Sports

Jonty Rhodes has commented on the present state of ODI cricket   “Batting sides should take up the batting powerplay by 31^st over”..Huh..Do we really need that suggestion?.Sometimes some suggestions come at such inopportune time that you really feel sorry…So much has happened over the past twelve months that we ought to seriously re-consider where cricket is headed towards.

Cricket as a sport (some may say how you can call something a sport if it is not a part of Olympics) has come a long way from the traditional test cricket. Gone are the days where the camera used to be over the batsmen’s head and you would see couple of snobbish Englishmen sitting as if they are paid to watch the match there. Test cricket is still there and one wonders how. Many cricketers – past and present – believe test cricket is the true test of a cricketer’s character.. One day cricket has also lost its charm because of introduction of T20s. So is the future of cricket only the IPL’s, Champions League T20 (tat advertisement is all over the place man) and the rest. Not quite………………

If you think of it, why don’t people seem to get bored of soccer or tennis?  Agreed that the game has changed over a period of time. Soccer is much more global, much more money riding on it and some glamour to boot. Tennis has changed from serve-volley deft skills sport to generating more racquet power from the baseline. But the Soccer World cup is still the most awaited sport even world-wide (even if you are in India – visit Bangalore) and Grand Slam Tennis makes headlines world over. Have the rules changed for these games drastically? Did they reduce soccer to 60 min game? Did they change a six-game set to 4-game set? Then why so much innovation in cricket?....

It’s because there is too much insignificant cricket around. People think the innovations being done to cricket (I still consider T20 as an innovation) is because it takes too long to arrive at the result. Why doesn’t ICC think of reducing the amount of insignificant cricket? When I say insignificant I mean Ind playing a tri-series in Sri Lanka for the umpteenth time. Bangladesh travelling to West Indies only to play a club side.  Why can’t ICC think of revamping the entire international calendar? Why do bilateral series stick to the tradition of 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and 1-2 T20s. Why not have a Test Championship of the top 6 test playing teams? Why not just do away with all bilateral series?..Why not increase T20’s compared to ODI’s as T20 is the only way cricket can find any takers in Olympics?

These were just some of my thoughts…Probably some of them may have some difficulties in execution…But cricket as a sport has the opportunity to dish out three different forms of the same game at the same time to audiences worldwide. As someone who has followed all forms of cricket for the past 13 years, I can vouch for the fact that I and many others like me are losing interest in this over-cooked potpourri . Future doesn’t look bright either coz the next ICC president is going to be Sharad Pawar(2010-2012)!!!!!!