Last month I wrote an extensive article regarding the fact that we, as cricket fanatics, feel there is far too much cricket being played, smothered with additional 'meaningless' cricket in the sense of genuine quality matching quantity.
To further this statement, Quality meaning the actual cricket played, the fitness of the players and the marketing abilties in hyping and promoting a series on the basis of the beauty in a battle of cricket in any form of the game.
Quantity simply meaning that each tournament or series is matched up to the quality that be provided to meet the demands of the cricketing public.
CLICK HERE for a link to the article.
At the same time CLICK HERE to take a look at a brief article from my one reader Baiju, who pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve in expressing his feelings with the 'overkill cricket', directly relating Australia's injury burdened team.
As a result we have a real challenge now to try win this series against India.
Keep in mind Baiju is an Indian supporter!
4 comments:
Yeah Ian, I wrote the article today out of sheer anger and frustration after reading about Henriques in Cricinfo. Moises may not be a victim of 'overkill' but that news just ignited the feelings in me to a greater degree. Where are we heading to mate.....???
Already commented on this a few days ago. One thing I have noticed is that there are teams which hardly play as much as India or Australia, OR they usually have slightly longer gaps in the middle. NZ is one team that bearly plays cricket. I can't remember the last time they put on their whites. SA seems to have a balanced routine so far. WI is on hiatus and Pakistan can't stop bombing themselves. The balance is surely off.
I still think Austalian fans can take out a few positives from this, as the team is doing a great job with what they got and are giving a tough fight to the Indians, who are playing a full strength team. They only have zaheer injured and Gambhir missed the last game. If I would to look at the experience of both teams on paper, I would vote for Indians to take this series comfortably but it hasn't happened so far.
anyway, who goes next? I think Johnson and Watson would be my choices.
I have talked about quality over quantity a while back and I was talking about it with my friends at lunch today. ICC needs to wake the fuck up and look at cricket as a game and not as a business. Cricket is being played 365 days a year. I thought about having, what I call, "Short Controlled Blasts" I don't think it is rocket science, actually, it is pretty simple. This was just rough ideas running through my head but I'm sure you guys can contribute to it. Okay bear with me here...
ODI Tournaments
I would rather have tournaments like ICC Championship over 7 ODI series. Simply because we get to see a variety of cricket rather then two teams playing over and over again. Have these types of tournaments twice a year, where teams from all over the world get together. Increase the prize money and teams would surely participate. I would say even one tournament a year is enough.
Tour - ODI series
Do we really need one? I personally don't think a Tour really should include an ODI series, not anymore, atleast. People make a good point about it though, basically, they say "what is the point of having a "tour" without an ODI series?" "we have to promote it more." blah blah! I just think it can be promoted over triangular series or an ICC tournament. Well okay, fine, I agree to a degree. How about just having 3 ODI series?. Make it official, no tour should include more then 3 ODIs. The point really is to cut down the amount of cricket that teams play.
Tour - T20 Cricket
Gosh! I feel almost nauseous talking about T20 because, sadly, when I think about cricket these days, I think about T20. I really hate the game, simply, because there is way too much of it. There is IPL, WC and now CPL. why? why? why? why so many leagues? is there enough to fit all this shit in? However, as much as I hate the game now, I would have to say inclusion of T20 in a Tour has become very important. The point really is that it is popular and it brings the crowd in. I would have a 3 ODI series with 2 T20s.
Tour - Tests
Please promote this format. It is almost extinct in some places like NZ and Pakistan. You are not promoting Test cricket by having 4 TESTS, you are killing this format that way. There was a debate about having 6 tests in an Ashes series? really? why not use robots for players instead? With the exception of the Ashes series (since it is a tradition almost), keep it simple, have three tests. Please bring in sporting wickets. Please bring in technology to the game, referrals are needed. Give it a T20 type promotion. Maybe, have a Power Play in Test cricket as well? make those boring days of test cricket a bit more interesting.
T20 Leagues
Get rid of it. It is a DISEASE. we have enough cricket as it is.
Basically, fans should NEED to watch cricket and not WANT to watch cricket. there is a difference. I didn't even bother paying for Aus/Ind series because I just don't care for it. same shit, different day. MAKE me pay for a ticket/subscription. STARVE me for a bit of cricket.
I was looking at the SA/ENG tour that starts in a few. Please look at it and tell me you can't cut some of it in half? Now this is what I've been saying it all along. IT IS OVERKILL.
http://www.cricinfo.com/rsaveng09/content/series/387551.html?template=fixtures
Jawad,
I have to agree with you on almost every point. The prime example of cricket overkill is the T20 World cup. Whan it was started in 2007 it was declared that it will be conducted once every 2 years and that was acceptable.Now see what is going to happen, less than 9 months after the final of this years T20 WC the next one is going to start. What is going on here..? I haven't heard of any World cup (be it with any sports) that will happen twice within an year.
I hate to say this, but the reality is the ICC is a puppet controlled by BCCI and we have got people like Lalit Modi sitiing in the top ends of BCCI. And guess what...Mr. Modi is even thinking of conducting two IPLs in one year and may be he wants two Champions league as well.
I really doubt if India will ever produce a test player in the class of Tendulker, Dravid or Laxman because it seems the current crop of youngsters are not much bothered to try hard and get a test spot. Why should they...? Thry are getting 10 times the money they get playing tests in an year from IPL and CL
Footnote :
The stadium where NZ are playing Pakistan curently is just a 10 minute drive for me from my residence but I am not even thinking about going there. A couple of yers back I definitely would have been there.
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