Whether at a political rally or at a cricket stadium, crowds are the indicator of public enthusiasm. We are habituated to manufactured crowds creating successful political rallies. It’s even customary to give out complimentary tickets to fill out cricket stadiums. But the brazenly massive scale of that crowd-packing by event-management companies and the local associations in most of the IPL matches has been staggering.
Returning from Bangalore, a co-passenger in the aircraft after reading the newspaper reports of the IPL inauguration said; are Indians getting this game bastardized? The gentleman felt the game has a history and not at the cost of the history that we should twist the rules for us to get entertained with cheerleaders and publicity hungry celebrities.
I tried to reason out the benefits of the T20. Fielding and running between the wickets will improve. Pacers would try varieties on their own and not expect a signal from the captain. Prodders will go out of the game. No more ‘Hang around and runs will come’. It will now be 'Get runs or you will be hanged'.
Apart from Warne and Muralitharan all spinners are getting thrashed. The art of spin bowling is dead. There are no replacements for Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
What about batting? Arjuna Ranatunga made a pertinent point that just as we in the subcontinent made a mistake in adopting the fast and power-packed European hockey, we are again making a mistake by getting into the power game of T20. Now it will be strength plus skill.
All the Indian international batsmen after the first round realized that proper cricketing shots will fetch you more runs than trying unconventional shots. When you are batting, you are constantly trying to out-think a bowler with these unconventional shots. That a bowler has ten fielders to short-circuit your moves is forgotten.
Something needs to be done immediately. Indian cricket, if not controlled, is in trouble. It’s the duty of Tiger Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who are members of the IPL governing council to act before the situation goes out of hand
