CricDigs Blogs

Literally, the cricket world is falling apart, in every conceivable way, including its appeal, the level of competition and its administration. In terms of the competing there are hardly three or four test teams that provide some level of real anticipation and can really compete with each other. The demise of cricketing standards in the West Indies, New Zealand and Pakistan has narrowed down the level of competition of so much that most of the test series are going on with a sense of pre-conceived notion that a certain team is bound to win or is only playing to try out some of its new talents. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh stand hopelessly lost and either of them could be defeated by any of the top-ranked English county sides.

Even in the one-dayers, the pattern of the games has become a bit too predictable. The ICC had tried out a few new roles for the teams to involve more decision making and make the game look more cerebral but then again all these efforts have had one sort of effect — the game has become too heavily loaded for the batsmen. The days of a score of around 235-250 being fiercely competed and looked upon as a decent score now seem pre-historic. Now, any team not able to score 300+ regularly is seen as having a team denied of any real ‘hitters’ and that is exactly what the game is turning out to be — a place for batsmen who yield their bats like a rampaging samurai trying to axe every ball beyond the boundary.

The latest problem is the sub-continent’s cricketing status which is being increasingly threatened by the terrorism that has found a firm foothold. Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka had very limited appeal when it came to hosting international matches and now God forbid if India comes to be counted along with them the game could have a crippling scheduling problem. The role of neutral venues has to be tested out no matter how financially unwise a decision it may seem to most administrators of the game. After all, neutral venues that are nurtured now would turn out as good hosting venues a few years down the line.

All these problems have been compounded by the IPL – ICL clash. Only if better sense was to prevail and these two enterprises could somehow come together and we could one truly global and highly competitive T20 League. This could really come in handy for the game itself, T20 involves shorter time spans that are easier to handle in terms of security cover, instant rush in terms of capturing the audience attention, more equality in terms of competition and almost equal if not more money-making opportunities.