Everybody who knows me well will also know I am a sports freak with cricket at the top of the list of sports I watch. But with the way cricket is heading I am scared I might loose the love for it. There is too much cricket in the first place and and secondly the T20 revolution is worsening the situation. I will leave the former issue for a discussion later. This post is my complaint on how T20 might change the game of cricket. Lets see whats in a T20 game. 20 overs a side with ten wickets in hand. Clearly abundant freedom for the batsman to go after the bowling. It is rare that an entire team will be bowled out in 20 overs so there is no risk in a batsman hitting out. This lack of pressure on the batsman is something very few people realize! In a 50 over game there is need to stay for the batsman because 50 overs is a long time. I don't even want to talk of test cricket. Comparing batsman in test cricket and T20 cricket is a gross injustice to test cricket. I don't mean to ridicule but I do not understand how the admirers of T20 fail to see how much the game is loaded in the favor of the batsman and the bowler is a sacrificial lamb. With 4 overs to bowl will you ever see the emergence of great fast bowlers or wily spinners?. A fast bowler takes 2 overs just to get into rhythm. Well in T20 we don't care about bowlers. A spinner needs 2-3 overs to get a hang of things and start showcasing his talent. Well not in t20 we are here to see batsman trash bowlers!
T20 is entertainment. No question about that! But to talk of it as the real form of cricket with everything packed into 40 overs is ridiculous. Amit Varma, (whom I hold in high regard) feels T20 is shortened form of the game with enhanced intensity. Well, I disagree! If the batsman has to survive only for 20 balls any Tom, Dick and Harry will swing his bat wild. I am not, for once, saying batsman who score in T20 are not talented. They might be! To see their real potential make them play test cricket then hail them as champions. I know there are a good number of people who think like me about the game of cricket. At the same time I know people like me are a minority. This is why I am scared. There are very few people around who have the patience to watch test cricket. Well, I will go one more step and make a stronger statement. There are very few people out there who understand the intricacies involved in test cricket (the pitch, batting in the second innings, wearing pitch, chasing down a lead and batting last on a 5th day pitch) and so can appreciate them. If all people want is crash band wallop well T20 will be there. But for people like me there might come a day when watching cricket might become painful. I hope that day won't come and Test cricket will live the test of time!!
T20 is entertainment. No question about that! But to talk of it as the real form of cricket with everything packed into 40 overs is ridiculous. Amit Varma, (whom I hold in high regard) feels T20 is shortened form of the game with enhanced intensity. Well, I disagree! If the batsman has to survive only for 20 balls any Tom, Dick and Harry will swing his bat wild. I am not, for once, saying batsman who score in T20 are not talented. They might be! To see their real potential make them play test cricket then hail them as champions. I know there are a good number of people who think like me about the game of cricket. At the same time I know people like me are a minority. This is why I am scared. There are very few people around who have the patience to watch test cricket. Well, I will go one more step and make a stronger statement. There are very few people out there who understand the intricacies involved in test cricket (the pitch, batting in the second innings, wearing pitch, chasing down a lead and batting last on a 5th day pitch) and so can appreciate them. If all people want is crash band wallop well T20 will be there. But for people like me there might come a day when watching cricket might become painful. I hope that day won't come and Test cricket will live the test of time!!
3 comments:
just like dravid and many others, you are underestimating t20, he too thought that good test players can play any form of game and see what happened to bangalore royal challengers.
t20 is a far more superior form of cricket than odi or test. Contrary to what you say, batsmen have less pressure in test, this has also been said by many test players like dhoni etc. In test a batsman has almost unlimited overs so he takes his own time, he takes 10 overs just to settle down and then plays defense shots, if he gets a single its okay, else who cares, there are so many balls to spare. There is no pressure on the batsman to hit boundaries or maintain a strike rate. You call scoring 30 runs in 300 balls a real test of a batsman. A real test of batsman is in t20 where he has to quickly adapt to situation and score as many runs as possible without giving away wicket.
You say t20 is not fair to bowlers, a lot of purists who said that earlier now disagree after the ipl, there were 3 hat tricks and many 5 wicket hauls. A lot of man of the match went to bowlers. It is lot difficult to bowl when you know that the batsman is going to hit you around than in test cricket where most bowlers know that the batsman is going to just defend a shot. T20 is a real test for the bowlers.
In test cricket most teams are not trying to win, most of the time they are trying to draw the game or avoid a follow on. Its a complete waste. In t20 captaincy, planning, team work are very important.
Absolutely no importance is given to fielding in test, good fielding can only save 30 - 50 runs, what difference does that make. So in test no one shows any energy and enthusiasm. In t20 fielding is very important, each run counts as evident from so many last over finishes. You cant win a t20 match if your fielding is bad.
I am sorry but no matter what people like you think, test cricket is going to be extinct, it is only a matter of time. After the success of ipl, other countries are planning t20 leagues and there will be very less time for test cricket.
Naveen, I wish there were more people like you in this world. True cricket fans with a passion for the greatest game in the world - Test cricket. Test cricket is the most superior form of cricket. I cannot understand people who say that 20 overs is harder than a test match. Come on, 20 overs is just that - 20 overs. All that happens is batsmen walk in, try to hit the ball as hard as they can and do not care if they go out because the next guy comes in and does the same and they only have to last twenty overs.
Test cricket, by contrast, is played over five days. So, while pure skill can get you very far in T20, it is not the same for Tests. Players have to concentrate for five days.Batsmen have to set themselves to bat for long periods of time while accumulating runs at a steady rate. It is as much a challenge for talented batsmen to control their stroke play as it is for bowlers to bowl 5-10 overs in a spell, keeping the pressure on the batsmen.
Test cricket provides the classic contest between bat and ball. T20 - there is no contest. Your sentiments are correct - there will be no fast bowlers or spin bowlers in future T20, just some guys who can lob the ball in areas that are more difficult for the batsmen to hit. For the purpose of the T20 game, they should consider not having bowlers at all and, rather, having a man feed balls through a bowling machine into areas easiest for the batsmen to swing at, since this seems to be the purpose of an extremely limited (in more than one way) version of cricket!
Post a Comment