TWENTY-TWENTY—BANG-BAMG–New Cricket Format
\n Vengrai Parthasarathy <\/p>\n
The Twenty-20 format has come to stay.
\nThe Scene: A tied match. Three stumps\u2014a trident of glory. The speed-merchant takes a run up and bowls–but there is no batsman! Balls being bowled at an unguarded wicket!. And, the result of the match rests on who hits the stumps more times. Is this Cricket? To an ophthalmologist, twenty-twenty means only one thing\u2014 a perfect vision. In today\u2019s Cricketing terms 20-20 stands for the \u2018Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma\u2019am\u2019 syndrome.
\n What is cricket coming to? The Bradmans and Hammonds, the Huttons, Hazares and Vijay Merchants ,the Vinoo Mankads. C.K. Nayudus—what has happened to their legacy? Where is Ranjitsinghji who turned a bat into a wand? They must all be turning violently in their graves. What has happened to the \u2018googlies\u2019 and \u2018chinaman\u2019 ? The Vishwanaths, the Prasannas, Gavaskars and Bedis and Venkataraghavans of recent memory, must be wincing at the slide of events, transforming a \u2018Gentleman\u2019s game\u2019 into a fireworks tamasha.
\n A silken leg-glance of Vishwanath and an elegant late-cut of C.K. Nayudu –they were sights for the Gods, worth sitting in the uncovered stands under a hot sun for five full days even if the matches ended in a draw .Neville Cardus, the doyen of Cricket writers and J.H.Fingleton (Brightly Fades the Don) went lyrical about Cricket and the Cricketers of those days; Keith Miller, striding gracefully like a Derby horse, with his hair flying in the wind, was a \u2018poem in motion\u2019. Who can forget \\the sharp comments over the Radio of A.F.S. Talayarkhan who laced his commentaries with interesting tidbits about Cricketers? Or, the wind-bag , Vizzy who had his own inimitable style? One cannot but feel sorry that a delectable game of \u2018glorious uncertainties\u2019 has come to this pathetic state.. The slam-bang players who use their bats as sledge-hammers are being deified and gifts and purses showered on them. In the olden days, cricketers played for the love of the game and were paid a pittance.; Today, seeing the \u2018guts and glory\u2019 nature of Cricket and the way players are being lionized. Lucre is the only incentive.<\/p>\n
It is not as though every thing was fine with five-day Tests.They were slow-motion matches all right. Some players did play for records and individual glory than for the team. Drawn matches were the order of the day in many tests. But then these could have been remedied.The expression \u2018It\u2019s not Cricket\u2019 has found its way into the English language to suggest \u2018fair play\u2019. Witness:: Vishwanath calling back a rival batsman wrongly declared \u2018out\u2019 or a Pataudi \u2019walking\u2019 even before being declared \u2018out\u2019 for a snicked catch by the umpire They were all defining moments, proud moments. These players wrote the grammar of sportsmanship in Cricket.
\n Then something happened.Kerry Packer, an Australian entrepreneur started the one-day version of the game. What we now have is the further abridged \u2018Twenty-20\u2019 version. What is wrong with that, one may ask. Let us see. India\u2019s tied match with Pakistan was decided on the basis of the \u2019bowl out\u2019 which is an illegitimate cousin of the \u2018penalty shoot-out\u2019 in football. These are perhaps the spin-offs of the \u2018Fast-food\u2019 Quick-money\u2019 \u20192-minute Noodles\u2019 \u2018Dhideer Sambhar\u2019 mentality of the \u2019jaldi, jaldi\u2019 digital era.
\n What would I not give to see again Vishwanath\u2019s delectable leg-glide and the great C.K\u2019s late cut ? An arm and a limb? This seismic shift from the traditional format of elegant cricket which was marked by graciousness and goodwill, has now been replaced by aggressive body language, taunts and sledging. This is perhaps what the youth of today want.<\/p>\n
A change in name to the new Twenty-20 format may be worth the Cricket Board\u2019s consideration: Why not change the name of THIS spectacle to QUICKET, which is apt and goes well with lusty hitting and soaring sixers. Let us leave the aficionados of regular five-day Cricket to savor ,be it only in their fantasies, the elegant leg-glances and sweet late-cuts and silken drives and the flowing shots of forgotten yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TWENTY-TWENTY—BANG-BAMG–New Cricket Format Vengrai Parthasarathy The Twenty-20 format has come to stay. The Scene: A tied match. Three stumps\u2014a trident of glory. The speed-merchant takes a run up and bowls–but there is no batsman! Balls being bowled at an unguarded wicket!. And, the result of the match rests on who hits the stumps more times.… <\/p>\n