Everyone seems to be complaining about the falling batting standards (”Lack of classy cricketing shots”), the abuse that the bowlers have to face (”Twenty20 is a batsman’s game”), but I think what’s a big mystery at this point is the absurdly low fielding standards that we’ve seen in the IPL so far. The number of catches that have been dropped is just ridiculous. Today Scott Styris dropped an absolute lollipop, and that was not the easiest catch dropped so far. Raina dropped Boucher the other day, Jaffer was dropped twice in the last match - Once by Dhoni and then again by Goni. The list goes on and on. It just doesn’t make any sense. Why are there so many dropped catches?
What worries me even more is that lack of spectacular catches. In a tournament with so many matches going on, there should have been tens of gravity-defying-ridiculously-cool catches, but I can think of only a couple. The best so far has been Yuvraj’s catch earlier this week that he snatched out of the air with just one hand. Here’s a video in case you missed it:
I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but I can’t figure out what could be a reason for this. Are the crowds distracting the players? Unlikely… Crowds in India are always like this. Too much stress on the fielders? No… The batsmen are hitting over the top most of the time, so if anything the fielders have lesser to do. The ball is slippery? The fielders don’t want to dive too much and risk injury?
None of the reasons sound convincing enough. One of the conspiracy theories I have is that the commentators seem to have invented this new thing - Talking to fielders during the match. I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Isn’t it distracting to have an earpiece and someone talking to you while you’re supposed to be focused on the batsman? The other day Ravi Shastri was talking to the wicketkeeper, Ronchi! Talking to the fielders brings a new level of interactivity to the “live” match, maybe makes the audience feel a part of the game, but I’m not sure of the costs.
Do you folks have any other theories around this?
