I rarely watch any cricket these days. As I picked interest in other sports, the attraction of cricket continued to decline steadily for me. However, I still catch a few glimpses of the game when Im out for lunch or dinner, where they always play the matches being broadcast. Afterall, cricket is still the numero uno sport in India and I guess I belong to the minority who dont follow it with a fervent zeal So as usual, I managed to watch a few minutes of todays Ind vs Aus ODI and for once its good to see bowlers getting some help from the pitch and the batsmen having to work for their runs. It reminds me of the matches in the 90s when the bowlers used to be menacing with the ball bouncing higher and moving in the air like frisbees. And the batsmen had to always be on their toes. Patience and perseverance was the key to getting good scores. Batting was an art then. Because art is difficult to master. You know, not every stroke will be right. There will be a few times when you miss the ball completely. At other times you might wonder why there doesnt seem to be any progress. You need a great deal of mental tenacity and some serious skills to go through all those phases and keep pushing forward. Skills that were honed over the years sweating it out in the nets. It was a real duel between the bat and the ball. A contest that kept you on th edge of the seat. Everytime the ball went past the edge of the bat or got close to kissing the stumps, millions of hearts would skip a beat. And on the few occasions that the batsmen managed to get on top of the ball, it would be a sight to behold. It would fill you with awe. And so the spectators became greedy. Especially those from the Indian subcontinent. We wanted more of that. We didnt want to see a contest between the bat and the ball anymore. We just wanted to see more of those shots and couldnt bear to wait for a couple more balls. Hit the ball out of the park every next delivery and we would still crave for more. Fail to score on 3 balls in a row and it would start to get on our nerves. We couldnt care less about how good the bowling was. All we wanted was to hit the jackpot every single time. Its so in sync with the general populaces mentality of wanting to get things done the easy way, without having to toil for it. We were the market the sponsors wanted to cash in on. The BCCI realized this. So did the ICC. They figured out that more sixes would make the fans happier and their own wallets fatter. The boundary ropes got closer to the pitch than your neighbours balcony to your living room. The pitch became as flat as a ships deck. Fielding restrictions were increased. In essence, cricket became a batsmens game. Its all about the numbers you know. Runs scored>>>wickets taken. Sometimes you have to feel for the bowlers, the fast ones in particular. They do all the hard work with their running and throwing the balls at the batsmen with all that they have got. Only to helplessly watch their balls being smashed all around the wicket. They have become more like punching bags. How hard must it be for them, knowing that they will be the ones vilified for the loss of the team more often than not. But would you expect an assasin to kill the king with a blunt dagger? When we were kids, we used to marvel at the robotic consistency of Glen McGrath, the razor like sharpness of Alan Donald, the fox like guile of Shaun Pollock, the ferocity of Curtly Ambrose, among many others. They were like predators, ready to hunt the batsmen down with the slightest hint of weakness in their game. You have to wonder if there are any bowlers today who are as revered as those names above. Or for that matter, is there any batsman these days who can be held at the same level among the pantheon of the great batsmen from the last generation or of those before? Score as many centuries they want, but the likes of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan etc. will never get close to the amount of adulation bestowed upon the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Kallis, Ponting etc. Because these guys did it against tougher oppositions, in harder conditions, on pitches that werent tailormade for bats men. And thus in our quest for nonstop entertainment, we have chosen quantity over quality. Indeed that does seem to be the norm for most things in our lives these days. Its only normal that cricket evolved to still fit in peoples lives. I guess Im a tad too slow to be able to catch up, though :P via Awadhesh Singh
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 14:51:22 +0000
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