Cricket: Becoming Cooler or Colder

Cricket originated as a sport that was played only by the gilded class of Britain to entertain themselves durings vacations. Befitting its origin, the game manifested the qualities of a royal game having no constraint on time or grandeur. A cricket match used to take days and not hours for completion. Since then Cricket has witnessed several genius who took this sport to new heights. Some of these illustrious names are of Don Bradman, Clive Lloyd, Keith Miller; who through their extraordinary skill, have made themselves synonymous with Cricket.

The great don!

As the popularity of the game straddled the British empire, the market forces began to see bussiness potential in the game. Consequently,the game slipped from the hands of the royal class to the bourgeoisie class.

The extent of metamorphosis of this game can be witnessed by the meteoric rise in the popularity of the One Day and later the 20-20 version of Cricket and IPL in particular. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that 20-20 format has gained remarkable success in killing the soul of Cricket by injecting frantic haste into the game. The art of Cricket and the elegance is starkly missing in the chaos of 20-20.

Success of IPL appears nothing more than an outright hype aimed at fleecing vulnerable Indian Cricket fans. The delicious concoction of glitz, glamour and insatiable avarice for instant and colossal returns seem to have taken control over the IPL juggernaut.

Clive Lloyd brought great fame to the game, he is still attached with the ICC

IPL neither has a world audience nor a genuine league culture. Its merely about owning teams on the basis of financial capacity and not sporting acumen. The organizers are more concerned about non-sporting gimmicks like foreign cheerleaders and IPL nights. These late night parties are responsible for tiring away the already worn out players. The lack of transparency in the biddinng process and gaining the franchise of the teams makes the scene even murkier.

My love for this sports makes me believe that the bubble namely IPL is awaiting a gentle prick to be dispersed into thin air. And I think that if this happens, it will surely make Don Bradman, whereever he is, smile out of relief.