Cricket’s ‘gentlemen’s game’ era fades (Part 1)
The British Umpire has given the World many new institutional attributes. From introducing several social, economic and educational structures, the British were also able to embed many indoor and outdoor games. The wide range included sports such as lawn
tennis, boxing, and the most successfully adaptation among the British sporting legacies was cricket.
Cricket which was initially played under the notion of first-class cricket, stepped into the international arena as England, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 took part in international cricketing encounters.
Later other British based colonies took interest in the sport, and thus as cricketing nations grew in numbers, they enforced an international cricketing body to take care and charge of the international events. This organization is known as the International
Cricket Council, and the Council has been able to take the global sport to different successful stages of growth.
Cricket used to be played in the longer version of the game only, as it was also known as “the gentlemen’s game”. It gave the upper class English social circle an excuse to get all dressed up and sip wine and champagne.
Another similarity in the sport in terms of the playing conditions was the cricketing feeling the viewers and cricketers themselves experienced when entering the cricketing ground. One could see and feel the lush green grass, the hard shinny grassy wicket,
the morning dust and fresh air. The ground crew running around and trying to place everything in the right order. The neat and clean pin drop silent dressing rooms.
When the playing cricketers and crew arrived at the venue, if one stood outside the dressing room, he or she could feel that passion filled room, which was exploding with confidence, expectations, and respect for all the players.
In the earlier days, the sporting equipment wasn’t of the quality one can see today. The cricket bat and ball weren’t made with the same level of expertise. Even the playing wicket or pitch wasn’t of the same caliber as witnessed in the modern age. And just
imagine a cricket match without electronic cameras at every nook and corner of the ground, with no replays or visual computerized assistance.
The Umpire used to be the highest authority, and all his decisions were based on his mini second visual naked eye view alone.
The biggest change in the sport of cricket is the loss of mutual respect among cricketers themselves. Cricket was known as the gentleman’s game because of the mutual discipline and respect shared between both the oppositions.
Cricketers playing motives were passion, the level of determination and commitment, not to forget, the concept of the “love of the game”. But now days the cricketers have failed to maintain the same level of discipline and respect between each other, on
or off the field.
Today’s cricketers are more interested in the financial and glamorous aspect of the sport. Cricket has become an industry, a money making machine.
Especially, since the advent of international domestic cricket leagues, for example the English County became the first domestic league to absorb cricketers from the international arena. And this has led to several national cricket boards to spend more money
to keep their national heroes to play for their respected countries.
(To be continued…Part 2)
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