Sep 14, 2007 03:07 PM
3429 Views
(Updated Sep 14, 2007 03:08 PM)
Long Long ago, The leading ladies in Movies acted with a dress code meant to cover. Not so long ago, the oomph ladies like Helen and Smitha had any restraints to take the cover off for the c masses. Now it is mandatory to have the not so leading ladies themselves to have two piece item numbers with lustrous twinkling which will put the Naval force to shame.
Long long ago when rice and roti was the staple food, Indians relished the idea of full meal. Not so long ago, the time constraint restricted us to a quick meal. Now it is only super fast meal which can be a bite of roll wraps, Pizzas and the Big Burgers. The young ones are following the wild west way of growing into Elephants which cannot walk, let alone flying.
Long long ago, Cricket was played as long as the ship came to shores for the teams to leave the Country. Not so long ago, Pyjama cricket was invented by Kerry Packer which changed dress code from white to colour. This colour added more daag to Cricket and what was a gentleman's game became rustic, aggressive and t(e)ampered. Now Cricket is played only for the Crowd which demands everything instant from their Coffee to Riches.
*Bikini Cricket
What remains exterior to anything gives sacrilegious pleasure and what is inside is beautiful. The quest to derive the best in this dichotomy brings about changes in the structural presentation of a deed or act and the same can be expected with any sport. Add to that, the world which has to move fast in changing times, the joy of savouring beautiful things also has become instant. The evolution of Cricket to its instant Bikini Version is exactly the result of the reasons mentioned afore. Most games are in fact evolving for the layman to just get enamoured by the action and the contagious emotion.
Flat wickets, small grounds and big sixers are the rule of the thumb for the thumbs up to 20 twenty Cricket which brings about the likes of Mascaranhas, Afridi or lesser known Nazimuddin into the fore for the shear fact that only Sixers count and nothing else.
The real beauty in Cricket are in the glorious Sixers that Richards hit of the likes of Botham and Lillee, the swashbuckling sixers of Aravinda De Silva of Imran Khan in full sting or the face saving four sixers of Kapil dev to avoid follow on. The anomaly of this funny game becomes more unpredictable when the Gayle storm hits the Wanderers one day and the next day, duck follows. The Mighty wagon of Australia derails and the Windies get out of the tournament ignominiously after the great start.
One day cricket has often made mockery of the art of beautiful bowling and the instant version will only put the death knell on the bowlers. The beauty of this game just does not lie in mishit sixers of Chris Gayle or Afridi. It lies in the graceful swing bowling of a Richard Hadlee, the ferocious whispering death of Holding or the enchanting leg spin of Shane Wrane which makes the Batsman even play behind his legs. One bowler commented, ” A dot ball is like gold”. What an irony when a Bowler should only think of the wicket in front of him.
For batting connoisseurs, it is more joy to watch the lazy elegance of Gower, the flick of the wrists of Hyderabad Grapes- Azhu or the finest of cuts of Gundappa Viswanath. If India, Australia & West Indies are eliminated in the very first round(which is possible), do we mock this game of Twenty 20 or say it is the game for the future.
What makes Twenty 20 enjoyable and gripping is the time period in which it is played, the quick result, the participation of crowds, the players, occupying ground space like in Football and most importantly the viewing comfort for working people. The biggest go ahead for the Twenty 20 is perhaps the simple reason that most sports are played and finished within 2-3 hours while Cricket for many becomes a boring drag of five days. Considering the fact that it also makes the Teams more physical and athletic, it will enhance the competitiveness of the teams.
The Biggest drawback will be that it will definitely not assess the real quality or strength of the playing eleven as a Team like in test Cricket, considering the fact that the balance in Bat and ball is overwhelmingly in favour of the Batsman and also that it is too short a period to perform as a eleven unlike other Team games like Football or Basket Ball. You just cannot expect a Michael Jordon to hop around with that big ball for eight hours.
Just as the One day Cricket is killing the quality of Cricket, the twenty 20 will put the nails on the Coffin. To avoid failure and death of the game itself, it is very important not to glorify it as future of Cricket and limit it to a Tournament or two in a year. It also pays to have separate teams for such games more like the English team and not to burden the already overdosed One day Cricket over test Cricket.
If Pizzas and Burgers are tasty and mouth- watering, so is Twenty 20. It is something to have in right dose as we all know how much both individually matter to our Heath and game’s Heath.
. . . . . all that is not cricket is BIG MONEY
Thanks for reading.
