New Delhi, April 24 -- From the start, in the 1980s, it was the sense of a gathering storm which bewitched me. Play a while off, the stands faintly speckled, the pitch roped off, the tennis players warming up on an outside court, the scoreboards mute, the scratching of paper as it was rolled into the typewriter, sitting there like the field, blank, waiting.

The typewriter is gone, sport has altered indescribably, but not this: At the stadium, or at home, the unbearable, unbeatable swell of anticipation. Fluttering shuttles, gathering like a heap of flowers, as badminton players fine-tune their range like snipers. Tennis players hitting sliding practice serves, phat, phat, phat, like drummers finding a groove. Cyclists sitting quietly, we...