Prakash Kumar

Cricket evolved as a gentleman game laden with technique, tradition and temperament. Test cricket was considered the epitome stage and legends were made on the field. Many changes, big and small came with regards reduced number of days in a test match, elimination of rest day, 8 balls to 6 balls per over, bodyline cricket, evolution of lbw as a mode of dismissal, kookaburra ball, umpteen rain rules (notably the DL rule), night cricket, colored dress cricket, exhibition cricket etal.  Channel 9 and Kerry Packer gave Cricket the lasting entertainment tinge. Most of these changes were inclusive and had a purpose to strengthen the game basics and make it more entertaining.

Evolution of T20 cricket and popularity of club level cricket in last few years have unfortunately been more skewed to suit some vested interest rather than any significant improvement. Rules are being made to kill the bowlers and incentives galore to bypass tough international cricket to play a 3 hour all thrill cricket. Dangerous precedence are being set with rebel leagues, player quitting international cricket prematurely to find more time for thrill cricket and a total collapse of technique which has been taken over by improvisation. Not to undermine players of extraordinary pedigree, but for Mr. Flintoff to hang off his boots to play for CSK in IPL is just not done.

Money is good, but too much of it corrupts. We might not already be in a situation wherein the club with the biggest budget buys all the best players and leave the competition un-competitive- but we are not far from it either. It would smell disaster for the game. We do not want a Yankees or a Real Madrid story mushrooming in Cricket. Let the real champion in Cricket be the one who wins the world cup every 4 years or those who have demonstrated consistencies in hard cricket like test cricket for extended periods rather than a 3 hours glory. The lure for money is so much that it is delaying the retirement of cricketers who are well past their shelf life and thereby blocking entry of promising youngsters because Cricket as a game continued to be run by a fiefdom of babus all around globe who barely have ever held the bat in their hands.

Today superstars are being made by virtue of a couple of blasts in T20, while those who play solid patience cricket are yesteryears. What have we done to the game is the question we should be asking. In present environment who wants to become a bowler? The bat and ball balance is delicately disturbed and it augurs very bad for the game. We have reached the levels where 300 in ODI is below par and 400 pluses are looking seemingly chaseable. Intervention is required to arrest this decay of bowling standards.

Few cricket boards think they are bigger than the game itself. Cricket is a game which should be left between the 22 yards rather than being lost in backdoor money and influence diktats. Too much machinery is involved and tolerance levels of players are near zero. Sledging and racism persists as well – biasness cannot be ruled out amongst officials and a pattern is being set in which some Countries always get punished for the slightest altercation while others always escape the severest of crime. For sanity to prevail – these are pain issues which need to be dispensed with without any further delay.

Reason why author likes cricket superstars more than movie superstars is because movie gives you opportunity for retake. There is nothing like that in Cricket. Bradman for all he had accomplished could not ask for a retake of his last test innings where he fell for a duck. Let’s keep it that way – and do not have retakes in form of just too many thrill formats.