T20 losing its sheen

Sports

Once upon a time Indians won the inaugural T20 tournament which had the world of cricket on the reverse gear.

Just imagine a ‘pol sambol’ without coconut or for that matter a T20 tournament semi-final played in India without an Indian side in representation? Two of the most unimaginable settings you can think of!! Only with that thought that I got up this morning and decided to pen it down and share it with you.
In the semi-finals were the Victoria and New South Wales teams from Australia, Trinidad &Tobago from the West Indies and the Cape Cobras from South Africa.

On September 24, 2007, India clinched the inaugural Twenty20 cricket World Cup after a thrilling five-run victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in the final in Johannesburg. From that fateful day the game of cricket was not going to be the same as it was.

Until that point the hierarchy of the richest cricketing nation in the world had not paid much attention to this cowboy version of the game. So much so the India demi-God stalwarts - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and co did not pay much heed to it and decided to skip the trip of Southern Africa. So the mantle of leading the side for this yet unknown exercise fell on the shoulders of wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni who himself was one of the hardest bashes of 51/2 OZ red cherry. To assist Dhoni in this experiment he was given a band of most untested Indian talent who jelled well enough to bring India its second World Cup in cricket.

Then back in India while the cricketers were paraded down crowded streets in an open Double Decker bus, the cricketing think tank was busy looking into ways of cashing in on this unexpected God given fortune. At the same time another cricketing brain by the name of Anthony Greig along with a business forum were also on the prowl on the same issue. As you know out of the twins that were born IPL survived while the ICL starved to death.

But, the rich child the IPL took the world by storm. The Indian authorities followed the ICL pattern and opened its doors also to the foreigners. As a result every able bodied cricketer on earth wanted a piece of the cake and some like Drik Nannes who would never have played for his homeland in Australia became a household name in India as a result of representing the Delhi Daredevils.

The IPL first season was a huge success and the second was not second to the first. Then not stopping at that Modi and Co. also designed the Champions League Twenty20, tournament which was opened to the best domestic T20 teams in most of the cricket playing countries that also included a team from Sri Lanka.

From the saturation point starts the decline. If the second season of the IPL which was forced to be moved to South Africa was the saturation point, the CLT could be termed as the point of decline in T20.
The T20 was conceived with the noble idea of saving the game of cricket in this busy world especially in the first world countries of England and Australia and not India where you put up a statue of Sachin Tendulkar and 50,000 people would flock to see it. But, ironically India won the inaugural T20 World Cup and that version of the game took root in that huge country.

T20 cricket in concept is an attractive batsman oriented explosive game looking for a score around 1.5 runs per delivery which works to a score around 180 per innings. But, in spite of the best in the market taking stage the Champions League T20 failed to deliver the goods. If you take the winning totals of the twenty matches played prior to the semi-finals the average score worked to 147.3 per innings. Then the question is did the tournament deliver the promised fare to the cricket fan?

Arguably the in cricket for the purist there is the ready-made package of Test Cricket at the helm. Then for the next level there is the 50-overs version with more pluses than the minuses. However the now popular T20 is the worst from the lot that has brought forth a bastardized version of cricket where all technicalities have flown out of the window and very ungainly strokes like the ‘Dilscoop’ was being invented. Yet, the game failed to deliver.

In the 40 innings completed in the pre-semi-final draw there were only sixteen half centuries and one solitary hundred. Mind you the best T20 teams from the best cricket playing nations were the participants.
Laughably a team batting first scores 114 runs which works to less than run-a-ball, defending the total very successfully and wins the game by 30 runs. Once again there were sixteen totals where teams had scored 120 runs or less. Then in 40 innings the percentage works to 6.4. In a game where batting is given pride of place the best in the trade has lost its purpose.

The next question is, has the bowlers overtaken the batsmen? where the average total of winning teams works to only 147.3 runs per inning, or else did the organizers chose the wrong locations where the wickets are not conducive to this type of the game?

Did the organizers only see to the locations where the crowds would converge? Once again the purpose was lost because if the cricket fans are treated with low scoring games as a habit in a given location the worst fanatic would lose interest very soon. That is reality. Some cricket insiders genuinely feel that with tournaments of this nature the T20 concept is committing hara-kiri, but in a way where this game which was threatening the very base of civilized cricket is gradually losing its luster.

Finally T20 played under lights have proved that the dew factor is a great hamper to the smooth flow of the game, but, the pundits are still looking for ways of playing Test cricket under lights.

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