In a lifetime spent watching sport, each day has remained interspersed with a new tale; a new story. Despite having witnessed Sachin Tendulkar’s perfectly poised punch off the back-foot on innumerable occasions, each shot managed to ignite the same admiration as if it were the first. Rahul Dravid’s ability to stand tall with a straight bat sent different gasps of adoration each time ‘The Wall’ rescued India from troubled waters, while Mohammad Azharuddin managed to paint a new canvas with every colourful flick of his wrists.
Although dying a slow death, as it was claimed, Test cricket revelled in its ability to weave sagas in every match. While Wasim Akram’s reverse swing found a new identity, Shane Warne’s brilliantly spun delivery to dismiss Mike Gatting, gave him his. The beautiful sound of the ball middling the bat on a lush green wicket remains the fulcrum of many childhood memories as one team stood in defiance in front of another.
Fast forward 10 years, to the age of Twenty20 cricket. In a small ground, where the bowlers have been reduced to mere helpless tools, the audience sways to the beats of the ball vanishing in the air, as the batsmen have lost their ability to hold restraint. In this slam-bang format of the game, each match seems to follow a similar pattern. With no applause directed towards a batsman when he defends a good delivery, perform or perish seems to be the mantra.
T20 cricket: not as bad as it seems
To check the dwindling turnouts in ODI and Test cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board floated the idea of a 20-over cricket match, which would entail big hits and provide the spectators with their dose of entertainment in just over three hours. However, it was Lalit Modi who immensely popularised this format, with his formation of the Indian Premier League in 2008. Held just months after India’s surprise World T20 triumph in 2007, this league was defined by a dose of glamour and entertainment, while being surrounded in millions of dollars.
While Shah Rukh Khan swayed to his melodies from the stands, promising bowler Ishant Sharma reaped beneficial words of wisdom by sharing the same dressing room with Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar. With Adam Gilchrist imparting valuable inputs to his Deccan Chargers’ teammate Rohit Sharma, the domestic league soon became a conflux of experienced legends and awe-struck youngsters, lapping up every bit of the anecdotes shared by their idols.
Today, as it stands, almost each every cricket-playing country conducts its own T20 domestic tournament, signing up powerful international players to rub shoulders with inexperienced cricketers. Not only has that led to the emergence of a new breed of uninhibited and fitter athletes, it has also given them a means of sustenance. With the IPL being the second-highest paid league in the world, behind just the NBA, even the uncapped players have found a reward for their years of toil and sweat, which was unthinkable a decade ago. Not only do the huge sums of money attract more players to take up the sport, thereby increasing the bench strength of the country, but the revenues garnered by each individual board can be used efficiently to develop cricket at the grass root levels.
An increase in the amount of T20 games have invariably led to more runs being scored across all formats of the game, so much so that the once daunting targets of 300-odd in ODIs and 400 in Test cricket are now seen as just numbers by the new-age confident batsmen.
T20Is should be scrapped
While the advantages of T20 cricket were being stated, a majority of the points seem to have been focussed on the development of the younger talent. But what about the international level, where the T20I games are often held after a gruelling Test and ODI series? A Test series victory still remains the highest honour that a captain can bring to his team. The ODI series offers the losing side an opportunity to end the tough series with a high. The T20I series however, in many ways, seems to eradicate the seriousness that the tour had started off with. It almost seems that a customary 20-over match is held to allow the players the relaxed liberty to take time out to just express themselves. A win is readily accepted, but a loss often does not become a reason for days of brooding.
While Test cricket remains the epitome of mental and physical endurance, an ODI game too brings its own set of challenges. The batsman has to score quick runs in a limited period of time and has to exhibit levels of patience and battle at least 35 overs. By putting a ‘price on his wicket’, the bowler faces the challenge to bamboozle the batsman. In either a Test or an ODI game, a wicket often is a reason for much celebration, leaving the new player at the crease the tough job to bail his team through.
The sheer joy when the stumps are rattled by a bowler or when a batsman cleverly manoeuvres a delivery over mid-on are absent in T20 cricket. With each player expected to score the hefty strokes, the very essence of cricket – patience and perseverance – remain absent. With a player going for his shots in every delivery, his risk of getting dismissed increases manifold. Thus, without a price on his wicket, the joy derived after he is sent to the pavilion seems amiss. Rather than being seen as an achievement, a wicket is seen as a dot ball, which holds more value in this format. Thus this debate, as to how authentic T20 cricket actually is and whether it should be played at the international level, remains a long-standing one.
Why have meaningless bilateral series?
In an already packed schedule, a meaningless two- or three-match T20I series only threatens to exhaust the players even further. In a bizarre process of scheduling, the Australian team had to fight it out against South Africa in a 20-over game just days after they had ended their tour to UAE. Thus, sans David Warner and Steve Smith, the spectators witnessed players like Nathan Reardon and Kane Richardson fight it out for Australia – players who are not even close to selection for the Australian squad.
While the Adelaide Oval remained half occupied for this game, the Big Bash turnouts for a game between Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers at this very venue was filled to capacity, sending out an indication to Cricket Australia, that the audience too would prefer the domestic competition, where the players will be desperate to win.
If one argues that this format takes cricket to a global audience, the ICC can mull hosting a three week World T20 every two years in countries like USA, which will help in generating more revenues and more interest among people than a one-off T20I match will ever do.
From the age when cricket remained a hallowed sport to having a game that remains intermingled with the best and the mediocre players at the international stage in one format, the ICC is in serious danger of promoting tamasha cricket. T20 has more to offer the breed of upcoming juniors than it has to the well-established international players, and so, while domestic T20 leagues should be promoted, it is high time that the bi-lateral international matches make a gradual exit.