Cricket in modern times

It’s clear that cricket is at critical stage of evolution with three different formats enforcing their way to grab as much eyeballs as possible, and many fear that the shortest format is ahead in the race, while the relatively longer one and the prime one are lagging behind. All these forms of the game can still survive provided the organizers and administrators make smart business decisions. The advent of T20 always promised a change; but many test match devotees instantly felt that the prime format is in jeopardy. Personally, I like all forms of a game until its cricket & each format has its own set of required skills, which is phenomenal in its own right. One format might require patience of a surgeon to finish the job, while other requires the speed of F1 race to make an impact in that particular form.

There is a lot of talk about what is in spirit of cricket and what is not; one example being the recently invented switch hit. Analysts, ex-cricketers, MCC or ICC; all of them have views about this shot being regularly played by players who are ambidextrous and demonstrate this skill more often; first Pertersen and now David Warner. Personally speaking, this kind of invention does bring lot of innovation to cricket and days are not far away when a right arm bowler would change his stance at the last minute to deliver left arm over the wicket. The bowler being ambidextrous; that would surely start another set of debate across genres. While switch hit is being debated, a section of experts also suggests having LBW rule (pitching outside leg stump) scrapped when batsmen attempts switch hit, giving bowler a fair chance.

David Warner's switch hit switches on opinions across genres

But having argued on invention, test matches are the purest and prime form of this game; any changes to this format just won’t suit the party. I would always want to see innovation on the T-20 front to make the game more interesting and unpredictable; certain allowances towards batsmen being allowed to use switch hit, and similarly; bowlers allowed to change their delivery stance from right arm to left arm at the last minute. Also, as a part of change, it would be great to have ODIs divided into 4 innings as proposed by Sachin Tendulkar and once implemented by cricket Australia. This would generate fair amount of interest in the crowd and a lot of one sided games can be avoided as both teams get sufficient chances to analyse the match situation.

Another change I would like to see is T-20 being played in indoor stadiums. Test matches cannot be played indoors as we haven’t graduated to day-night test match yet. But T-20 shall surely make a good match within indoor stadium; a benefit being no rain ruined matches. This formula was successfully tried by Cricket Australia nearly 11 years ago when South Africa toured them for 3 ODIs. At some point in time Television Broadcasters & Sponsors will advocate this concept and not live with the tag of game being subject to natural elements. With evolution of league cricket and so much money being invested; the cricket authorities in partnership with their corporate investors shall realize this misfit sooner than later. Indoor stadiums would ensure matches are played and completed, when they should be.

The concept of miking is good but it being used just for Player interviews, is bit comical. Late South African Skipper Hansi Cronje and late Bob Woolmer tried this concept in 1999 world cup where Hansi was always wired up and shall get inputs from Woolmer at every critical juncture but this move of innovation was banned by ICC. With the advent of T20, miking is the form used to interview on field players and to get match bites from them. To make T-20 more interesting if this concept can be extended between coaches and on field captain; which would make it an absolute hit with cricketers and shall make it worthwhile.

These concepts can be cascaded to cricket board approved private leagues. Cricket in future will be about providing a short format that is fast, furious and exciting. While to retain prime form of the game; both Test matches & T-20s shall need to be re-positioned much like our education system where kids get to choose between Science, Commerce or any other field of their choice; young cricketers at certain point in their life with guidance from their coach should also get to pick any format of their choice based on their strengths and weakness. Meanwhile as we fantasize about these changes to the game, administrators need to maintain the perks of equal level for playing all forms of game to avoid discrimination.