Monday, December 21, 2009
Adios great bowlers
Well this is a small report of what is happening in world cricket. A lot of people have already written about it and yet i had to write about it because i am seriously dis-heartened by what i saw. In a recent ODI between India and SL there were 800+ runs scored. To a few people it might have been great cricket. But to me it was utterly disgusting. Cricket to me is a contest between bat and ball. But the t20 format and certain ODIs on flat dead track is so boring. It has become a contest to see who can hit the ball harder and longer. Cricket to me is a beautiful where a reverse swinger from a Waqar and Wasim is bending into the batsman foot and a really talented batsman like Tendi or Lara digging it out. That makes for super viewing. If this is how cricket is going to be played i am sure in the near future if I am given the responsibility to lead a side, I would play 11 batsmen. And hope that 10 of them can turn their arm (one keeper). Not bowl those amazing in-swinging yoker or a nice drifting leg-spin. But just turn their arm. Coz anyway the batting side is going to score at 8-9 an over. I would atleast be confident that I will be able to chase down that target with 11 batsman on my side. Adios great bowlers of yesterday. The likes of you the world might never see again. They say proof of the pudding lies in its taste. Just look at world cricket and how many great bowlers do you see. There are a lot of good bowlers, but no great bowlers. Most teams till the recent past did have great bowlers. So there you have the pudding and the taste also.
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5 comments:
Still the pleasure of seeing sachin hit a 100 or sehwag hit a triple ton is more pleasing than harbhajan getting a fifer!
very true....agree completely...
While I myself won't prefer to see 400+ being scored and chased all the time, I think there is another dimension to it.
Test cricket is exciting nowadays largely because of the advances in ODIs and T20s. Otherwise most of the Tests in the past were drooling draws which nobody (at least me) loved to watch. Jonty Rhodes would never had any role to play.
The good/star bowler is the one who uses the conditions (of the ball and of the pitch) well and bowl according to the circumstances and field. This definition should hold in any era and in any format of the game.
In ODIs where 400+ runs are scored and are successfully chased, I would treat every dot ball as a pseudo wicket taking ball. So, the spell of Nehra during the last 10 overs with a lot of yorkers proves to be as match winning as Srinath's wicket taking spell against SA in Ahmadbad or Kumble's spell against Pak @ Kotla in Tests. Both are match winning, both are crucial.
Likewise, a good player is the one who would adapt himself in all formats of the game and a better team would be the one that has variety of ammunition to weather all conditions and formats.
There will be some specialists who would suite a particular format better and at present the way Gauti stands out in all three formats is awesome...
Pitches like the one people play on nowadays might be great source of entertainment, it at least spoils the interest of those who seek a contest between bat and ball. I still followed the test matches between aussies and the windies but had no interest in the india - SL T20/ODI.
The pitches should not be such batsman plonk their front foot and clobber the bowlers.
@ hari: i dont think so. for me if sachin/viru score a 50 on a difficult pitch is more fun than dead batting track. take the nz series before last time when viru showed his mental or the partnership at the Wanderers between sachin and azar against a fast donald. that sticks to one memory.
@ guru: once in a while is ok. but this is becoming so routine on a lot of track. 300 has become a par score these days. with regard to a bowler adjusting to the conditions, you have to give him something to fight with. the bats have got bigger and protection has increased (good thing). but u have taken away the fast bowlers weapon of bouncer, and anything a touch outside leg is a wide. u cant give ak47 to one group and ask the others to do a fist fight. u got to make the game more even.
@ raghu: to me both the test series down under have been great. nz vs pak and aus vs wi. avg score of 400s being chased down by one and again the pressure shifts. that is super cricket. makes every ball worth it.
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