Have we reached overload?
For a long time now I have wondered exactly where cricket is going when we hear that there are now a considerable number of games with attendances that are low compared with a few years ago.
There is a lot of talk about whether there is just too much cricket for either the cricketer or the general public to take in. I can remember playing 9 days consecutive cricket when I was a lot younger and fitter and I was concerned as to how indifferent I became about playing every day and I deny that it was anything to do with too much alcohol or too little sleep.
The main point is that some cricketers hardly get a break and Dhoni can be excused for a poor run in England after five years of non-stop cricket. At least we have got him back into form!
One sign that I have noticed is the enduring perception of Test cricket as the major form with the one day stuff being seen as a bit of a sideshow. Can anybody really suggest that for English people anything matters as much as an Ashes series?
I have gone on but I have become thoroughly disinterested in one day cricket and the last ODI series in India has not been one that I have followed. I have even less interest in the IPL as I see it as a pointless circus with money as the only driving force.
Is my feeling unique amongst burblers or do I have a problem??!!
5 comments:
You're certainly not alone Grov. In fact I've commented recently on a similar piece called "The Slow Death of Test Cricket" on Reverse Sweep. Perhaps you can answer my question in my comment about why ODIs are more financially viable than Tests?!
I think Dhoni has the right attitude - you can't go into all matches with the same intensity if you play constantly but he's realised there's no way he can extract himself from India's matches against top tier international opponents or the IPL and Champions League.
So when he played over here at the end of the summer not long after a draining World Cup and IPL (and with a weakened team), he just got through it. And aftet the England tour his innings I watched in one of the Champions League games where he didn't seem fussed that he couldn't get the ball off the square showed an apparent disdain for the match and result.
He seemed up for it at home in the recent series though - yes he performed better but his comments to the media seemed sharper and the competitiveness was there in a way it wasn't 2 months ago. This series obviously mattered to him.
Ideally I'd like to see ODIs go by the way side and more Test cricket. The chances of that are somewhere between fat and no though.
Surely the problem is that there are too many international games of all types now. If we (were allowed to) revert in England to one five-match test series, one five-match ODI series and (if we must) a three-match T20 circus per season I don't think there would be the problems of player staleness and spectator fatigue to which you refer. In between this reduced international programme the players should, if they so wish, be available for their counties; I would expect those in good form to opt for a rest, those struggling to seek better form by playing at county level.
Unfortunately, of course, this won't happen, because money has become more important than the game itself.
I liked this comment from Dale Steyn as in The Cricketer's Weekly email:
Dale Steyn looks forward to South Africa v Australia
''We want people to want to play Test matches, we want
kids to aspire to that, and yet two of the biggest Test
nations in the world are only playing two Test matches;
I go on holiday for longer than that series is going to last."
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