It’s ruining the game it is! This new fangled thing they’re doing out there.
As the World T20 World Cup winds to a close I thought it was a great time to reflect on the things, like T20, that have ruined the game of cricket.
In 1822, one journalist wrote “the new style is fatal to all scientific play, putting a premium on chance hits, and placing scientific defence at a discount”.
What was this revolution? Round arm bowling (think the Malinga Slinger). In 1864, another new revolution was going to ‘ruin batsmanship’ – overarm bowling.
Within a decade one old player was saying “[it’s] killed professional fast bowling; for years they were almost afraid to bowl”. That was W.G. Grace coming out to face this new style of bowling and scoring 217, 77, 112, 117, 163, 158, and 70.
“Big money is ruining cricket!” wrote one journalist in the ’30s of the controversy to shortening the playing hours. This was a conspiracy not to make it more bearable for the players, but to coax more money out of the cricket going public by making the games go for more days.
In 1943, C.T.B. Turner, one of the fast bowling greats of the late 19th and early 20th centuries called the ‘hit or miss’ race for runs against time of one day cricket ‘a menace’.
In the ’50s the NSW Cricket Association had a short ban on there being more than two players in the leg trap as it was “ruining the spectacle of cricket”. If such a ban had been kept and expanded to the rest of the cricket world, we’d probably never have seen the reverse sweep.
And then came Kerry Packer. A whole article could be written about the whinging and moaning surrounding the explosion of one day cricket in the 1970s, but I think even better would be to offer some choice quotes from this letter to the editor in The Canberra Times from 1985.
Packer game not cricket
[T]he Packer organisation … will be recorded in history as the people who firstly seduced and secondly destroyed the game of cricket. [T]urned the rules of the game upside down, decked the … teams out like … clowns at a kids’ circus, fitted all types of head-gear and protective devices to the players, changed to using a white ball instead of a red one …, introduced instant replays from every conceivable angle with monotonous regularity and,… microphones at the stumps to record and broadcast the “death rattles” … all to entice more … non interested cricket spectators to pay and pass through the gates. [T]hey encouraged a new form of bodyline as the standard for fast bowling, no doubt having in mind the “blood-and-guts” attraction of the arena at the Colosseum or … bull fight. [T]hey have created an entirely new game with precious little in common with the game of cricket. … What I believe we are witnessing is the end of cricket as we have known it. … I do not believe that the two games are either complementary or compatible. … [I]f our cricketers continue being involved in both systems, we will never field a Test team with the capabilities of the teams of the 50s and 60s.
As far as Old Man Yells At Cloud goes, Abe Simpson would be proud.
Which we could pretty much just rinse and repeat for T20.
Brett Osmond wrote in The Roar on 1 November, 2013 that it’s “turning our Test team into a bunch of easy-out individuals who think it’s more important to score runs fast than to construct an innings for the team?”
Mickey Arthur said in 2011 that it was ruining Australia’s chance of regaining the No.1 test spot. Funny, I thought that it was having Mickey Arthur as coach that was doing that.
Mohammad Yousuf declared that it was going to be the end of Pakistani cricket after a disastrous first Test in Australia in 2009-10. This was a time when Pakistan were the world T20 champs, and six months before the betting scandal that would throw a cloud over all Pakistan results for years prior.
Pretty sure that’s worse for the team than T20, Mohammad. Let’s not forget the 2014 Australian tour of Pakistan (UAE) ended with three Pakistani batsman averaging over 97.
At the time of writing, the West Indies are still in with a chance of winning this year’s Twenty20 tournament. The same West Indies that got their proverbials handed to them on a platter by the Australians last summer.
The same West Indies who, if it weren’t for the money being paid out by the various T20 comps around the world, would probably be fielding a side of 16 year olds who hadn’t yet given up to go and play baseball in the US so they could at least earn a pay packet.
The same West Indies who were beaten in a thriller by Afghanistan; a team who is surely one of the sporting stories of this century.
T20 sure has changed the face of cricket. More players than ever can make a living out of the game, vastly improving skills. More teams than ever can compete at a world cup without it taking fifteen months to get through, vastly improving the international reach of the game.
The BBL is the ninth most attended sporting league in the world. BBL games have bigger crowds than Serie A! Imagine what that’s doing to getting the next generation of Australian cricketers involved in the game. And that’s not even mentioning what it’s done to create a more exciting style of play, both with the bat, and the ball (I defy anyone to say that T20 isn’t a bowler’s game).
I love Test cricket. But T20 isn’t ruining Test cricket, it’s making it. If you disagree feel free to go and shout at clouds with Jack Herrald of Bateman’s Bay, and I’ll watch overarm fast bowling to reverse sweeping W.G. Grace-esque batsman with my snicko and instant replays.
Anthony Condon is a cricket historian at La Trobe University
Anthony Condon
Guest
Excellent points, and I certainly agree with you. In fact, I argue that it's precisely the format of the BBL that makes it so popular. And why would you mess with that. As a product you'd rather a month of the biggest action in town than 6 months of something only a few people care about.
Anthony Condon
Guest
It certainly was, hence why they were saving their legs for the electric boogaloo (or the Dwayne Bravo is a Champion dance, either/or).
ChrisB
Guest
Yes but if the wider public is of a different mind (which it may, or may not, be) then what your circle (who are presumably cricket tragics by and large) and the players (who will follow the money anyway) think matters not a jot
ChrisB
Guest
This is the comment of the month. Your last point has been my biggest point in favour of T20 in any argument on this site, and is the one that the head in the sand brigade don't (or won't) seem to get Cricket would be dead in the water as a leading international sport in the modern professional age within 15-20 years without this development. The introduction of proper league structures via IPL, BBL etc has finally allowed cricket to move to a sensible, viable structure that is not top down. This has always been its weakness, so much depended upon the international level in terms of drawing power, crowds, TV rights etc, but people still complained of ODI overkill and the like. Well guess what, you have to keep the TV paymasters happy with content, you can't just feed them a 25 day test series each year. No money that way (or not much). The old schoolers say why not promote the Sheffield Shield and other domestic comps, but that is never going to work. No way non-cricket fans are going to watch a 4 day state that even cricket fans struggle to take more than a cursory interest in (and then only as a guide to national selection, another problem in itself) What even the most balanced (such as Sheek) of the old school crew never (to my mind) adequately answer is how else cricket would develop a financially viable, well-supported domestic competition that it needs in the 21st century to be able to fill the coffers AND provide enough paying opportunity for talented youngsters to think they will have a career, and so make the sport worth staying with. It's no answer to say it was never a problem, but that's not a valid answer any more as there's too much competition from other sports, and from other things in life, now. As to where it will take the sport. I can seriously see a future maybe 15-20 years hence where tests are pretty much restricted to the Ashes. Maybe India, South Africa and NZ, but not many others, and only infrequently. This may not come to pass, but if it does, while sad to those of us who love test cricket, well nothing has an inviolable right to survive and prosper, it has to earn it over and over again for each new generation. As a final point, for those who do seem to watch day after day of tests over summer. How the bl**dy hell do you get the time? Between work, kids, other family duties, household chores, other interests and my own cricket, I never seem able to. Hence a 3 hour BBL game is kind of ideal - and this perhaps answers the question as to why its working in the first place for many people.....
BrainsTrust
Guest
T20 is leading a resurgence in other parts of the world. You can point to the greed of England and Australia establishment for sending cricket into a tailspin internationally. England for restricting foreign players in county cricket which was a massive backward step for world cricket. England have always had heaps of money in county cricket but have never dominated cricket despite their players always being the best paid in the world until recently. Australian establishment when they replaced Packer they made sure Australian players were well off but made sure that unlike Packer who paid the overseas players and made the West Indies professional, ACB made Australia national players rich and professional while the opposition were paupers. Lets not confuse the success of T20 with the BBL in this country. To say the BIg Bash is a league surely is a joke. IPL you can at least say is two months. MLB has a similiar crowd average but across over 160 games in the regular season and tickets are average 100 a game with 30 teams. BBL is a month long tournament at best , that has to be placed within the school holidays to get a crowd and interfering with international cricket in this country as a result. Take it out of the school holidays and double the number of games and then see what the crowds will be like.
Bakkies
Guest
It was a dead rubber for them as far as I can recall
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
That's really interesting. You're saying you like the format, and love the domestic comp. but have no interest in the national team. I'm interested that you suggest that's a common opinion. Care to give any further insight into why you feel that way?
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
From a domestic perspective, I imagine we'd see more teams and playing each other more times; maybe not every night, but just over the weekend. It could go as long as a football season, weather dependent. Perhaps you'd have a domestic season and an international season?
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
I was having this very conversation with Jonathon Woods outside the White Line Wireless comm box before the WWT20 final. Why aren't we considering totally different teams? I think it's pretty clear Steve Smith shouldn't be in the World Cup team, he doesn't have the form in T20 to justify his place. Jonathon was saying cricket is the only sport where the same players play the different variations in the one season.
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
Well, that can be said for all forms of the game. 1/270 at the end of day 1 of a test, who cares if you lose a wicket then. 1/90 in the 10th of a T20 game and it's a game changer.
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
I'm not going to jump to match fixing allegations when it can quite easily be explained by the WIndies doing as little work as possible. It's been the story of their world cup, do the bare minimum to get the result you need. Batting, fielding, overall tournament. No wasted energy on the field for the Mad Rooters, need to save some for the discotheque.
The lazy Phoenix
Roar Pro
On the topic of care factor - I care a lot about BBL. I chose the Thunder from day one and have lived through the nadirs and finally the zenith. Having said that, I couldn't give a rats about T20 Worlds cups or any other internationals. Test cricket, however, I bleed for. One dayers are fun to watch, but no razor blades required - until the World Cup, which I love. My sporting circle companions are of the same opinion, and seemingly so are the Aussie players.
laurensk
Guest
Maybe we should view it the same way rugby has embraced sevens
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Dot balls are valuable, but wickets are often no more valuable than a dot ball.
VivGilchrist
Guest
If T20 was the only form of cricket played, how long would a season last?
VivGilchrist
Guest
Yes, I wonder what the odd$$$$$$$ were on that? Wi players didn't even look upset after the game......
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
Ah the good old days when if you could get the ball lodged in a tree high enough you could run 282 off one ball :P Take me back to the good old days when cricket was played for the purposes of bloated aristocrats to gamble on :P
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
I think the fact that the BBL is the ninth most attended league in the world suggests we do care, we care a lot.
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
If you're not noticing that dot balls are worth more than boundaries then I think you've not quite understood the game yet; same with if you're one of those who think it's a batsman's game, not a bowlers (surprised to still hear that said actually). Give it a go, it is a different sport and if you can get your head around it there's a lot to appreciate in it.
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
I don't see why there's any conflict with T20 and test cricket being played at the same time. If it's T20 internationals then we've been having ODIs in between tests in a series for decades, and I would think T20 would make even less impact. If it's BBL then they're not played at the same time so there's no viewer conflict, and, for the time being (and I think the foreseeable future) players choose playing in a test over a BBL match. So unless CA start mismanaging the test side the way the West Indies have that shouldn't be a problem. There is the argument that you need to get into long form form, but again I think that can be managed. I'm also going to go out on a limb and argue that having a league that allows there to be a few hundred people in the country making a living from cricket, playing in front of millions of fans, is going to do more for the long term skill set and sustainability of the game than having a set of semi-professionals playing four day matches in front of three unemployed dudes and a flock of seagulls.