The continuing farce that is international T20 cricket continued this morning, when rain caused the 1st T20I between India and Australia to a reduced run chase for the home team batting second, and confining the result to one that will please the home fans but few others. As the game of cricket continues to be pulled and twisted into forms that not only strip most of the combative and interesting parts of the game all in the name of having it done quickly – and in the eyes of some more belligerently – we have now come to the stage where a rain-shortened game becomes more like an after-training hit for a country grade team than an international contest.
Obviously it is not an ideal situation for administrators. Once the match has commenced, they have to ensure they get a ‘result’ in the match, not for the glory of cricket but in order to keep the money that the patrons have paid to come into the ground to watch the farcical situation unfold. The fact that it is deemed proper that a game that has already been reduced to twenty over s per team can then be decided by one team having to chase an imaginary figure plucked out of the air in SIX overs in just rubbish. Surely no one can see this as a game of cricket. It becomes a sideshow act, one where no team is the winner, no matter who might be declared as such after the bowling of 36 deliveries. But, in order to satisfy the crowd in the ground and the television audience – and most importantly, the sponsors – this kind of manufactured result has to be found.
Australia wasn’t good enough with the bat, no matter what the final wash up. 160 is par score almost everywhere in the world in T20 cricket, and 8/118 off 18.4 overs before the rain came just isn’t going to win games at this level. Apart from Finch no one got going. Warner chopped on again in the first over to put the team behind the eight ball immediately. Maxwell, Head and Henriques all threw their wickets away with indiscreet shots. Tim Paine, on his return to international duties, was dropped twice and missed stumped all in one over. Given this performance it was probably a minor miracle that when the game was reduced to 6 overs for the chase that India’s target was so high.
As it turned out, India celebrated victory and a continued dominance over Australia on their home soil. For lovers of the game, the rain induced result just brought further concern as to how much the glorious game of cricket is being watered down – no pun intended – in order to make it a festival rather than an absorbing contest between bat and ball.
No comments:
Post a Comment