T20

T 20 or twenty-twenty is the buzzword that keeps the cricket fans all around the world hooked onto. From a long, tiring, (or sometimes boring) 5 day affair this game has taken changes - sometimes accidentally and at times forcefully into a faster game. Efforts are on as to give a facelift to this game as good as soccer or hockey. The game is fast and so is the result.

Cricket has started taking leaves out of the others books as to make it attractive and entertaining. “Ball-out” is one feature similar to the penalty stroke and so is the “free-hit” concept.

I vaguely remember that 24 years back a tournament (named as Double-wicket tournament with each side having only 2 players and common fielders) was held with similar rules in Chennai Chidambaram Stadium. L Siva was spotted there as a good fielder and Robin Singh was spotted as another Kapil dev (however he entered the national side much later, courtesy politics, is another story).

With newer rules, cricket seems to be attractive and one has to wait and see how long people accept this. However, the purists would find it hard. Why all the new rules are favoring only the batsmen and invariably they are against the bowlers? Would some one be motivated to be a bowler if they are going to be beaten like this?

One should not bowl slightly outside the leg side or else it will be called a wide.
One should not try to bowl a beamer or else you will be warned.
One should not try to bowl a bouncer more than once in a over.
One cannot have the fielders as they liked and have restrictions for them.

Going by this, I would not be surprised if one day the rules would state, the ball should not be pitched before reaching the bat. One should not spin the ball. Or slowly Cricket would deviate and take the shape of baseball so wider reach of audience and more money?

I badly miss those flights, arc of the spin, inviting the batsmen to drive through extra-cover and trap them by catching, those late out-swingers that beats the bat, late-cuts. Those were the days when cricketers would not appreciate ball being hit in air but this is the walk of life in cricket now. I hardly saw ball rolling on the ground and it was sailing all the time in air.

The height of the show is the cheer leaders. More than the players, they would be the most tired members as they have to come shake their booty for every boundary or six scored or every wicket taken.

Indeed this form of cricket is more an entertainment than a game but I miss one thing on the whole – that is cricket, the gentle man’s game. Did I hear some one saying the gentleness is lost years back!