Tuesday, November 29, 2011

What Comes of Cricket?

Should I say a tight match? Well, without taking any credit from the West Indians; I would expect more out of the World Champions. But a nice thirty minutes towards the end of the match; a good unwinding for the day.

But to think of it how much more passion would an early nineties match have generated. It wasn't many years back that a good series on a Sunday; or for that matter, even on a weekday would lead to deserted streets, half-days at work, bunking classes and people just rushing home for a match; or atleast being close to an All India Radio receiver. A good match doesn't cut the ice anymore. Is it just an increase in our population or is it that cricket no longer remains a passion as it was in the days of Kapil Dev and his team; or even more recently Azhar's team.

Cynical, but an overload of cricket has cut it out. We don't need to wait weeks or months for a much awaited series. Its just back-to-back ball and bat. T20s, ODIs and Tests. If I see my, borrowing from social networking, follows, tests is what remains of enjoyable cricket. T20s are just a quickie, fine once or twice, but not always. ODIs are far too many and spending a day for a match except for on a Sunday afternoon is good. But its the tensions of test matches that keeps many a fans stuck to the game.

Having said that, lets not take anything away from our cricketers. They are probably the only sane people seen on TV these days! Long live test cricket!

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