The new threat to cricket

The new threat to cricket
---The Nation

Any new product put out on the shelves will always be reviewed with a great deal of circumspection initially. After a period of time it will either become a hit with the public or a flop depending on what it has to offer.

That is how the new format of cricket introduced by the world governing body for the game the International Cricket Council (ICC) will be reviewed. Diversified opinions on the ICC’s new tournament the Twenty20 World Cup which is currently taking place in South Africa have been expressed by virtually all and sundry with critics, past captains, past players and officials all joining the bandwagon.

Whether the new format of instant cricket will come to stay only time will tell, but it is a new innovation of the game and from the way it has been projected to the public in South Africa and to millions of television viewers around the world gives one the impression that it has caught on. It has brought a new dimension to the game of cricket and to the spectators who seem to enjoy not only the action in the middle but also the side attractions like the super models, the music and the fireworks display all of which go to make it a carnival like atmosphere.

Certainly the cricket dished out in the middle is not for the purists who would always prefer the traditional five-day Test which actually tests the skills of a cricketer. For a great many years, in fact for more than a century, Test seemed to be what international cricket was all about. But times changed and the public became bored with too many drawn matches and the sight of seeing batsmen prodding at the crease for hours without scoring a single run led to a fall in attendance at cricket matches. In order to address this alarming trend, limited overs cricket was introduced in the early sixties. It began with the English counties and following its success, the first international match was played between Australia and England in 1971. Four years later the ICC moved in to introduce a World Cup tournament to be held every four years and to this day it has proved to be globally popular.

The advent of limited over internationals gave the cricketing public something new in cricket to lap up. Here was a 100 overs game where a result could be obtained by the end of the day rather than in a Test match where even after five days of play the result could still be a draw.

One-day cricket became popular at a time when everything else in the world was becoming ‘instant’ like for instance instant coffee, instant tea and instant food. It was revolutionised to some extent in the late seventies when a business tycoon Kerry Packer started his rival World Series Cricket where he signed up some of the top cricketers in the world to play in a limited-overs tournament played under lights with coloured clothing, white balls and black sightscreens. By starting the matches in the afternoon and playing till late in the night Packer targeted the working class public giving them an opportunity to come and watch the cricket after work. He also brought a new dimension to television broadcasts by having multiple camera angles, effects microphones to capture sounds from the players on the pitch, and on-screen graphics.

This style of cricket was wholly criticised by the traditionalists and termed ‘pyjama cricket’ because players of different countries were attired in diverse coloured clothing. But this new trend caught on fast and the ICC, which initially objected to Packer and fought a legal battle in the courts, finally accepted the so called ‘pyjama cricket’ when the fifth edition of their World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand in 1992 included all the features introduced by Packer. Today it is commonplace to see a one-day international played in Packer style.

The thrill and close contests one-day international cricket brought withstood the times for over three decades. Signs that one-day cricket was becoming boring and sometimes rather predictable saw the ICC trying out new methods to sustain it for a longer period by introducing power-plays and supersubs. The latter was dispensed off with after a six-month trial period when it became evident that the supersub was of far more benefit to the side that won the toss, unbalancing the game. The powerplays still continue to be in use.

The Twenty20 World Cup from what it has so far produced seems to be popular with the spectators with plenty of excitement and tension squeezed into matches inside three and a half hours. Despite the advent of one-day international cricket the following and popularity of Test cricket never diminished. It will in all probability continue to reign supreme in the future. The question remains whether one-day cricket can ride the storm of Twenty20 cricket.