From Kunal Talgeri, India

By the time this piece appears (if it does), most cricket watchers especially in India may be in the middle of a long partnership with their television sets and remote controls. Beginning 2 PM (Indian Standard Time), there is a 20:20 fixture between India and New Zealand, followed immediately between what is becoming a very engrossing Test match at the Wanderers in South Africa. The cricket viewer's will will be tested as beautiful Barbados beckons, as England will look to home in on an advantage they are building against the Windies. If the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test was to begin Saturday, we revellers might have had a daunting task, indeed. It would have been four seasons in one day!

Prior to World Cup 1996, when cricket bore a far more innocent look and India was another Test-playing nation like eight others, cable TV threw up the promise of cricket all year long -- from English county fixtures to live footage of Tests in England, South Africa, Australia and West Indies. It was hard to resist the temptation. We, the viewing public, bought that. And a sport proceeded to change beyond recognition.

Through the period of being inadvertently privy to the match-fixing scandal and the crazy scheduling with incessant one-day internationals (including in Singapore, Canada and Malaysia), Boxing Day usually offered a purer joy to viewers. In 1995, Sri Lanka battled Australia in a Test at (where else, but) incomparable Melbourne, as England began a Test with the South Africans in Port Elizabeth. While cricketers do play the hardest, it's probably one of those days that also test viewers' concentration and stamina. But I digress. Here's to a wonderful Saturday of watching cricket.