Read and heard a lot about how 20-20 is the disruptive way of playing cricket and how it is going to kill 50-50. Also heard a lot about how it will take away the focus from good batting skills; bowlers anyhow have nothing for them in this game. I personally think that this has been a good change for the game of cricket. I always believe that to make sense of the present it's a good practice to look at the past. If we go back to 1975 when the concept of one day cricket was made public and how some people really loved the world cup and others just wrote it off as just another lame game. Well one day cricket grew in stature and became at one time more famous than the test. Then somewhere around 1990s ODIs became a colorful game, with colored clothes and different color balls. Around 1996 I remember the ODIs changed to be far more scoring and quick scoring matches, thanks to dynamic openers of Srilanka, Sanath Jayasuriya. From then on ODIs has been far better paced than before. This had it's effect on the test cricket as well, teams started scoring a lot many runs in less overs and thus giving them better chances of getting a results. There was a time when there used to be very few test matches with results but now we have almost all the tests with results. The ODIs which were written off as something that will kill the Test cricket has in-fact done a world of good to Test Cricket.
Test cricket is a more involved game there is different kick in watching the openers blunting the bowling attack of any team. Test Cricket tests the temperament and skills of a batsmen and any cricket fan worth his salt will swear that there is nothing more exciting than watching a slip cordon having 9 fielders waiting for one edge from the batsmen. Test matches have their own fans and they love the battle of skills, where bowlers keep testing the batsmen patience and keep playing on their nerves.
Test cricket no doubt is a long game takes 5 days to complete and not everyone likes to watch and appreciate the battle of nerves and temperament. ODIs on the other hand came as a refreshing change and people loved it, especially those who like the quickness of game. So what used to be a one or two sessions in the whole five days were extracted to make an ODI and it became popular.
20 -20 or T20 is doing something very similar to what ODIs did. It's getting a lot of flak from people/Pundits/Gurus, but just like ODIs T20 will stay and will surely affect ODIs and Tests at some point of time in Future. So as ODIs took around 20 years to affect Tests T20 will take around 5 years (new format gets adapted in half the time of it's original and new generation generally achieves results in half the time of their predecessors so that leads to 1/4th of 20) to affect ODIs and Tests. I am not trying to make any predictions, I am just trying to look at the past and make sense of the present. I think T20 will stay here and will make cricket only better. So in coming time we will see a lot of closely fought ODIs and may in the future see some super exciting sessions in the Test Cricket, where a batsman may come and smack the bowler all over the ground T20 style and change the whole match. Looking forward to such exciting times :)
Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology
Test cricket is a more involved game there is different kick in watching the openers blunting the bowling attack of any team. Test Cricket tests the temperament and skills of a batsmen and any cricket fan worth his salt will swear that there is nothing more exciting than watching a slip cordon having 9 fielders waiting for one edge from the batsmen. Test matches have their own fans and they love the battle of skills, where bowlers keep testing the batsmen patience and keep playing on their nerves.
Test cricket no doubt is a long game takes 5 days to complete and not everyone likes to watch and appreciate the battle of nerves and temperament. ODIs on the other hand came as a refreshing change and people loved it, especially those who like the quickness of game. So what used to be a one or two sessions in the whole five days were extracted to make an ODI and it became popular.
20 -20 or T20 is doing something very similar to what ODIs did. It's getting a lot of flak from people/Pundits/Gurus, but just like ODIs T20 will stay and will surely affect ODIs and Tests at some point of time in Future. So as ODIs took around 20 years to affect Tests T20 will take around 5 years (new format gets adapted in half the time of it's original and new generation generally achieves results in half the time of their predecessors so that leads to 1/4th of 20) to affect ODIs and Tests. I am not trying to make any predictions, I am just trying to look at the past and make sense of the present. I think T20 will stay here and will make cricket only better. So in coming time we will see a lot of closely fought ODIs and may in the future see some super exciting sessions in the Test Cricket, where a batsman may come and smack the bowler all over the ground T20 style and change the whole match. Looking forward to such exciting times :)
Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology
11 comments:
Absolutely...T20 is sheer talent and enthusiasm... i simply love the "Free kick" concept...you know where the umpires actually move their arm symbolically above their heads...as if to say...the stadium all around is waiting...do the honours! :)
oops..i meant "Free-hit" in my comment above.
T20 is a lusty fling. It is fast food. It is one night stand. It is gurrela warfare. It is a masala movie with item songs. It is test of short lived bravado. It is SMS. It is innane pop song. It is girl in skimy clothes. T20 is a bozo.
Test Cricket is love. It is cuisine. It is war of tactics. It is cinema. It is test of character. It is letter written in ink on paper. It is classical music. It is a graceful woman. Test cricket is a Sidhu ;)
Yeah, war enough!! If test cricket is war of tactics....I wonder where did the innocent game of bat-n-ball go?Ever heard of a "test" match in the mohalla gulli?
Game is where the players grow better and enjoy.
Here Steps in T20.This is the short movie with no intermission if you please!No nuisance, spanky uniforms, multi-day spanning sagas akin to the "K-serials".A game, crisp and rivetting - truly delectable!
--> Manjari: You are showing that T20 has been successful in keeping non lovers of Test cricketer still glued to cricket, which is great!
--> Gaurav: Good analogies but T20 a bozo??? No way!!! But Test cricket as Sidhu yeah that is hilarious but so true.
Both of you missed my point. I compared two flavours of cricket, but I didn't say which one was better, because that is a futile discussion. I like fast food and I anyday , like a skimpy clothed sexy girl.
Comparing Test cricket to K-serials?? Well, that takes my goat. I bow down on all "fours". But then I understand. These are times of Noodle strapped Mandira Bedis who know as much about short legs and they know about fine legs.
T20 is simply about bang bang, bye maam, winning and losing quickly with some nach gana thrown in to bring bored housewives and girlfriends, includig Chintu, and Bunty to stadiums. And it is good because it brings in money to game and make for nice picnic. Wonder if we could do this for Gulli-danda..the original "mohalla, street" game of yores. T20 is good for national pride and perhaps integration. we can win in it and prove our manhood.
They say great art is which is selfish and done for own pleasure. And it is true for some many other things in life. Including sports. Real sport is played when player plays it for himself,to test his own boundaries,... not for pleasure of spectator. And only few would know how it is watching a gangly 19 years od boy bowling 9 overs of absolute hostility to one of best bastsmen in game. A great duel between two..spectators were incidental.
i think one thing is sure, T20 is going to bring some freshness into the game..... let wait and watch (also the IPL way of T20 too..)
Yeah IPL is surely going to be a crowd puller, especially after all this hype.
I love test cricket. There are so many things that T20 cant do. In test it is a skill to use the ball for 80 overs, how to shape up the ball for the spinners in the middle over and how to rough it up on one side and keep in shining on the other for reverse swing in the later overs. How to save the wickets in the final session, the pleasure of getting a wicket on the last ball of the day. The strategy when to declare, whether to go for a follow on or not. Amazing things.
But the good part is that as you have mentioned that T20 will somewhere affect the Tests as well (really it will be fun to see a guy coming in and smashing a ton in 10 odd overs to change the game).
T20 is a response to match the popularity of the Football.. Let's accept it.. nobody hgas time to see a match being played over a day... forget the test cricket...
90 min of pure fun.. though It would mean lesser no of test ccricket being played :( ... But jus gentle reminder.. sloggin in the initial over was not brought by Srilanka in 1996..
It was brought by Mark Greatsbach.. the Newzealand opener in 1992 World cup...It is a different story that Mark could not keep up with the pace that he had set up and was eventually dropped from the team...
Jaisuriya ..wham bham was a result of the New 15 over field restriction that had been newly introduced..and not many prepared to meet the challenge... which made the scoring rate swear up... to new highs..
The cricket site which was just started and haven’t the facility of live cricket. They provide T20 live link for site visitors to easily access the appropriate cricket website with complete information.
http://www.t20livescore.com/
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