I was going
through my childhood collections of stamps, comics and other “trash” which my
father ordered away from his house to be moved immediately to my residence else
be prepared for it to be thrown out! One of my favourite hobbies was a
scrapbook of pictures of cricket matches and players’ pictures from newspapers
and magazines of the 1980`s. As I rummaged through my collection which had
pictures of my favourites like Kapil Dev, Sunny Gavaskar, Wasim Akram, Denis
Lillee, David Gower and many more, I was forced to think how much the game of
cricket has changed since the 1980`s when the West Indians were the champs and
Channel Nine was the best broadcasting station.
As far as I can remember, a few “trendsetters”
have changed the game of cricket over the last 30 years which I am inclined to
discuss.
1) Advent
of limited overs game
A single one
day game from a washed away Test Match, between Australia and England in 1971,
changed the face of cricket. One dayers made the game more exciting, quicker
and spectator friendly as compared to Test cricket. Rather than spending 5 days
watching a game with a high probability of no result, people lapped up the one
dayers with great spirits. Cricket was probably the only game with no world
championship till 1975 when the first one day world cup was played in England.
One dayers also lifted the standards of the game especially in fielding and
power hitting. Some players who were good fielders, unorthodox but quick
scorers got the nod to play and not in tests. Krish Srikkanth used to play in
one dayers before he became a permanent player in the Test side over players
like Anshuman Gaekwad and GR Vishwanath. One dayers also forced many test
specialists to modify their game to suit to one dayers. A great example is the
Indian maestro Sunny Gavaskar who once scored 36 runs in 60 overs but adjusted
to the one dayers beautifully. Fitness levels also went up due to the fast
paced nature of the game. The advent of one dayers naturally had a reverse
effect on Test Cricket wherein teams started playing more positively to win
rather than draw matches by scoring faster, fielding more athletically and
better players` fitness.
Teams initially used one dayers as a
practice for Test matches and hence the same team composition was used for both
one dayers and Tests. With the increase in number of one dayers, more
specialization came in and teams started using different players for different
formats. One days specialists like Michael Bevan and Ajay Jadeja, who otherwise
were not regulars in Tests, were regulars in one day sides due to their quick
scoring and fielding.
2) Kerry
Packer`s circus
Kerry
Packer threw the entire cricket world in a tizzy in 1977 by making most of the
leading players sign up for his “pyjama cricket circus”. He also revolutionized
the game by introducing coloured clothing, night cricket and multiple TV
cameras with Channel Nine broadcasting. One dayers got more glamorous and hence
more viewership and better pay for the players. The Kerry Packer circus also
meant that for the first time players could stand up to the cricket
administrators and demand their pound of flesh.
3) Shift
of global power centre to India
World
cricket administration was dominated by England and Australia ever since the
advent of cricket. Since the mid 90`s the BCCI has marketed the game
beautifully in India such that that India now generates 75% of the global
cricket revenues. Shrewd administrators like Jagmohan Dalmiya, IS Bindra and of
course the marketing whiz kid Lalit Modi, who started IPL, cashed in on the
huge popularity of cricket in India and built up a big commercial value to
cricket. The shift to India made cricket a huge commercial venture like EPL and
NBA.
4) Advent
of T20 and IPL
After one
dayers and commercialization of one day cricket, the next biggest trendsetter
has been T20 cricket which was furthered by the launch of IPL in India and
similar leagues across the world. Cricket matches became quick and short like
football matches. One could watch a match in the evening for about 3 hours like
watching a football game. Shorter matches meant more matches and hence more
teams and hence more players. India`s win in the inaugural T20 word cup in 2007
helped launch the IPL which has proved to be one of the biggest disruptive
innovations in cricket after the Kerry Packer series. Players got more exposure
and cricketers from all over the place, especially from B / C cities in India,
started coming up like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, etc.
5) Improvement
in Governance & corporatization of cricket
In
the 1970`s and 80`s, many visiting teams used to complain about the bias of the
home umpires. The English media used to cry hoarse whenever the Aussies used to
win against England and Indians used to complain about the “first class
umpiring” of the Pakistani umpires. Apart from the usual complaint about lbw
decisions there was also lots of hue and cry about line decisions for run outs.
The 1989 Indo-Pak series saw the advent of neutral umpires and the third eye camera
was introduced in the inaugural India – South Africa series in 1992. Except for
some heavy bloopers, like Steve Bucknor`s umpiring in the infamous 2008 Sydney
test, umpiring errors reduced. With the formation of the elite list of umpires,
captain`s feedback, better pay and with technological assistance, umpiring
standards improved dramatically which was a great ecosystem for the game.
The
improvement in other governance norms also helped. Teams were fined or docked
for slow over rates, bad behaviour was disciplined with proper hearings, quality
of pitches and stadiums were monitored and proper contracts were handed to
players. All these improvements ensured a fair playing ground for all teams by
reducing the biases.
What are the future “trendsetters”?
I am inclined to wonder
what can be future trendsetters for the game of cricket. I can think of a couple
of them.
a)
Globalization of cricket
Cricket is mainly played
by 8-9 countries out of which the top countries add up to 5 -6. Development of
the game in other countries and upgrading their quality will bring in more
competition and a wider reach. The ICC needs to work on the non –Test playing
nations to upgrade them first.
b) Change
in one day formats
One dayers are getting
squeezed between the Tests and T20`s and in many ways is getting too stereo
typed. Sachin Tendulkar had once suggested switching to 2 innings of 25 overs
each per team to make the game more interesting. Even though rejected by the
ICC, this proposal if implemented can change the course of one dayers and make
it more exciting.
As
is my usual habit I leave a question behind. Are there any more “trendsetters” for cricket?
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