Imran Khan is my god!
500 Weeks #24
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In late 1990 a pair of exhibition cricket matches were scheduled to be played in Toronto and I was given the assignment to photograph them. An unusual choice, for cricket is a game that I had never seen played.
Fortunately, there were some cricket aficionados working at the newspaper, so I asked them some questions about the game. They told me the main action takes place on the pitch and is between the bowler, who throws the ball, and the batsman who tries to hit it. To a baseball fan such as myself, this sounds totally logical.
On the day of the first scheduled match – West Indies vs The Rest of The World - I arrived at Exhibition Stadium and picked up my press credentials, which gave me field level access. Being a community paper, the interaction with the players and fans before play began would be just as important as the photos of the match, so I arrived early and spent quite a bit of time on those images.
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| Ian Bishop signing autographs before the match in Toronto, September 1990 |
When it was game time, I headed over to the photo area just outside the short fence at the edge of the field of play. Beside me was a photographer from the UK, who covered cricket full-time. I remembering asking where to point the camera, and getting a chuckle out of him as I apologized for my ignorance, explaining that I had never seen cricket played previously. He was helpful with his suggestions, and as we were talking, I was checking out the two tripods he had set up, with a camera and lens on each.
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| Devon Malcolm at Exhibition Stadium, September 1990 |
One was supporting a Nikon camera body with a 600mm lens, and the other had a Canon body with an 800mm lens. He told me that considering the cost of the lenses, an extra body was a trivial cost. It was cheaper to buy the Canon lens and body than just buying the Nikon lens alone. Actually, it’s cheaper to buy a good used car their either of those lenses.
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| Desmond Haynes and Robin Smith. Quick - name the match's sponsor! |
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| Desmond Haynes at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, September 1990 |
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It was at this point that I began to realize that I was not properly prepared. Turns out that the cricket pitch – where the bowling and batting action takes place - is way out in the middle of the field, and that even located right next to the boundary wall, I was over 50 metres (about 150 feet) from the players I was going to taking pictures of.
For a photographer, that is a long way away. I may have had brother-in-laws 135mm lens or maybe rented an 80-200mm for the day, I’m not really sure, but it was a very standard telephoto lens. By the example of the experienced gentleman beside me with the super telephotos, this was a situation that clearly called for something more extreme.
Next thing to learn: Cricket matches are a long. Very long. Really, really, very very long. A proper test match last five days, with a minimum of six hours of play per day. For the short, one-day version, the game time is about eight hours. There are scheduled lunch and tea breaks.
And to think that people complain that a baseball game lasting three hours is too long. Bring sunscreen and a hat and don’t try and schedule doing anything else on cricket day. I did the best with what I had and it was acceptable. The negative sleeves for these photos still have the green grease pencil marks of the editor indicating which part he wanted the darkroom technician to enlarge for use in the paper.
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| The rather distant view provided by the not long enough telephoto lens |
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| The distant view in the negatives got blown up in the darkroom |
Two months later, on November 4, 1990 another exhibition match was scheduled, this time at SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre). This was a 50-overs match and again, The West Indies vs The Rest of The World. It was staged as a fundraiser for the United Way and was very well attended.
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| Fans at Rogers Centre - then known as SkyDome - in November 1990 |
After my first experience with cricket, I wanted to rent a 600mm lens. Unfortunately, I don’t think any rental facility in Toronto had one available – they are breathtakingly expensive – and if one was available, the cost would have exceeded the assignment fee from the community weekly I was working for. (I did some research: in 1986, a manual focus 600mm Nikon lens listed at $3,799.00 USD, which is about $8,600 USD in 2020. The newest autofocus version of the lens lists at $15,995.00 CDN).
I settled on renting a 300mm and borrowed the editors teleconverter to go with it. A teleconverter is an optical device that is attached between the lens and the camera body and magnifies what the main lens projects onto the film. You get a closer photo, but at the cost of lost light and image sharpness. This solution was not nearly as good optically as a true 600mm, but it would work for newsprint, which is a low-resolution medium.
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| Imran Khan fulfilling an autograph seeker's request, in the middle of the match |
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When shooting action, you need a high shutter speed to freeze the action, but adding a teleconvertor reduces the amount of light getting to the film, so I had to hope the stadium lighting at SkyDome – designed to be used by TV cameras during Toronto Blue Jays baseball games - would be bright enough.
The situation was similar to the first match: make sure to take photos of the fans as well as the game. Be sure to get the fans names, because, as the editor always told me, without the name, he could not use the picture.
At the stadium, I made my way to the photo area at field level, where I set up my tripod and camera with the rented lens, armed with more confidence than my first attempt with this game. The rented lens / teleconvertor combo was working great, affording me a much closer view of the action.
However, this match managed to feature something I had no experience with, as I watched and photographed individual fans periodically run out onto the field to try and get autographs from their favourite player and maybe a hug as well.
Whaaaatttt???
In a major league baseball game, any fan stepping onto the field of play is subject to being ejected from the stadium. It’s printed on the tickets.
Not in cricket.
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| Add caption |
As I watched the first fan ran out onto the field, I was taking my photos, while remembering the rule my editor kept drilling into my head “If I don’t have the names of the people in the photo, I can’t use it.”
As the – first – audacious fan, fresh autograph in hand, ran for his freedom on my side of the field, I locked my tripod, grabbed my notebook and pen and asked the photographer next to me to watch my stuff. I then bolted up the stadium stairs while keeping my eye on the fan who had ran onto the field as he was climbing up another set of stairs a couple of sections to my left. I went through the concourse as fast as I could and tracked him down among the concession stands, as he was being congratulated by many other fans for his bold actions.
I remember pushing my way through, to introduce myself and get his name, and a very memorable quote: “Imran Khan is my God!” While many media outlets reported on his on-field dash, I was the only one to get his name and a quote. My apologies for no longer having that info, for the notebook is long gone, and I don't have a copy of the newspaper in my files.
Apparently, my editor – Jules Elder – was watching from above in the media booth and was watching me run. He later told me he was laughing out loud as he recognized me hustling up the stairs, declaring “There goes Steven!” Jules got a laugh, while I got winded.
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| Even the children got involved in autograph hunting |
As the game went on, the autograph-seeking fan became a theme, as other adults and even children ran on the field to pursue more autographs. At some point I stopped taking their photos, as it didn’t seem as unique.
The rest of the game chugged on, I went through many rolls of film and the West Indies won by 4 wickets.
I never did become a sports photographer
Onto the blog:
A great thank you must be extended to Dr. Andrew Hignell of The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, who identified the players in these photos. My own notes are long gone. The Associations website is here:https://acscricket.com
Thanks again Dr. Hignell.
Onto the blog:
Match details of the November 4, 1990 are here:
Technical stuff: Nikon FE and Pentax K100 cameras using Kodak Tri-X 400 and T-MAX 400 B&W negative film.
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