USA and Scotland Minnows Growling...
Central Park Haven...
Pakistan’s Super Over defeat to the USA has certainly put a spark in the bonfire of the tournament. Two, actually, with Sunday’s already fiery game against India in New York - which Pakistan will now probably have to win to reach the Super Eights – suddenly attaining ‘meaning’ status when most thought it would just have ‘status’.
The ICC’s notion that they could spend $40million building a pop-up stadium from scratch and charge exorbitant ticket prices on the basis that Indian fans will pay anything to see their team is being seriously challenged.
The brilliant American cricket journalist, Peter de la Penna, has been conducting crowd research on a semi-industrial scale. The results are overwhelming, certainly in New York. Premium Tickets (not VIP) sell for $350 and there is $200 parking on top of that. Throw in a 2km walk to the venue and even well-to-do Indians might start getting a bit pissed off. Which they have.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis. The reservoir in Central Park is named after her. It is soothing, serene and comforting, emotions she apparently craved. It is said that she regularly walked around the reservoir, hidden behind her large sunglasses.
Central Park first came to my attention when Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played a concert there about 40 years go. It’s described as the ‘lungs of the city’ and there are more than enough residents on benches, jogging or just lying on the grass to confirm it’s refuge.
I was told New York was a city ‘designed for walking.’ I had no idea how much I would do 86.3 kilometres in my first five days. There’s something intoxicating about it. It helps that you can refuel with a whimsically crappy, three-bite hot-dog for $5 on most blocks, but that isn’t the point. It’s the ‘city’. I’m stiff and exhausted, but while I’m here, there’s more to be done.
Crashing summer rains forced the cancellation of South Africa’s training session which was fortunate for me because I was 30 miles away having yet again failed to pay attention to the difference between ‘uptown’ and ‘downtown’ on the Subway. New Yorkers are, without exception in my experience so far, remarkably friendly and helpful. But it’s a stretch for them to comprehend people confused by the simplicity of ‘uptown’ and ‘downtown’.
Having caught ‘Line C’ to 81st Street from Penn Station, and walked/run 6km in Central Park, there was no option but to walk 8th Avenue all the way back to Penn Station. I’m not I understood that at the timer, and will surely noy om future, but it got me back to the Long Island Rail Road and the embracing arms of East Meadow.
The Subway is very much for everyone as was confirmed by the sight of India’s head coach and famous man-of-the-people, Rahul Dravid, following the progress the Super Over on his phone somewhere near 81st.
East Meadow, by the way, is the sort of community in which households with young children erect basketball hoops for the kids to play ON the street, not on the driveway.
Back to the serious work tomorrow. Netherlands against Ireland on one of the four, contentious drop-in pitches. The ICC released a delightfully nondescript statement today about the undesirable nature of the pitches so far in New York. They’re doing their best to make them better. Can’t be done. Stadiums can be built in three months, but cricket pitches and outfields take a year.
It may not last but Scotland and the USA sitting atop their groups is a wonderful thing to behold.
Hi Neil, if you had downloaded 'City Mapper' (as I mentioned before) you would not have got lost on the subway again! :) It tells you exactly which subway/train to take and from where and how to walk to the station. Good luck!