| Author | Message | ||
Teluguvaadu Junior Artist Username: Teluguvaadu Post Number: 377 Registered: 11-2012 Posted From: 117.215.191.95 Rating: N/A |
A small step and a giant leap in a changing game On Friday, cricket will take a step into the present when Australia and New Zealand play the first night Test match in Adelaide. It seems momentous and history-making in anticipation. In a few years we will wonder what the fuss was all about. It is an idea whose time has come; to be honest, the time had come a while ago. Some see it as pandering to television which hopes to attract a bigger audience. But just because television approves, it does not automatically make it bad. Test cricket is not dying. Yet, of the 45 possible bilateral competitions, only a few are guaranteed top dollar: the Ashes, India versus Pakistan, India versus Australia and maybe a couple of others. Perhaps Test cricket is stagnating, not really attracting a new audience while the older audience moves on, to put it delicately. This is a big step for the traditional game, even if an inevitable one. The hype around T20 â that it would bring in a new and younger audience for Tests â remained just that. The shortest format of the game â I have become a bore on this subject â is a different sport altogether, which just happens to be played with the same equipment. If anything, the traffic might be in the opposite direction, with some less ardent Test fans embracing T20 with great passion. In any case, Test cricket needs better looking after. Which is why it was disappointing that there was no play at all on the last four days of the Bangalore Test. This, as some of the biggest crowds â including excited schoolchildren â turned up. The wicket and the run-up were unaffected, but there was indeed a spot on the outfield which hadnât fully dried. Yet, the crowd deserved better. True, as time ran out, there was little possibility of a result, and both the umpires and the players lost interest in the game. But the same could not be said of the next generation of potential cricket lovers who had turned up in large numbers. Even a 40-over day or a 30-over day would have kept them interested. Umpires and players too have a responsibility to the audiences. We need to take another look at the convention which says that conditions have to be perfect for play to restart. No excuse A slight drizzle or a less-than-ideal light cannot be an excuse. You do not attract audiences by sitting in the pavilion. A Test at night is an experiment now (technically, it is a day-night Test), but as the glitches are removed, it could be an answer to dropping attendances. Nearly four decades ago, Kerry Packer played âSuper Testsâ under lights in Australia, but a night cricket match was played as far back as in 1952. That was a benefit between Middlesex and Arsenal, a 13-a-side knockabout played on matting and with balls painted white. BBC, which telecast it, had a sizeable viewership, but mostly it was seen as a joke. The Test match in Adelaide will be played with pink balls, and there is worry it might not last beyond 50 overs. Adam Voges said after a match in Australia that âit was turning greenâ, as the lacquer wore off while Mitchell Starc complained that it was difficult to sight it near the boundary. These were the same complaints against the white ball all those years ago. Players have a way of adapting; as David Warner said, âIt doesnât matter what ball you play with.â The worries about the pink ball going soft quickly and not swinging after the initial overs may be genuine, but sensible rules can counter that. Maybe the new ball can be taken after 55 overs as it was done by Bradmanâs Australians in 1948. After all, Test cricket hasnât always been a five-day, 90-overs per day, over-arm bowling, six-balls per-over affair it is today, and doubtless there were cribs every time changes were made. There have been timeless Tests, three-and four-day Tests, four-ball and eight-ball overs, and there were lob bowlers even at the start of the last century. Wickets were left open to the elements for the majority of the 138 years of Test cricket. Bats have changed, the height of the stumps has changed, laws have changed. Cricket has tended to lag behind the contemporary, and every time it has tried catching up, there have been complaints. That is the nature of the sport. Kevin Pietersen has asked the administrators not to âmess with the greatness of Test cricketâ. The green grass, red ball, white outfit, blue sky, golden sun are the original colours of the game. But conditions change in day cricket, as they will in night cricket. Overcoming the opposition by conquering the conditions is the essence of the game. Night cricket might add another degree of difficulty â or perhaps not, we will know soon. Night Tests might sound like 50-over internationals did in 1970 or a World Cup for T20 in 2006. But see how well those two have done. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/suresh-menon/between -wickets-a-small-step-and-a-giant-leap-in-a-changing-game/ar ticle7913570.ece |