Recreation

Cricket is an art, by far the toughest game on earth. It might look simple, but the nuances of the game are too hard for us to comprehend. Cricket, they say is a Mind Game. Real cricket is 5 day cricket. No wonder they have named it Test cricket. It is a real test of character. Although 20/20 is globalizing cricket big time, its killing the game in more ways than not. It’s a pain to watch off spinners firing the ball flat out into the block hole and it’s even more pain full to observe that there is not a single international team that has a good leg spinner. The switch hit, the scoop over the wicket keeper’s head and the short arm pull can never match the Sachin Tendulkar straight drive, Rahul Dravid square cut or the Mark Waugh leg glance.
The two most important aspects of cricket are that it’s a profound team game and it’s highly unpredictable. In my view 20/20 kills the first part for sure. It’s not the better team that wins. It’s the team with more number of lucky people on a day that wins. I would even argue that test cricket is lot more unpredictable that 20/20. There is nothing more intriguing in cricket than watching a team battles it out on a last day wicket to save the game. In 20/20 a well constructed technically sound innings gets overshadowed by some awkward slogging which is unacceptable. In addition to all this we have the filthy rich who have taken over the game like as if it’s a property that they have inherited. For instance the idea of strategy break is just deep shit.”DLF Maximum” and”citi moment of success” are no better.
To cap it you have the cheer girls. God!! It’s the most irritating part of 20/20.This is not to say I am person with great moral values. Girls are charming, but cricket has enough charm to keep us up and cheering. There is no need for a catalyst here. If anything it’s a disgrace to cricket, players and the fans. Watching a replay of a shot or a wicket gives us more joy than watching the movements of some scantily dress women on the cricket field.
Its high time ICC thinks of putting in place a test championship and limit the number of 20/20’s being played. Anyways for those of you who are starved for good cricket ASHES 2009 is here!! J For the first time I am going to be in one of the participating nation. Go Aussies Go!!