Cricket needs widespread changes
Sports usually thrive because of their competitive spirit and rivalry between players, where it is hard to figure out who will come out as victorious until the last moment. From team sports to individual sports such as boxing, wrestling, racing or tennis – every competition has its own unique spirit. Just like individual sports, team sports can be competitive too. And what can be more competitive that the ongoing football world cup which is featuring the world’s best 32 sides from planet Earth. The first half of the tournament will feature all the teams going at each other’s throat, be it defending champion Italy, last runners up France or ever favourite Brazil.
You may ask why cricket is not among the sports mentioned above. It is simply because the game has lost its competitive touch and has plunged into a ditch from where it can only be pulled back, after making many necessary changes. Test cricket features 90 over’s in a day where the pace is as slow as the medium pace deliveries of most of the pacers who bowl in Antarctica. The game needs administrators with brain who can take tough decisions such as revamping ODI cricket that has lost its touch since the introduction of the T20 version of the game. Why has it lost it? Since the amount of runs scored in both forms of the game are almost the same, the young viewers stick to the fast paced T20 format whereas traditional people refuse to let go of the ODIs, despite knowing that the time is up.
The ongoing Test series featuring South Africa and the West Indies is a prime example of pointless cricket. No one in his or her right mind would care whether a batsman scores 500 runs in an innings or a batsman takes 20 wickets in an innings, as long as the high-value football World Cup is continuing. Adding fuel to fire is the total surrender by Chris Gayle’s men who have become the prime example of ‘can’t bowl, can’t bat and can’t field’. They somehow managed to dismiss South Africa in the first Test match in the Caribbean for 352 runs, but were dismissed for 102 in their first innings, proving that teams that lose great players can’t recover from the loss of talent.
People from Test nations with no representation in the mega event vouch for the favourites, and even the South Africans would be cursing the ICC for planning the series when they should have been cheering for the ‘Bafana Bafana’ - the host team at home.
Similarly, the four-nation Asia Cup will begin this week. However, the Asian Cricket Council couldn’t have timed the event with such bad precision. Brazil, Germany, England and Argentina will be seen in action during the Football World Cup during the entire duration of the Asia Cup where Bangladesh and Pakistan are most likely to miss the finals due to their past record and current form. No matter how well the teams play, the 50 over match will not soak the attention of people who will get a result in less than 100 minutes if they stick to football.
What cricket needs is a doctor who acts as a dictator. They should go for relegation of sides that are a nuisance to the game and should be stripped off their status after a warning, and should only be included after they get their act together. Such sides include former champions West Indies and Pakistan – both teams are a shadow of their earlier record breaking teams.
West Indies cricket board may have banned Marlon Samuels for two years for his involvement in match fixing, but the story is entirely different in Pakistan where banned cricketers are playing with the national team’s outfit, their fans’ feelings and with the board’s leniency. Shoaib Malik and Shoaib Akhtar both made it to the Pakistan squad due to their political affiliations while Shahid Afridi, who in essence has become an orator than a leader since being made captain. They need a dictator like Imran Khan who can whip them when they play to lose, drop them when they fail at will, and support them if they lose even after playing like tigers.
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