Be of good cheer said the oldest member you are going to hear of him now A young man, about

to give up on golf, is persuaded to hear a narrative which would convince of the practical assistance[ that golf provides] to a man in Lifes struggles. Wodehouse, in the above story called The clicking of Cuthbert brings personal sentiment into the narration of a game in order to convince his audience about the merits of playing golf. It is interesting that the story ends with the young man rushing out and crying out passionately to the waiter to bring back his golf clubs. Passion is indistinguishable from sports, more so from the narration of it. The one thing that puts sports and narration of sports on the same platform is definitely the importance of audience participation. The audience of a sporting event has the added privilege of viewing the action directly, but however gripping the visuals maybe, the totality of the experience is provided by the various narratives that accompany it. For the audience who views the game from the field itself, the narrative is provided with the direct interaction the audience has with the game and amongst itself. Therefore, any account of a game is incomplete without a reference to how a particular section of the applauded a boundary, or how a fanatic rushed onto the field in joy, or how a dissatisfied crowd forced a game to be stopped temporarily. In the era of televised sports, the narrative is provided by the commentary that accompanies it. It promotes audience enjoyment and audience participation. In the light of these assumptions, one may ask then, what is position of the audience of a narrative of sport, one who receives no visual input so to say, but relives the experience of the game through a received account, on ink and paper? To answer this question, one has to first analyse the presumption that the audience is of prime importance as far as sports is concerned. Is a game not meant for the entertainment of the participants? In competitive sports, how far does the statement that its just a game hold ground? Though the terms sports and games are quite fluid and easily interchangeable, they might broadly be differentiated on the grounds that sport is a more organized version of a game. However for the purpose of the argument in this paper, the terms are not quite distinct. A game is not just about a game, it is a performance, meant to be enjoyed, both by the performer and the one performed for. Following from this, the importance of the audience in sports is significant, and the importance of the audience in a narrative of sports( sports literature) necessary.

For a writer, writing about a sport is like performing the role of the commentator in a game. Arthur A. Raney is of the opinion that there are two forms of commentary, viz the play-by-play commentary and the colour commentary. Both forms of commentary use objective, judgemental and historical modes to place contests within whatever context of meaning will strike viewers as lending the event importance.1 A play-by-play commentary is more of the objective nature and talks about the game from the perspective of athletic grace, performance, power, talent etc. It is the summary of the action that takes place in the field of action. A colour commentary is rendered by an expert of the game, who tends to reference historical events and moments which provide a wider context for interpretation of the game. All commentary is intended to serve a common function, that of dramatizing sports. It is precisely in this art that the sports fiction writer excels. His commentary brings along with it , aspects which often lie outside the direct realm of sports as such. Narayan Gangopadhyay is a case in point. His characterization of Tenida is immortal and so are the other characters of Pyala, Habul Sen and Kyabla. Each character has its own quirks and these quirks get interwoven into the narrative of sports that Narayan Gangopadhyay creates which lends the extra dimension of humour into the story thereby making it viable for audience participation. For the purpose of the current discussion one may look at three stories, two football stories and one of cricket. The three different stories focus on three different aspects of playing a game. While the focus of the football stories is about winning and losing, the cricket story focuses on the aspect of organized sports and the function of rules in a game. The story titled Ekti football match narrates the events which leads to the protagonist scoring a goal against his own team, thereby losing the match. The one titled Ghuteparar sei match has Tenida bending rules to score 32 goals in a single match, in effect winning it. The story called Cricket maney Jhiji focuses on Pyalas ignorance of the game of cricket which leads to a series of humorous events. It is necessary to keep two things in mind, in order to attempt any reading of the Tenida stories. One is the importance of humour in the narrative, and the other is Tenidas tendency to exaggerate. Infact, Tenidas exaggeration is necessary for the quality of
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humour Gangopadhyay creates. It must be remembered that creative writing talks of situations which may not seem probable, but within the structure of the narrative appears to be quite plausible. Therefore, one must look at the narrative with a willing suspension of disbelief and assume the series of events to be true. From the point of view of the narration of sports this improbability, plausibility and exaggeration become extremely interesting. The audience of a piece of text which narrates a sporting event is in a position which is dependant on the narrator. In the case of the stories mentioned above, the participation of the audience is dependant on two levels of narration. Narayan Gangopadhay is the master narrator, but he narrates through Pyala. This effectively means that each narration has to include within its structure the quirks of Pyalas character. What is the authenticity of such a narration? The answer is that narration is a form of commentary and commentary need not be necessarily authentic or objective. The question of authenticity gets prime importance in the story titled Ghuteparar sei match. If we leave out Gangopadhyay from the scheme of narration, there are two levels of narration. Pyala the narrator is narrating the narration of another narrator, Tenida. Therefore the resultant narration incorporates the idiosyncrasies of both Pyala and Tenida. It is necessary from the point of view of the audience to identify Pyalas pile jor and Tenidas misplaced modesty. Both are exaggerated accounts, hence not authentic, but the function of the narrator(or commentator) as an agent who dramatizes the sport gets fulfilled. Dramatization pays strict attention to the emotional element of sports, that is, the aggressiveness of the players, the apparent enmity between the contesting teams etc2. This is works all very fine for Tenidas scheme of narration. He can project himself as the master saviour, who is called upon to defend the prestige of the Ghutepara club. Apnakei amader udhhar korte hobe dada The bitter animosity between the two participating teams is also exaggerated to the limit. The dramatizing is such that even when Tenidas argument becomes ridiculous, it is excused because the spirit in which the text is to be read allows such exaggeration. It is to be understood that the author(Narayan Gangopadhyay) aims to satirize. Therefore, the text allows such ridicule.
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Ota Ghuteparar nijoshyo slogan. Ora hip hip hurray bolchhe ki na, tai palta jobab. Orao jodi hip hip kore ta hole bolbe na, eder nokol korchhe? Ora jodi bolto Bichaligram Jindabad-era songe songe bolto Ghutepara Murdabad -Ainn, murdabad! Nijederei? -Hyan nijederei. Porer nokol kore opoman howar chaite more jawa bhalo-bujhli na? The ridiculousness of the narrative is taken to an extreme when Tenida bends the rules to score 32 goals. Even then, he successfully manages to shift blame, by accusing the referee of undue strictness. Even more remarkable is the account of the fishes and fruits in the football field and the spectators competing amongst themselves to get a hold of them. At the moment when Tenida apparently scores those 32 goals, there appears to be two games which are on progress, simultaneously, and at the same venue. The improbability of the situation is not the main concern here. Such an event in sport could only be made possible in a narration, the ridiculousness of the event notwithstanding. The narrative of sports, as demonstrated by Ghuteparar sei match, is about endorsing the common sentiment which is about winning. The politics of winning and losing become so important that the narrative works its way around rules and regulations and the probabilities of a situation to achieve that end. At the other side of the spectrum is ofcourse the narrative of losing. However, both the narratives of winning and losing seems to focus on the idea that for the protagonists side, winning is important. That ensures that the audience( in this case the readers) sentiment gets involved. Suspense is another major instrument used by the commentator to serve his need for dramatization. This gets amply demonstrated by Ekti football match. The narrative works backwards and in the process creates a lot of curiosity in the minds of the reader. Golta amiyi diyechhi. Ekhono chitkar shona jachhe oder-three cheers for Pyalaram-hip hip hurray! Ekhon amake ghare kore nacha uchit chhilo sokoler. Pet bhore khaiye dewa uchit chhilo Bhimnager dokane kimba Dilkhush restaurantaye. Kintu tar bodole ekdol pinpine bitikichhi moshar kamor khachhi ami The immediate effect the above information creates is suspense. The audience wants to know what may have possibly happened that forces Pyalaram to endure mosquito bites and not get treated somewhere. The situation is unusual, it sparks interest, therefore it gets narrated right at the beginning of the story. It also helps to create sympathy for

Pyala, which is another effective tool for dramatization. Pyala, the physically weak is forced to play against the physically stronger. The underdog manages to effect quite a few remarkable saves at the beginning, and gets overcome by emotion and pressure to perform and scores a goal against his own team. He is the tragic hero with whom the audience identifies, and hence sympathizes and gets involved. Pyalas image as the tragic victim of circumstances get further explored in Cricket maney jijhi Here the tragedy arises from Pyalas ignorance about the rules of cricket. Since Pyala is both the player and the commentator, his ignorance serves to heighten the drama. The effort is to evoke laughter and in that he becomes highly successful. Kintu e ki kapurushota! Amader dujonke kayda korbar jonyo ora egaro jon! Seisonge abar duto umpire! out? Bollei holo? Out howar jonyoi eto koshto kore pad ar pantaloon porechhi naaki? Achha dekho ekbar! Boyei gechhe amar out hote! Sports and literature both serve to entertain at some level. Therefore, when the both come together, a narrative is created which is highly dramatized. The formal relationship between the author and the reader gets dissolved and they get united in a common bond of fanship. However, the alternative is that often, this dramatic narration gets unduly tilted in the direction of bathos. Protagonists and antagonists represent different morals, different emotions. Narayan Gangopadhyay rises above it, he creates a brand of narrative commentary whose sole purpose is to entertain, and for that he need not create an overly drawn one dimensional protagonist or antagonist. The characters who play the games already have an iconic value, and that has nothing to do with their performance in sports. This literature exemplifies how sports is a part of life and a very interesting part too. VERY GOOD