Embracing the Obvious

Since the time of Dr. W.G. Grace, crowds have flocked to see great batsmen entertain the crowd. Often, "Admission three pence; If Dr. W.G. Grace plays, admission six pence," screamed the sign outside the cricket field.

The Royal Family inquired about the health of Dr. Grace from time to time. And kids playing on the pavements and fields often wielded their bats pretending themselves to be the Old Man.

And the superstar status of Dr. Grace is best underscored by this incident that happened in a country game: People flocked to see Dr. Grace play these rustic country games because he put the same keenness into them as he did to Test matches. And while batting on 20, he was brilliantly stumped by the local wicket-keeper. And when the young boy shrieked ‘Howzzat?

To the square leg umpire, pat came the legendary response from the umpire, "Not hout—look ye here young feller, the crowd has come to see Dr. Grace in action and none of yer monkey tricks."

Dr. Grace played First Class cricket for 43 years and scored over 54,000 runs. It was during his time that the bowling arm went over the shoulder, thereby, giving rise to the art of spin bowling and real fast bowling. The reason why he became the first of the modern day greats has got to do with his ability to evolve with the game itself.

Arguably, the game never changed more in any one else's cricket career.

It is no wonder that an umpire would scold a young enthusiast saying that the crowd came to see the Doctor bat and how dare he spoil their party? Victor Trumper, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Vivian Richars, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar all have evoked same emotion from the paying public since.

One Day cricket became popular in the later half of the 20th century. While for a long time, the purists chided it to be pyjama cricket only fir the connoisseur to later realize that it enabled to bring more results to Test Cricket.

White balls, coloured clothing, flood-lit cricket, pinch hitters, unorthodox spinners, reverse-swinging yorkers made their foray into the game. The purist continued to digress. Commerce didn't.

It embraced the idea that One Day cricket brought people through the turnstiles. It filled in stadiums. Luckily for cricket, India won the 1983 Prudential World Cup and there by became a religion to the most populous cricketing nation. The 1996 Wills World Cup in the Indian sub-continent tapped into the television market. It brought in sponsors and the television revenues soared making India's as the richest cricketing board in the world.

Among the most difficult things in cricket, letting go of tradition seems to be the most difficult. The treatment meted out to T20 cricket at the beginning resembles One Day cricket's early years. Then India wins the first T20 World Cup. Soon enough the IPL is conceived and the India board, this time, becomes the richest sporting body in the world.

T20 cricket is simply the future of cricket for the simple reason that it is the product that sells. Shorter the format of the game, that chasm between the contesting teams shrinks, thereby, making the contest more and more unpredictable. We saw this only a few weeks ago when the Kiwis blanked India, the world champions, in both the T20 games at the start of the tour, and they are chasing leather since in the longer variants of the game.

Cricket's evolution has been determined by the watching public as much by the audacious stroke play of its batsmen. The purists can shout all they want about T20 cricket being the slambang variety, but then there was the same rhetoric when One Day cricket was taking over from Test Cricket.

The truth remains that Test cricket managed to survive even as One Day cricket became the more popular variety. Franchise-based cricket is the future of cricket and the day is not far when there are 50 franchises around the world are scouting for the best talent from across the world.

The players being exposed to the free market ensures better competition and therefore greater health of the game. The day is also not far when the franchises take over state/province/county system in the longer formats of the game as it provides them with the pool of players and the platform to scout for younger talent and nurture them.

Cricket is unique in the respect that it has three distinctive formats of the game to offer. The challenge for cricket administrators is to ensure that the formats remain distinct and there are clear borders separating one from the other. That’s why the batting power play is such a fantastic addition to the sport. Bowlers might not agree, but then cricket and sport were never fair.

It will be naïve not to embrace T20 cricket as the future of the fame. In the times of global meltdown, where a sport like Formula One is facing the pinch, IPL has just finished signing a record television deal.

It is proof enough that cricket might not always embrace pinch hitters and graphite coated bats, but it certainly does embrace changing times, public interests and commerce.

This was first published in 23something. I primarily blog here