Cricket - A Gentleman's game? Not anymore.

Umpire signalling a free hit - Happy sight for all except the bowler

Cricket can be traced back to the 16th Century. It is said to have been played by the British Aristocrats who suggested the game be played in 'a gentlemanly manner' ,which means no sledging, cheating, body-line bowling , temper tantrums or excessive appealing. If the batsman knew he was out, he should 'walk' even if the umpire decided otherwise. 

Well, let's not get into the Aristocrats' meaning of a 'gentleman's game'! We have all kinds of players who would contradict each and every term in that definition!

For me, a gentleman's game broadly extends to rules not favoring one but fair enough for both; batsmen and bowlers. 

Apparently not. The changes in the game over the past few years have made it a Batsman's game. 

About a decade ago, a score over 300 was considered a safe house for any defending team. Getting there was the wish of every team batting first. The psychological edge of having that score was good enough to build an initial pressure on the opposition. 

The advent of Twenty20 cricket in 2003 paved way for explosive cricket in terms of scoring and beating of bowlers all around the park. Even the "Free hit" is an equally demoralizing rule for a bowler.

Bats are getting heavier, broader and bigger. Specials bats; like the Mongoose are being used to improve the six hitting abilities; but never a ball made which will swing, bounce or spin more. 

To furthermore empower the high scoring games, boundaries are being shortened but never came in a rule to extend their lengths! There has been power play (field restrictions) introduced, bouncers disallowed, flat pitches made but never a day is spared to insult and humiliate bowlers who give away a little extra runs! 

 "T20 cricket cannot be stopped. It is a runaway train prepared to kill everything in its way. I am not joking when I say this. If we don't handle T20 cricket properly, it will crush everything in its way, including the Test and one-day formats"

-Dean Jones

The ICC came up with the "Two new balls" per innings rule.That's just cherry on the top for batsmen as the balls won't make much movement.

“I think it’s tough for bowlers. The ball doesn’t reverse much because it’s quite new. The ball is only 25 overs old at the most. Even spinners don’t get that much turn”

Suresh Raina

The above coming from someone who is nowhere near an expert in bowling but true indeed. 

In the latest series between India-Australia (Sportskeeda article), noticed the ball running away for boundaries and wondering "How the hell is he finding every single gap!" Well that's coz there are just gaps now with the new "Only four fielders outside the 30 yard circle" 

Just how much difference can one less out-fielder make? 

 “I think captains will have a hard job in setting fields and bowlers will have an even tougher job in trying to restrict the batsmen with all the innovative stroke-play that has come into the game.” 

-Kieron Pollard 

"I have this funny feeling that spinners will not have a role to play in the future."

-Mahela Jayawardene

"This rule of having two new balls in an innings and not having more than four fielders outside the 30-metre circle throughout an innings has made life difficult."

-Shahid Afridi 

What more now? 

• A restriction on the run-up of fast bowlers? 

• Bouncers up to waist height only?

• Pace limit to 130 kmph?

• Under-arm bowling?

It's time to re-think the rules ICC. Make some fair rules. Change the Batsmen's game.

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The moment He finally retires.

It came as quite a surprise to me when he announced his retirement. Although it was imminent, I expected him to call it a day after playing his last game; just like he did for the ODIs.

That would have drawn a lot less media. Not a single day has passed by that not a single newspaper has not printed about Sachin's glorious career, his records, upcoming events in his name, tributes by celebs around the globe, the grand hoopla circling Wankhede and how his retirement is the only thing that matters in that Test series. 

What more came as a surprise was the fact that he mentioned about retiring after his 200th Test game. I've always known a Sachin who doesn't care about any milestones. Never did he mention about playing 500 ODIs or scoring 50 ODI Centuries or even 100 ODI half Centuries. The only milestone he chased was the World Cup.

He has invited a lot of unnecessary presssure onto himself. Pressure to perform, to please the crowd for one last time, give them moments they can't forget and above all the media pressure.

This retirement announcement seemed very un-Sachin-ish to me.

A young Sachin always excelled under pressure; in fact it got the better of him. But with age, he hasn't coped too well under pressure. Take for examples, his nervous 90s streak jinx, low scoring in Grand finales; be it the World Cups (2003 World Cup still upsets me), IPL or any other. Can't seem to forget the monkey he finally got off of his back after his 100 International tons either!
 
Unlike the above, this time he has only this one chance, in fact two innings so two chances, to set his farewell right.

This is just my take on some possibilities that could happen in that in His last appearance in the field: 

Starting with a negative one (and a dim scenario too). How frustrating is that gonna be? If the match is abandoned. Bad weather. November rains. Let's not be so sure that it won't happen. Mumbai's weather off late hasn't been the most predictable one. And what's more unfortunate than the rain Gods interrupting our cricketing God? Sachin doesn't play. Whatsoever be the reason, he might not get injured- how about a little stomach upset? That would just be pitiful. This is like the worst case scenario and I hope it doesn't happen!

If He doesn't get his 200th cap, it should be upsetting and both interesting to see if he extends his last game to another series.

On the positive side, let's first say he scores just decently and stays on the pitch for a fair amount of time. That should be good. We fans will be happy to see him bat. The media will probably ignore his mediocre score. A fair goodbye.

How about an hundred? That should be a heavenly feeling for him and the best possible moment for the billions that will be watching him on the entire planet.

He scores a duck and wait, it seems very sad at first but its not that bad. His comparisons with Don Bradman will resurface! Sure the West Indian who does this crime is gonna be the butt of all jokes, just like Ishant Sharma is right now. He will probably feel guilty too!I just hope He doesn't crumble under all the expectations from us, his family, his team members and the media.


Let's give him a break. Let him breathe. Let him enjoy his last game. Let him play in his typical fashion. I am sure he will bowl too! With an era coming to an end I'm gonna be one of those who won't be following cricket as much as I did. 

IPL in India: The Negatives.

IPL has had its fair share of appreciation. It's just my turn to look at the darker side of the coin.

Retirement Home:

Lets take a moment and think of all the cricketing greats who have featured in IPL right from the first season. Glenn McGrath, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Michael Hussey, Shane Bond, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and I could go on and on. What's common in these legends?

They were already retired from international cricket or retired while playing IPL but continued playing IPL,even though they were not at the top of their game. 


IPL has become a retirement plan for aging cricketing greats. They are sure to be sold in the auction because of their reputation and guaranteed a healthy pay package courtesy of their rich corporate owners. But quality of their game is not guaranteed. 

Didn't we expect Ricky Ponting to lead MI well? Muralitharan is nowhere to be seen. How different is Gilly from the way he played before his retirement?


Affecting the traditional forms:

"Why watch test? It goes on for eight hours for five days! T20 gets over in just three hours - much better, just like a movie!" IPL has made cricket a form of entertainment rather than a gentleman's game. It's slowly killing the longer version of the sport. It assures good returns to the corporates involved in the venture of ruining traditional cricket forms.

Cricket is supposed to be a game of intense strategies. But evidence points at IPL encouraging quicker scoring rather than any remote signs consistency!

Wrong selection basis:

What worse is the fact that IPL is being considered by Indian selectors while choosing squads for the 50-over format. The bitter truth is that T20 is anybody's game. Today's match winner may be a flop for the five games. Players like Manpreer Gony, Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Ashok Dinda etc have been given the coveted Blue cap purely on the basis of their IPL merit. Although Ashwin turned out to be a gem, others have been raw stones in the longer version.

Ravindra Jadeja, once dropped was back in the Indian squad after scoring those back-to-back triple hundreds in the Ranji Trophy. That's how really the selection should be based on.

Ad clutter:

IPL is plagued with advertisements. Different sponsors giving away awards for the silliest of things. The so-called strategic timeout is just a deceiving term used to introduce and accommodate more ads. The break also affects the mind-set and flow of the batsmen. This concept doesn't exist in Big bash or Caribbean Twenty20.


With dozens of sponsors having their own awards or schemes for the pettiest of things, IPL should rather be termed as Cash Premier League. Maxx mobile time-out, Karbonn kamaal catch, Pepsi maximum sixes, Vodafone superfan etc

Excitement overkill:

Impossible run-chases single-handedly, targets of over 200 being chased down in the last over, on the last ball, targets as small as 120 runs being difficult to chase- 4/5 matches end up as nail biters. This only makes me wonder if the teams are instructed purposefully to make the match interesting till the end. The excessive close games have only taken away the excitement from it.

Non-cricketing reasons:
  

Today if a five year old is asked the national sport, he would probably say cricket. The national sport- hockey is struggling for survival. Big shot companies only wish to cash in on the developed and hyped format of cricket.

The Hockey India League (HIL) priced its tickets as low as Rs.50. In spite of that the stands used to be half empty. Whereas IPL tickets ranging from Rs.750 to God-knows-how-much thousands, end up being sold out.

It was widely publicized this year that Holi would be played dry, with minimum water usage in order to save water.

According to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), about 22.5 lakhs litres of water will be used for Wankhede ground upkeep for this IPL. imagine how much of water will be wasted throughout the country in other 7 stadiums!

IPL is supposed to be a blend of cricket, glamour and entertainment. Is this how badly we crave for entertainment that we can let go off a festival, our national sport and traditional cricket? It has definitely increased the cricket watching population, but that at the expense of test cricket. Is it cricket that really needs more promotion in India and not other sports?

This article that I've written has been published on the following site! Do read, it may vary a little due to the website's editing. Please click on the following link.

Sportskeeda : IPL in India: The negatives


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