kartik kannan's space on the web

CAS : MURDABAD ! !

Being at home now in the post operative period , I feel the need for some entertainment and being in Chennai is causing me huge dissapointment due to the Conditional Access Scheme(CAS) being implemented here. It pains to know that just a little beyond anna nagar in the north , velachery in the south all the channels are coming. Being the cricket buff that I am , I felt really bad on missing out on the Indian team's australian tour earlier this year. I missed it last time in 1999/2000 because I happened to shift my house and it was 12th standard exam time. The last time I saw a full tour was in 91/92 , that too only the highlights shown at latenight.

I enjoy cricket being played in australia simply because of the environment,commentators...the tradition behind the grounds, the early morning matches(4 am and 5 am starts IST ) and of course the balance being preserved between bowlers and batsman ..in the matches played as the question of one sided batsman friendly fflat pitches is not there.

History they say repeats itself and for sure it does....like the PRE DD days ...of 91/92/93 where STAR had not made inroads into the television market, but was just another entity. The same is repeatingtoday as the free to air channels are as bad as DD and the PAY channels like STAR are unavailable . Those days very few people had STAR tv connection and belive me , it then was a status symbol as very few had it and could afford it (750 for installation + 100 per month ). More than it being costly , parents had the wrong notion that it would spoil children's studies and they didnt have the time to watch "english" programmes. I remember envying my 60 something palghat neighbour Ganapathy uncle whenever a match was relayed on STAR and I had to go to school.

Ganapathy uncle knew my madness for cricket when i was in class 4,5,6 and invited me home to watch matches with him especially when matches played in new zealand were relayed at 3 am. It was a big event getting up then and knocking his bell at 3 in the morning ....THOSE WERE THE DAYS OF INNOCENCE .............

with lots of cricket coming up .in the next few months and ....the frustration of not being able to see and analyse the game is slowly building up. I am just praying providence to land me a job anywhere in the south except chennai .......preferable bangalore (considering the scope for IT) so that I dont have to bear the heat and can enjoy watching cricket........