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An American twist

by Bored Guest



by Lalit

Twenty20 was born in English counties yet Indians made the pile. T20 caught eyeballs to match baseball. But does it match pitchers’ speed: for rapid relays and batters’ equally fiery responses? No.

Could bowlers and batsmen do it? Not with “speed” merchants’ long runs. Not with a minute or more of gap between two cricket overs. Not with ousted batsmen taking a minute and half to show up.

Not with money grabbing ads taking T20 to four hours. Half an hour more than planned mandate.

Could there be relay bowling from both ends by two different bowlers? If experimented, could you T20 in less than three hours? Could you as well give each side 25 overs to play in 180 minutes?

Could that be one more format? Since 50-50 cricket is a modification of the earlier 60-60 overs, could it not have been 45-45 when the overs were reduced to ensure that it conformed to the 90 overs rule for a day’s play, preferably in six hours, of Test cricket.

Now, there is talk of two innings each side of 25 overs. But since one-day cricket is not Test cricket, why can’t there be a change of rules to make it five balls per over instead of six balls. Sanctity for Test cricket, but the 50-50 game is reducible to 24 or 25 overs each side or even less for the team playing second.

Five balls an over could give a new life to the one-day game if the 50 overs format stays with each side playing 250 balls instead of 300 balls and time being reduced from eight hours or more to six hours or just a little more.

The same five balls per over could be applied to T20, if relay bowling is not just yet feasible.

That is a different ball game altogether. May be the Indian American promoters of cricket in the US of A would be the pioneers of all these tricks of the trade. To mint, if not print, money. But why are they waiting for ICC nod to do something by way of matches on their own. Let the International Cricket Council decide when the time is ripe.

But is that cricket? There lies the rub? Is T20 cricket anyway? Is 50-50 cricket as well? Is Test cricket the real and only thing?

Will Yankees lap it up? Will baseball face a threat? Or just one more set of games?

8 comments:

Homer said...

Why is the American market so important?

And who is the American market?

straight point said...

on contrary i do feel there's lots of untapped potential (read money) there in US for cricket...

Som said...

I think the diaspora market is quite sizeable. At the same time, be assured that Test cricket, struggling to retain its traditional base, would find not taker in these virgin terrains. Whatever, some genuine thoughts expressed. Nice post.

John said...

Even I feel the American market is not that important. Right now. When traditional strongholds of the game are feeling the heat (read Oz, South Africa), the effort should be to butress the game in these parts.

Even after this (i.e. once we have at least 10 strong Test playing nations), I think there is more money to be made in the game in China and Latin America (and even Russia) than in the USA.

sraghuna said...

A well thought out piece here & well appointed comments on the same begs the question that as the recession racked globe chants ...'Capitalism is dead, Long live Capitalism' ... do we continue to worship at Mammon's alter & desire big bucks to dictate the evolution of our favourite games? Is it really in the interest of the sporting community & the populace in general to start using fiscal dashboards to assess the direction in which the gaming strategy needs to be steered? As per this philosophy all games would ultimately become clones of another & would end up being played on Vegas style one armed bandits(slots) in the One1 format ... minimal effort/maximum returns & let physical activity, team dynamics,character building etc be damned in the sporting fileds of Vegas!

Gaurav Sethi said...

Welcome on bored Lalit.

I'm curious about the numbers - how many Indians+South East Asians, and blokes from Commonwealth/cricket playing nations are there in the US today.

Cricket needs a new posterboy nation, radical, but it could be the US. A chinaman played and had a ball named after him. What will an American evoke - an Obama delivery.

Homer, you are the American market.
That's why.

Lalit Kishore Sethi said...

Very interesting comments on the American twist. But more than American money or top dollar, it is the interest of the cricketing nations who are getting bored with long hours in 50-50 and T20. That is the whole idea of coming with unconventional changes in a game which is alive and kicking.

Q said...

Who is getting bored of ODIs and T20 cricket?