IS CRICKET A DYING SPORT ?

Kumar Sangakarra, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Muralitharan, Heath Streak, Flower brothers, Brain Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan ….

Remember those days ? With Neo Cricket, Ten Cricket as broadcasters and when watching Test Cricket between any test playing nation was actually interesting … Those were the golden days of cricket..

Checking the Top 10 teams rankings on the ICC website was actually interesting. What was more interesting was to see the Top 10 Batsman, Bowlers and Allrounders list. You would find some world class players in all the teams. 

Although there were certain teams that dominated like Australia, all the other team were still very capable and competitive. Even the bottom ranked teams like Zimbabwe had interesting players to watch out for. Teams like SriLanka and South Africa were top quality teams and had some of the most watchable players. 

Somehow over the years, the quality of teams have gone down and hence the quality of the game as well. There are only a few teams Like India, Australia, England, NewZealand and South Africa to an extent who are competitive across formats. All the other teams have been on a rapid decline with the exception of Bangladesh who have managed to stay on the same level and not been able to push any further. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing… At the moment, I don’t really think there is a Test Team that can dominate all conditions and that does not have holes in the team. India probably can come close with the abundance of talent but still have certain uncertainties in the Test team. 

Yes, its not been all downhill. The talent in India, particularly in the pace bowling department has grown incredibly. The rise of Afghanistan as a cricketing nation has really been inspirational. The analytics and technology involved in the game has changed the game and the overall fitness has never been better. In spite of all this, you would still say that cricket standards overall, particularly Test Cricket has gone down drastically. 

This time frame definitely coincides with the rise of T20 cricket around the world. IPL in particular has become the biggest cricketing event, where players across the globe are looking to get a contract. Apart from IPL, the Big Bash League in Australia exhibits high quality cricket, the 100 ball tournament in England gained good traction. Leagues in other parts of the world have also grown exponentially. 

This definitely is pulling new audience into the game but at the same time might be one of the reasons for the decline in the quality of Test Cricket. A lot of youngsters grow up watching the T20 format alone and a lot of players opt to just play franchise leagues around the world and build their careers instead of focusing on test cricket. 5 day games takes a lot out of a player mentally, physically and in terms of skills as well which cannot be learnt form the shortest format of the game. 

With the competitiveness going down in test cricket, so is the interest for the viewers as well.

The only way to change this is to have a proper structure at lower level cricket and also give players enough exposure. IPL is always put to the forefront when talking about India’s depth, but another important factor is the importance given to the India A tours as well that happens quite often. This way a lot of players have experience in different conditions around the world before getting to the highest level. ICC should take the responsibility to encourage cricket boards around the world to strengthen the domestic structure, prepare quality pitches and give their players decent exposure as well. It’s still not too late. We have seen great support for matches that have gone down to the wire in recent times. Test Matches played between the top nations still gets a lot of interest. 

Deviating slightly from the above topic but not completely, Cricket can also afford some more innovation to get more participation. There is a feeling that the mens cricket has reached a point where there isn’t much scope for enhancement. There are little efforts made, like some new concepts in the BBL, the 100 ball format definitely worked to a great extent in simplifying the game for first timers, but there can be more. 

Women’s cricket definitely is something that can grow and has a lot of scope as well. It’s almost like a new stock that you know is going to go up with the kind of potential there is left to unlock. Thats another topic by itself, for another day… 

Test Cricket is really the ultimate format of the game that really needs to be revived and protected.