By Gaurang
September 13 2008

Being a cricket fan today is like suffering from multiple personality disorder. There are three types of cricket: Test cricket, ODIs, and Twenty20s. Besides that, there are National, Domestic, and hybrid International-Domestic Twenty20 club teams to follow. There are even three different Twenty20 club leagues to follow, the ICL, Stanford T20, and the IPL. What is a fan to do?

The first question a fan might ask is which form of the game is the most important?  The mind says Test cricket must have primacy.  It is the form of the game that is the most challenging and stimulating to play, and the biggest test of a player’s overall cricket skills.  Hence the name “Test” cricket.  But Test cricket has no defined Championship, merely a rolling calendar of bi-lateral contests some of which are hardly contests. So the heart is not really willing to concede that Test cricket is the most important format.

OK, so then the World Cup and mini-World Cup a.k.a Champions Trophy is the premiere format, right?  Well the most recent World Cup was a fiasco of monumental proportions and the Champions Trophy has turned into a political football (pardon the cross-sport analogy) and has been punted to next year, as if somehow miraculously twelve months from now Pakistan will become any safer than it is today, and the international cricket calendar will suddenly align perfectly and a nice window will open up for the event to be contested.  In reality there is no such window, and BCCI has already announced that October 2009 is absolutely NOT OK for them and they will be hosting Australia, who are quickly replacing Pakistan as the most hated cricketing rivals for India, in another seven match ODI series that reeks of overkill in the name of a few dollars more.  Of course this begs the question then why did BCCI agree to allow the football to be punted to next October in the first place?  Maybe because that is how Indian politicians (who now dominate BCCI) react to any crisis.  Their motto is when there is doubt, conflict, or controversy,  postpone, adjourn and punt, and hope it all can be finessed or fudged away.  

Speaking of windows being opened we come to the latest version of the game, the quasi-international, quasi-national, but essentially local club level tournaments such as the ICL and IPL.  Until a couple of years ago if you expressed the opinion that a match between a Jaipur club team and a Kolkata club team would garner an audience of more than a dozen fans you would have been laughed off the stage.  But throw in a bit of Twenty20 hitting combined with short boundaries and shorter skirts, plus some big names from international cricket, and a healthy dash of marketing, whether it be the chintzy ICL marketing, or slightly more sophisticated Bollywood style marketing of the IPL, and you have a cricket circus and money spinner the likes of which Kerry Packer, the original circus master, could not have dreamed of. 

The most recent addition to this Three Ring Circus version of cricket, is the Texan billionaire of West Indian descent who has been throwing his money around his native Caribbean like Santa Claus.  In about a month or so, an English cricket team will play the “Stanford All-Stars”, a group of players from the West Indies, for a winner take all prize of Twenty million US Dollars.  Can there ever have been a more meaningless match played for more money than this?  This junket makes the jaunts to the desert oasis called Sharjah, where at least benefit purses of $50-100 thousand were provided to some deserving and needy retired players, seem almost uplifting and noble. 

So what is a cricket fan to do?  Pull his hair out in frustration? Go with the flow? Pick one format and follow it? Choose a player to follow him through all formats?  Or just pull a Sybil and put on a different personality for each different format?  

Cricket is at a cross roads, or more like at a traffic circle with about 8 different avenues leading off it.  Where the game ends up is anyone’s guess and the average cricket fan must feel like he or she is cursed by the old Chinese rebuke: “May you live in interesting times.”

Interesting Times For Cricket Fans

Discussion started by Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged), 13/09/2008 17:38

Indian Cricket Fever
13/09/2008 17:38

Interesting Times For Cricket Fans

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Birbal
13/09/2008 19:44

So what do people here think is the biggest prize for India in cricket?

World Cup? T20 World Cup? Test Series win IN Australia? Being No. 1 on ICC Test Ranking? or really doesn't matter....

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Birbal
13/09/2008 19:45

I'd like to also ask our non-Indian friends what their view on the biggest prize for their respective countries, England, Australia, Bangladesh etc. is?

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ananthd
13/09/2008 21:32

Biggest prize for me would be No 1 Test nation ranking in the current system...

Having said that, I think the Test championships is WAY overdue and playing a Test outside of this event is BALONEY...

My wishlist:
The ODI dies a natural death. No more of this painful bore of a game....

2 year Test Championship Cycle. Test playoffs the last quarter of the second year...

The biennial cycle for T20 is too much with the IPL and possible Olympic inclusion etc. Make it once in 4 years, what with ODIs dying...

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crabbage
14/09/2008 00:25

Being no 1 in tests,followed by the world cup,the rest is pretty meaningless.

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Spirit of Cricket
14/09/2008 12:26

Although I believe Test cricket is the best test for a player, it's clearly on its way out.

The audience for Tests is a small and shrinking pool of "purists". T20 is the future, unfortunately.

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Birbal
15/09/2008 15:43

Too early to write Test cricket's obituary...though I think the 10 year ICC @#$%& is going to die soon...

_____

ICL Ko Support Karo Yaro...

BCCI Ko Joote Chappal Maro....

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Birbal
16/08/2009 23:00

bump

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anu_d
17/08/2009 13:25

Here is my prioritized rankings:

Be #1 in tests
Win ODI w'Cup
Win T20 W'cup
and play 2 IPLs / year

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Birbal
17/08/2009 17:37

I think 1 IPL per year is enough...

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ananthd
18/08/2009 22:45

I think an IPL every 2 years is enough....
IPL & T20WC can alternate....

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Birbal
18/08/2009 22:47

IPL has a different flavor than World T20...that can be every 2 years... but I think ICC will want it every year to CASH in on the booty to be earned...

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crabbage
19/08/2009 04:57

I think as far as the aussies go its just a cash cow,oh and a dramatic competition.

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Birbal
02/01/2010 03:46

bump... wrote this a while back and nothing has changed...

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Birbal
02/01/2010 17:26

Lots of people should be EXALTANT... India are No. 1 in Tests... that is the goal most cited...

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Birbal
03/06/2012 20:41

Bump... written almost 4 years ago... some things have changed... ECB's savior Stanford is in JAIL for one...

Subhash Chandra's ICL is a distant memory... but the essential point of the article is still valid...

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Birbal
03/06/2012 20:46

Dhoni achieved Anu_D's top two goals... Test No. 1 and World Cup win...Maybe now he is no longer interested...

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round rock
06/06/2012 16:11

great article gaurang. great vision you have , cricket as a game is going through evolution at greater speed

no team has dominated the cricket in the last 4 years. india, rsa, eng, aus . there's very thin line between these teams.

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Birbal
22/06/2012 16:53

All the arguments for which format will survive etc. have been going on for a while now...

Yet all formats are surviving...

For Tests, need evenly balance sides with nice evenly challenging pitches...not pattas or greentops or dusty turners...though the later are preferable to the PATTAS...

For ODIs... it should only be in multi-team tournaments like World Cup, Asia Cup, etc... and as an add on to a Test series but NEVER more than 3... Ideal format for all Test series... 2-4 Tests, 3 ODIs and (this MUST be enforced by ICC)

For Twenty20s only World Championship of Club teams every year INTERNATIONAL tournament.... Rest of Twenty20 MUST be DOMESTIC CLUB cricket like IPL, Big Bash, etc...

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Birbal
09/06/2013 02:04

Written nearly five years ago... but still the questions remain pretty much the same...

This line especially...

" Their motto is when there is doubt, conflict, or controversy, postpone, adjourn and punt, and hope it all can be finessed or fudged away."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:06:09:02:10:11 by Birbal.

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audioman
12/06/2013 16:07

Test cricket will remain #1 for me. Although one big change I would like to see happen is for 2 teams to play test matches in neutral conditions. India vs West Indies playing in New Zealand for instance. Australia vs England at the Eden Gardens. Would be an absolute spectacle. Will there be enough of a crowd to watch these games? Maybe, maybe not. But I think it is time we try anyway.

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Meet_New_Mr_India
12/06/2013 17:27

^I have been proposing that for quite a long time now.. it is absolute necessary to do that..

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Birbal
12/06/2013 23:11

Which one MNMI..? playing Tests in neutral venues?

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audioman
13/06/2013 15:26

I have wanted that for a while too, and it has only grown more now after having seen the pitches for the India-England and India-Australia series. What the pitches should be like - take that completely out of the captain's/coach's hands. And playing in neutral venues will do that. Neither Sammy nor Dhoni will be able to dictate to a kiwi curator what he should be preparing. Neither Clarke nor Cook will be able to call the shots on what Mr. Mukherjee should be doing. Just to change things up a bit, you know. And maybe convert this format into a test championship.....

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Meet_New_Mr_India
13/06/2013 18:04

Quote:

Birbal
Which one MNMI..? playing Tests in neutral venues?

yes sir.. it is absolutely necessary.. and to spice things up in terms of result certain rules can be tweaked so it doesn't produce boring draws..

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Birbal
13/07/2013 23:54

Quote:

Meet_New_Mr_India

Quote:

Birbal
Which one MNMI..? playing Tests in neutral venues?

yes sir.. it is absolutely necessary.. and to spice things up in terms of result certain rules can be tweaked so it doesn't produce boring draws..

MNMI...you are getting your wish... Ashes being played in INDIAN conditions...

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Meet_New_Mr_India
14/07/2013 17:04

No wonder the 1st test was so thrilling... Not sure how dishonest England prevailed in the end...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:07:14:19:13:37 by Meet_New_Mr_India.

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Birbal
14/07/2013 18:17

They should call this series the DRAshes....eh?

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Birbal
21/09/2015 06:57

Seven long years later...and still Cricket is as schizo as it was back in 2008.

Good to see India v. South Africa though being a proper series... with the right order of importance of things... from least to most... T20 to Tests...

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Birbal
11/05/2018 23:49

I wrote this a DECADE ago... much has changed... ICL and Stanford T20 have disappeared. Stanford even went to Prison... but many other T20 Pro leagues like Big Bash, BBL, Carribbean Premiere League, etc...have mushroomed.

But the basic question about what is a cricket fan to do? and which format to follow remains.

To me India Test Series wins in South Africa and Australia are the HOLY GRAIL...that is what I am most keen on.

IPL, just because it is so much BIGGER than anything else is also interesting... the ODI World Cup.. remains super relevant... to a lesser degree the T20 World Cup is also important... the other ICC multi-team tournaments and especially the other Pro leagues like Big Bash, Pakistan Super League are just hit and giggle timepass cricket...

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