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one-dayers
Cricket in a new light
By Will last year, at the end of October, No Comments; be the first!
I won’t deny that leaving Cricinfo’s brilliant editorial team was a difficult decision, nor that it has been an odd experience to now be a user rather than someone actively involved in the writing. My role now, among others, is to help all ESPN’s sites become even better from a production side of things – such as their ranking and prominence in Google and co. (SEO, for those in the know, is one of my main tasks), as well as using social media to market the sites and engage with our mostly very loyal readers.
So, my personal relationship with Cricinfo has changed, and it’s only since leaving that I’ve really realised just how much cricket there is. That’s not entirely true, though: it was obvious that the quantity played was increasing year on year as we had more and more matches to cover live. But now, when I look at the site as a fan, it’s abundantly clear that there is too much being played, and I honestly don’t know how it – cricket the business; cricket the enterprise, if not cricket the sport – can be sustained.
I’ve quite enjoyed the Champions League from what little I’ve seen. Domestic teams from all over the world taking on eachother is great entertainment, but feels like the last dregs of water being wrung from a twisted flannel. There seem to be no gaps between series, each of them spilling over one another, blending seamlessly into one, sometimes hellish, melee. The distinction between seasons no longer seems to matter. Teams touring England arrive earlier and leave later, exposing the authorities and players to the haphazard early and late summer weather which often curtails play and keeps spectators at bay. Television rules the roost. Day-night Tests will happen soon, and solely to drive up yet more revenue because the authorities believe more people will come through the turnstiles after work. They may be right, too.
Even Kevin Pietersen, the thoroughbred sportsman and athlete, has admitted that his time out through injury has been a blessing in disguise.
He, in fact, is an interesting case in point. It was only four years ago that he made his debut, and with it came the skunk haircut, the bombastic interviews, the unquenchable thirst to prove people wrong; the outrageous talent and desperation to succeed (and to be loved by his adopted country). Before his injury, however, there was a jadedness to his personality, a tired and sullen look from a player who’d leap like an idiot whenever he reached three figures. Is that maturity? Perhaps. The injury certainly quelled his enthusiasm. But he’d lost something – that zip, and sparkle. The comparisons with Viv Richards, which seemed increasingly apt two seasons ago, now sounded as foolish and reckless as some of his strokeplay had become.
It wasn’t long ago that the big series – India v Australia, for example – were anticipated months in advance. We’d mark it on our calendars, check the TV listings and, on the day itself, remain glued to Cricinfo to see how it panned out. Now, though, there is no time for a build-up: series jostle against one another like sardines in a tin. And the players themselves, well, some of them burn out, most pick up an injury or two (a blessed relief in some cases), and the fans too are left exhausted and disinterested.
India and Australia are about to play another of those ridiculously extended seven-match series. It ought to be wonderful entertainment, but it comes mere days after the Champions League Twenty20, a series which hasn’t attracted the crowds the organisers expected. Here’s what Siddarth Monga has to say:
Three Australian players, representing New South Wales in the Champions League, will reach Vadodara on Saturday afternoon, having finished their final late Friday night and travelled about 1100 km north-west, and start a match at 9.00 am on Sunday. That could have been the fate of three more Australians, had Victoria won their semi-final, or of a couple of Indians had one of the IPL teams made it that far.
All this cricket is great for us, of course. Cricinfo’s traffic continues to soar as more and more people rely on the internet as a natural source of entertainment, not just a luxury for office workers. And while this series will doubtless have plenty of intrigue and entertainment, it seems implausible that come the seventh match we won’t be exhausted or bored by the whole thing, beginning yet another inquest into the future of 50-over cricket and the quantity being played.
No Comments »New Zealand robbed
By Will 2 years ago, mid-June, 1 Comment »
You have to feel some degree of sympathy towards New Zealand. Their tour reminds me of most that England went on in the 1990s. Not only was there discontent with management and selection, but injuries would occur at the worst possible moment, and any luck they had was all bad.
Yesterday’s match was as close to a farce as one-day cricket can produce. The kiwis only needed seven runs from the 20th over (which constitutes a match) to beat England, but the match was called off after 19 overs owing to the lashing rain. And the fact it was nearly pitch black. It was a fair decision by the umpires to take them off when they did, but New Zealand should never have been in that situation – and they wouldn’t have, had the regulations not stipulated on a 30-minute interval between innings.
How impossibly pathetic it was. We had all waited until 3pm for the start as the rain poured down, and worse was forecast for 7pm. The emphasis was to get the game done and dusted as quickly as possible, yet this ridiculous, anal regulation held up play for 30 precious minutes, and all the while the clouds lifted and light remained good.
More at Cricinfo if you’re interested, but it’s probably best we ignore this game and never think about it again.
1 Comment »I hate treadmills. I hate one-day cricket
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of September, 8 Comments »
This is wrong, so wrong. A fascinating summer of cricket has barely finished and yet already England are playing their first match of the winter, with a friendly today against a Sri Lankan XI ahead of a series of five ODIs.
Writes Patrick. It’s a huge bugbear of mine that so much cricket is being played, and so little is being done about it. The season hasn’t had time to catch its breath, yet off England traipse for another bloody one-dayer on Monday. This treadmill just doesn’t stop.
Contrast this with the Ashes summer of 1993. Six Test matches were served up, drizzled with a light sprinkling of three one-dayers (Texaco Trophy!). The Championship finished on September 20 and England’s next international was on February 16, 1994 against West Indies, a gap of 4 months and 27 days. I was approaching 12-years-old at the time, and must admit that the hiatus for someone of that age was too much to bear. Fast forward 13 years and cricket is now a constant in our lives. It’s not so much “when” the cricket is on as “who’s playing?” or “where?” Someone, somewhere, will be playing a meaningless one-dayer, earning lots of money for it, and/or forming the beginning of a career-threatening injury which will cut short the number of Test matches he plays.
Some more figures for you. Between January 1 2006 and January 1 2007, England played 14 Tests and 20 one-dayers – a total of 170 days of cricket. In the same time period, India played 30 one-dayers and Australia 29.
We want less cricket. We want fewer one-dayers, and a greater focus on Tests; the less cricket – the less the physical and mental strain on the players – the greater the quality they will produce. Cricket (and sports in general, for that matter) must start to look after itself better and not wring itself dry. We’ll survive with less, honestly. TV companies will too. Yes, the executives might not be able to afford their great-grandson’s private education, or a shiny new Porsche 911, but who is this bloody game for?
Ranting now. Join in below.
8 Comments »Woah – 353 in 50 overs
By Will 5 years ago, mid-May, 1 Comment »
Wow. Hampshire have scored 353-8 in their 50 overs against my team (Middlesex). Katich got 85 from 63 (good); Pietersen got 80 from 50 (excellent) but then Mascarenhas got 50 from just 26! (amazing)
Maybe Shah and Joyce can do the business again for us…
1 Comment »