in response to... but hey, we are making money...

in the midst of the ipl haze there was one refreshingly thoughtful and brilliantly crafted post at bored by jian johnson titled... but hey, we are making money...

the way he presented his case and compared cricket with the fate of sports like basket ball and volley ball and how these sports have become victims to the administrators quest to make it more tv friendly and how it's ultimately costing them is unparalleled...

extracting an excerpt from the post is very difficult and you will need to read it in totality to understand why i am saying this and also for the fact that you will understand my response to his post better...

cricket is different from other sports in a way that here only one player is defending (his wicket) against 11 players in the field... unlike other sports where the attackers (forwards) and defenders are almost equal and certainly more than one... one small error of judgment is enough to send a batsman back even on the most patta pitches... not always a good ball (or attack) can cost him his wicket while bowlers have overs and spells in their kitty to make a comeback even if they go for runs earlier...

so the batsman does need protection to balance it out coz as i said it takes just one mistake to send him back to the pavilion...

the limited overs version has this inherited flaw that you can win the contest by restricting opponent to as close a margin as one run... so the emphasis, more often than not, is to put the runs in check... although we keep on hearing the cliché that a wicket does slow down the rate but we all know the case is not so most of the time with captains... hence they becomes defensive... ask bowlers to bowl a particular line... even bowlers do not attack that much coz as i said the emphasis is not to leak runs somehow...

this is where i think that the power play is not really bad for bowlers... it has forced captains to attack and it has enabled bowlers to get wickets coz a) batsmen feel compelled to accelerate thereby presenting more opportunities to bowlers than they would have... b) as more fielders are inside the 30 yards circle the chances of grabbing these opportunities is much higher than otherwise...

i am not the stats guy... but i think more wickets have fallen in power plays than say in middle overs when the field is spread...

so where is the problem... you may ask...?

the problem is in greed...

cricket (read shortened version of game and to be precise t20 cricket) is drawing big money and only yesterday two franchisees bid successfully to own two new ipl teams... and the amount of the successful bid was even higher than all eight franchisee’s bidding amount put together last time!

so if the bids for the right to own a team or media rights etc are going to be that high they will naturally try to look at ways for not only the safe recovery of investment but also topping it with profits...

one way to recover that money, according to administrators, is to ensure the game runs its full length... so the pitches need to be made according to this need... so they have enough gate money... so they have enough eye balls for the full length of the game... which will bring in more sponsors... in turn the sponsors will get more time and their money’s worth... and the cycle will continue...

they also think that more runs on board automatically means more entertainment... so they are shortening the boundaries... so that you and me can see more fours and sixes... and in doing so they are reducing bowlers almost on par with bowling machines...

sending ball soaring down or over the boundary line has ceased to become a skill now... it has become more of on demand thing... the only problem with this is that it won’t take fans to get bored of these dlf maximums... then what they will do...?

if only they take some time out of making the moolah... they will understand that more than the fours and sixes it’s the evenness of contest that makes the match gripping...

if only they leave the tinge of grass on surface to sort out predators amongst genuine talent... and not succumb to prepare a road... where one can afford to play with mongoose even with shorter blade and play the stroke on up knowing that the ball is not going to deviate even a millimeter...

if only they can again go back to days when scoring six runs used to more of a skill than ‘mongoose’... when miss hits used to find the safe hands of a fielder coz the boundaries were further... more spinners will look to flight the ball... and the art of spin bowling won’t die a slow death...

we will have next generation thinking that picking ball (instead of bat) is also not a bad career choice...

but my impression is that although we see some crocodile tears being shed towards the general health of the game but today’s administrators wants to make money as if there is no tomorrow... they just don’t want to leave legacy... and the only benchmark they are interested in is how many times the rights... the bids increase from the last time...

until and unless this mindset changes i don’t think we will get to see these simple yet effective measures in place...

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