Sunday, December 23, 2012

Don’t kill One-day Cricket, Work on its Administration


I always assumed that trends and fashion didn’t had any soul as they were too materialistic and the very nature of fashion is ‘they come as fast as they go’. Nobody would remember the 90’s fashion unless it comes again or worn by some big celebrity as a new fashion statement for upcoming 2013. But when it comes to sports, people always found an overwhelming desire to know more and get attached to it. It seems as if sports have this invisible soul which connects to our souls in a way similar to how one human connects to another.

In the past two decade, I have been an avid reader and a keen follower of cricket and when I saw one-day cricket being deteriorated or shall I say ‘being left out’ in the name of so called evolution, I felt as if cricket as a sport is now being treated as a fashion statement in which one format comes and another goes. This is what has happened to one-day cricket in which the format is treated as an African nation which can be sometime looked upon as nations of poverty rather than nations of opportunity.

One-day cricket has given to us so many special moments. I can easily recall an amazing 92 world cup with dazzling bowling of Wasim Akram and tremendous batting of Martin Crow. Excellent Benson and Hedges, Carton & United series, Sharjah Cup’s, and some unbelievable innings played by legends like Ponting, Lara, Saeed Anwar and of course the great Sachin.

The irony of the today’s cricket world is, in order to make test cricket popular, every commentator, Cricinfo sport columnists and experts are talking and writing about test cricket. See the example of Ricky’s retirement; there were tons of articles, analysis and stats all related to his test cricket. Whoever talked about his great innings gave examples from test cricket totally forgetting what a brilliant 140 he made against India in 2003 world cup winning final.

Seems like ICC, cricket experts and analysts are sealing the fate of ODI’s. If you look at the way ODI’s series are being planned by ICC, it looks as if they are just trying to fit the one-day games rather than making a proper process to it in which one-day games can have its own place rather than becoming a sandwich between tests and ‘amazing’ T20’s (a game of our trendy future).

I don’t think we can deny the success of T20’s and it is a game loved by millions because of right reasons. But the point is that don’t kill the ODI’s. Just imagine if the ODI format is totally abandoned by ICC, what Sachin and many other great one day players will tell his children about his incredible records that they made in a format that no longer exists? As a humble plea to ICC, maybe you need to stop trying so hard to make test cricket exiting because people who love test cricket (like me) will always watch it no matter how much boring it can sometimes be (2012 Nagpur test of England vs. India). Instead try and focus on the format which has given so many people the pleasure of their life time.