T20, if left untramelled, has the potential to kill the game globally.
Its a batsman's game - and with 200 scores being reached in 20 overs. I wonder who would be interested in a bowling career going ahead. Because as a bowler, you are a gladiator - out there to get hit, in order to just entertain some philistine celebs and businessmen.
The kind of money involved is obscene and the attention is away from cricket. The TV coverage is all about whether X is kissing Y (and how many times) and what some 2-bit starlet is wearing (or not wearing), etc - who is actually interested in good cricket?
Wickets will have to be prepared or doctored for such run feasts - batsmen don't have to work for their runs. Batting techniques will suffer and truly gifted batsmen will take a backseat. Test cricket will suffer further.
4. T20 in a way resembles the American baseball games - huge glamor and all about the batsmen brute smashing the ball around the ballpark. The engrossing n delightful nuances of cricket - the real beauty of the game will be lost in no time.
We are already the effects of T20 in TEsts and one-days. How can we prepare wickets where teams score 700 in a test innings or 400 in a one-day innings. In India, where the climate conditions do not permit big scale movement of the ball, the wickets have to aid the bowlers. Scoring 300 runs in a 50-over innings should require top quality batting - runs must be earned.
Re: Most harmful for cricket
by Ganesh on Dec 17, 2009 06:44 PM
Cannot agree more with you.
You are 100% right. T20 is pyjama cricket at its very best. Wonder what Kerry Packer would have to say on this. He was the one who called ODI cricket as Pyjama cricket. Because so many funny looking colored pyjamas they wear and play the game. The beautiful gentleman's game called cricket was so good to watch when these gentlemen played with such grace and flamboyance their real cricketing shots in their pristine whites on a good green wicket with a red cherry (glazed red ball). The umpires too looked so unbiased wearing white dresses with black trousers and a nice felt hat with a long doctor's like white coat. It was a genuine battle between bat and ball, pitches used to made to be conducive to both batting and bowling and the true test of a cricketer's skills was on display. Not like nowadays when the boundaries are made shorter, ropes pulled in and pitches made to give batsmen 100s of runs (and a graveyard for bowlers) to encourage more sixers to give more runs for batsmen and basically load the game heavily in favour of batsmen.
Thats why every kid these days wants to become like one of the Top 5 World's greatest batsman. Nobody even knows who the World's greatest fast bowler is ? Is there something even called WORLD's FASTEST BOWLER or GREAT BOWLER these days ? Does T20 even allow for such a thing like World's best bowler ? Just giving a purple cap isn't everything. Cricket has to be made a great battle between bat & ball
Re: Most harmful for cricket
by Venkat Hari on Dec 17, 2009 06:37 PM
I agree with some of what you say but cannot agree on your statements about baseball. In baseball there is a good battle between the pitcher and batter. Environmental conditions are not designed to favor the batsman as in t20. A no hitter is appreciated just as much if not more than a home run. The batsman cannot hit all over as you seem to think, look at the # number of runs scored. T20 in particular is not cricket. It is just a clopsided fixture so that batsmen 9?) can hit the ball and bowlers cannot bowl to their strengths. It is similar to world Wide Wrestling which is FIXED but perhaps entertains people who like that sort of thing. T20 is not a sport but a tamasha for entertainment. I think the game of cricket will be better serveed if bowlers are no undue bowling restrictions, field restrictions etc.
Ranatunga has taken the bull by the horns & said what needs to be said. My full marks to him ,bcoz T20 will not serve anyone except the " lot of unwanted people " & he has predicted very correctly that within a short span they will vanish. By that time the game will be in doldrums .
Guys like Modi, Sharad Pawar , are all out to fill their coffers & dont care a damn for the game, the players & most important the spectators. And the spectators like always are been taken out for a ride & will be left high & dry.
Re: Well said
by bakbakkarthahoon on Dec 17, 2009 05:52 PM
Thats insane. How can a game that has not improvised for good, fill the coffers? Understand some will get rich in the process, but hey, so did the grand slams of tennis or the EPL foodball.
Every players wants to perform good. When a batsman go for batting he always want to make hundred. When a bowlers bowls any bowl he wants to take wicket on that bowl.
Even if any non cricketer will go in the field he will to get out cheaply or remain wicketless or expensive.
So don't criticize our players. They are playing with full intensity. Result we are bumber 1 in world cricket. Our players are dominating in ICC ranking and awards.
