a side-on angle. Did you collect Center Fresh cricket cards ? I have some 70 cricket cards with me - the only cricket memorabilia i own. They were the rage in 1997. I remember i would go to the Wills kiosks in my local neighborhood, asking the kiosk-owners if they had any new cards. Likewise with the paan-waalas - everytime i saw one, i'd ask to see their cards. We'd buy like 20 and then trade them at school. The rare cards were those of more medioce players, ie; Afridi, Devon Malcolm, Abey Kuruvilla, etc. :haha:

[theguyinallblue]

never discussed matches as such...as during 90s we lost more than we won...and got interested in Tests only after 2002 eng tour... but the atmosphere in the hostel during matches used to be fun... every delivery and shot used to be decorated with all the common gaalis and some innovative gaalis ...

[Ram]

Nice Thread. I have similar tales to tell - Sportstar ( liked Bob Simpson's column a lot) , School , Bus-stop and just about everywhere Was a pity cell-phones werent that common then. Cricket news was tough to come by. Cant forget one particular day though. We had an exam at 1 0 clock in the afternoon . We studied for sometime and left for school at around 12. There was a match that day and we were in dire straits. When we left , Laxman and Dravid were battting. When we came back home at 5 , Laxman and Dravid were still batting. Any guesses for what match it was ? :D

[varun]

Tv and Newspaper.. sometimes radio if the lights went out.. Not so much of a magazine fan.

[Rajiv]

Gymkhana Bar Room, surrounded with bookie..Whisky and cheers

[Gambit]

Wait for the newspaper the next day ... and discuss it with friends ... But Gambo I dunno if you followed Cricket before the TV days .... I did and the guy who had the pocket Radio transistor in the class was the king ... Great days. Now we are spoilt with all the riches and yet we complain.... heheheee

Have gone the radio route as well, not by choice though. :D WC '96 had entered knock out stages and my Class 9 exams were on in full swing. Parents enforced TV(which basically meant cricket because they knew what a nut I was) curfew. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Managed to find a walkman/transistor from somewhere and listened to Ind-Pak Bangalore and Ind-SL :sad_smile: Calcutta matches on the radio in my room when I was meant to be studying. The TV was in my parents' bedroom which was between the kitchen and my room. Every time a wicket fell, I used to take a "water break" and pass my parent's bedroom to try and catch a replay of the wicket. :D They eventually caught on to that and started to keep 2 two litre bottles of water in my room. :confused_smile:

[Gambit]

Did you collect Center Fresh cricket cards ? I have some 70 cricket cards with me - the only cricket memorabilia i own. They were the rage in 1997. I remember i would go to the Wills kiosks in my local neighborhood, asking the kiosk-owners if they had any new cards. Likewise with the paan-waalas - everytime i saw one, i'd ask to see their cards. We'd buy like 20 and then trade them at school. The rare cards were those of more medioce players, ie; Afridi, Devon Malcolm, Abey Kuruvilla, etc.

Don't remember those cards but remember Cricket trump cards. Also, Coke came out with these flip books, which you could win by collecting bottle caps. These featured a pencil moustachioed Gangs playing a lofted shot and Jadeja playing a cover drive.

[Dravid]

Did you collect Center Fresh cricket cards ? I have some 70 cricket cards with me - the only cricket memorabilia i own. They were the rage in 1997. I remember i would go to the Wills kiosks in my local neighborhood, asking the kiosk-owners if they had any new cards. Likewise with the paan-waalas - everytime i saw one, i'd ask to see their cards. We'd buy like 20 and then trade them at school. The rare cards were those of more medioce players, ie; Afridi, Devon Malcolm, Abey Kuruvilla, etc. :haha:

not Center Fresh... it was that other gum...Big Fun something:two_thumbs_up: even i collected a lot of em.. still have em true about the mediocre player cards being rare.. i got sachin's card by giving away my allister campbell of zim card:haha: even pepsi had those free cricket cards thingy...only they were bigger then the big fun ones:D:D

[shailesh]

predator, Cricket Samrat is still in circulation..read it for many years growing up and I still get it sometimes. like you said it's a superb magzine it's 100% cricket..but now it may be getting left behind with all the content on internet. also before ESPN, DD used to be the only source for video, in news they used to sometimes show clips of matches from outside India from England, Australia, I used to love those (as dd coverage sucked :confused_smile:) I also had a big collection of small cricket action cards and also printed postcards that I used to exchange with my cousins etc :regular_smile:

[Ram]

My uncle works at "The Hindu" . So he would tell me in advance who was the player who was going to featured in sportstar's poster section. So , before every Wednesday , I used to have these bets with my friends as to who will come on the poster and everytime i was right. I didnt tell them about my uncle and they used to be really amazed at me for getting it right all the time ! :D

[King]

I've always followed cricket on TV or radio. I can't remember the no TV days at all. Since the time I started to follow cricket there was TV around.

[jf1gp_1]

Sportstar i remember. Never heard of Cricket Samrat but i remember Chacha Choudhary.

[Cricketics]

during school dayz, used to discuss with friends.. in afternoon, after coming from school, while playing cricket with colony friends in the park we used to have discussions and stuff... juzt like otherz was fan of the magazine sportstar.. used to buy it alot.. meanwhile predz, i remember collecting centerfresh cards lol.. on the back of it they there used to be one small box saying "Did u know...." right?? yaa i had a huge collection of those, but then while coming to usa i just gave all those to my friends and young cuzons..

My uncle works at "The Hindu" . So he would tell me in advance who was the player who was going to featured in sportstar's poster section. So ' date=' before every Wednesday , I used to have these bets with my friends as to who will come on the poster and everytime i was right. I didnt tell them about my uncle and they used to be really amazed at me for getting it right all the time ! :D[/quote'] :haha::haha:

[Predator_05]

meanwhile predz, i remember collecting centerfresh cards lol.. on the back of it they there used to be one small box saying "Did u know...." right?? :haha:

Yep ! Those are the ones i was talking about ! Saale, why did you give them away...did you know that some auction sites are selling those same cards (ie; a set of 10) for $20 upwards ? Kuch zyaada paisa nahi, but that shows you that they are valued.

Don't remember those cards but remember Cricket trump cards. Also, Coke came out with these flip books, which you could win by collecting bottle caps. These featured a pencil moustachioed Gangs playing a lofted shot and Jadeja playing a cover drive.

Whaaaat ? I can't believe you don't remember the Center Fresh cards. I remember the flip books too, BTW. Coca Cola came out with those flip-books after the 1998 Independence Cup final (the 315 chase). I had the Ganguly six and one of Srinath clean bowling some Bangladeshi batsmen ! They also had bottle-cap deals. You collect 30 bottle caps and mail them off somewhere and they would send you a water-bottle with pics of Indian cricketers emblazoned on them. I got them all in one day - stopped some kabadi-walla and asked him to hand over every single coke bottle he had...:haha:

[Mandrake]

Distinctly remember the pre-tv days...the first series I followed on radio was Ind-Eng series in 1984 when Azhar got those 3 centuries in his first 3 tests. Do remember reading Sportstar and Cricket samrat in the eighties.Used to dread the newspaper reports whenever India lost and devoured every match report in case we won!.