First there was Cricket, the Gentleman’s game. Then there came Kerry Packer and his One- Day International. The late 2000’s heralded the coming of Twenty20 Cricket and the Super Over.
Funnily enough, the students of BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus are not far behind (though we are expected to be by certain uninformed people), and we’ve made our own short and sweet version of the unofficial national game. From 23rd October onwards, The Pre-Spree events are going to be held, one of which is 5v5 under-arm cricket. Doesn’t seem as glamorous as the real thing, but hey, it’s fun to watch and take part in.
Spree is not so much a Sports Meet, than an action-packed and crazy amalgam of fun and fair play. Spree is a Sports festival, a celebration of Pure Sport. Or hey, that’s what we put in our PR brochures and tell all those enthusiastic young juniors with stars in their eyes. But believe it or not, it is the truth. Spree gives you an amazing feeling. Just watching the game, being involved in the action, even from the sidelines is exhilarating. Watching those amazing football goals, the intense chess games, or the heated almost- catfight in the women’s basketball matches (Woohoo! But done in the spirit of the game.) transports you into another world altogether.
Okay, enough waxing eloquent about Spree. And the heated almost-catfight. Now, let’s come to the Pre-Spree events. We have The Underarm cricket tourney, Anti-Chess (where a Loser becomes a winner) , Badminton, Futsal etc. Now, Chess was never really my game (I was more like the kid who got hit every time in dodgeball :X), so I fail to understand the role-reversal. But well, it’s all in good fun. Maybe our profs should take a leaf out of this book, and have an exam where the one who scores lowest should get the A grade. That could help with my GPA, you know. *sigh* I can dream, can’t I?
The badminton tournament is going to be fun as well. Of course, all the pros are going to be there to scare the spit (yes, spit, no politically incorrect stuff. Gah.) out of the wannabes and the newbies. I think I’ll sign up too, just for the sheer fun of trying to apply the laws of physics to the shuttlecock, and then getting defeated by wind and air resistance. It’ll be fun to watch the noobs run around, flailing to hit the cock while we bet on how much longer they can survive the humiliation.
And the most anticipated of all these is the Futsal Tourney. Initially, I did not know what Futsal was, when my 11-year old cousin enlightened me by saying that it was like condensed football, for people with an extremely short attention span. Here I would like to insert a poor, bad humoured joke about ADD, and incredibly boring classes, but well, I’ll spare you. Anyway, I watched a lot of Futsal last Spree, and boy is it fun. Less players does not mean less craziness and awesomeness. And I think, the humongous number of teams that signed up would agree with me.
Well, this is what we’re serving you this October. Pre-Spree, straight up. And it’s going to be great. Though not as great as the heated almost-catfight. *sigh*