Cricket in the “Corridor of Uncertainty”

If the world economy is going through an extraordinary crisis after years of excess post the sub-prime debacle, Cricket seems to be going through a crisis of its own post the widespread acceptance of T-20 cricket. Is T-20 format the sub-prime (not literally though) of the cricket world is anybody’s guess! But cricket’s crisis seems to be rather unique. Just when the whole world was entering a recession, cricket discovered its real big money potential through – first the stupendously successful T-20world cup and then the “fill up whatever adjective you want” IPL.

Everyone (except Lalit Modi & co) is in acceptance of the fact that Cricket is in a crisis. But there’s anything but agreement when it comes to the cause of the crisis and more so with how to fix it! ICC thinks the solution lies in having 4 day test matches – I never knew David Morgan had such a great sense of humour. Allan Donald thinks it’s got to do with the balance between bat and ball – soon there’ll be a ball-tampering coach in all teams. Chris Gayle thinks that we should leave it to individuals to decide about their priorities and not get too sentimental about the good old test cricket. Oh boy…. What is the problem?

There’s a general perception that it’s all because of the new new format of the game. Infact it’s a little surprising that most people have expressed their concerns on the death of test cricket just when its going through its most healthy period in a long long time – it’s been mouth watering stuff with 3 top teams competing for the champion’s crown with no clear winner. Surely T-20 is not a threat to test cricket, in fact they are as good as 2 different sports for them to cannibalize each other!

T-20 is a welcome addition to an already rich sport and it’s probably cricket’s best bet in globalizing itself. It’s also made cricketers richer and greedier too. Chris Gayle reaching the test series in England two days before the match was ripping the soul of cricket. At the same time, it’s had a huge positive influence on the game; it brought the family audience back to the stadium along with a lot of first timers too. Not to forget the fact that it’s been a platform where spinners have reestablished themselves after their impotency started telling in ODI cricket of late – What was the last match winning spell from spinner that one can remember in ODI cricket? Ironically it has redressed the balance between bat and ball in its own way though we feared the contrary to happen. Surely it cannot be the rise of T-20 alone.

But what about the scheduling – are we killing the golden goose? How could you have a T-20 world cup barely a week after IPL – which in its current avatar is much bigger than the world cup. Oh, by the way, there’s going to be another world cup in 10 month’s time! There’s also the champions trophy and the small matter of what used to be the pinnacle event in cricket – the ODI world cup in 2011. I never ever imagined in my wildest of dreams that I would grow tired of watching cricket one day and oh boy is it becoming true! ICC needs to badly hire Operations Research experts (i.e., by their standards, which apparently could be done by a X grade student!) to fix their scheduling problem – Obviously, it requires knowledge of rocket science to figure out the distance between June 2009 and April 2010 is less than one year!

And that monster called IPL? This has been the cause of all the problems in cricket! It’s infused obscene amount of money into the game that is tempting cricketers to choose between the nation and money. What an irony – there is crisis the world over for lack of money and in cricket the crisis seems to be because of excess money! Flintoff has preferred T-20 over test cricket, Vettori has expressed the dilemmas of his team members when choosing to sign the national contract knowing a test series is clashing with the IPL, and we all know Gayle’s take on this whole issue – for him, it’s a non-issue!

But for all the large scale bad-mouthing of IPL, no one would disagree with the fact that it is simply the most spectacular cricket tournament outside of Test Cricket. For a sport in want of greater acceptance outside its traditional avenues, there cannot be a better showcase of the game than IPL to the newer audience especially in the most instantly appealing format of the game. Having said that, the monopoly that IPL is becoming to be in the cricket economy needs to be seriously controlled and regulated but does the ICC have the backbone to do it – we all know the answer!

So what is the solution? I have no idea. The problem seems to be multi-layered with a lot interactions across layers. But if you ask me, this is what I would suggest. Forget ODI cricket, dedicate a month for IPL and a week for Champions League in a yearly calendar. Schedule full test series between the top test nations and shorter series between unmatched teams, start playing bilateral T-20 series and have T-20 world cup once in two years. Strip Zimbabwe of its full member status – the most effective way to control the monopoly ways of BCCI and Mr. Lalit Modi. And pray for peace in Pakistan…

PS: For the problem of the big money of IPL luring cricketers to retire early from test cricket, let me assure that only money is capable of fixing the problem it creates – no regulation, moral science lessons or jingoistic patriotism can do it. The “how” of it, will be part of the next post.