Twenty20 cricket starts today
Twenty20 cricket, the mockery perpetrated on the game by the
International Cricket Council will be called 'play' in former apartheid
land South Africa from today.
Just four months after the 50 over World Cup fling in the Caribbean,
the mockery that is the Twenty20 has been slapped on the cricket playing
nations who without a murmur have agreed to take part and swell the
coffers of the ICC.
The ICC while not having done anything worthwhile for the game, if
the Twenty20 is an indication, is apparently on the way to making a joke
of the time honoured game.
The mockery that was the final of the World Cup in the Caribbean,
where the final was played in almost pitch darkness, was one of the
greatest injustices done to the game.
While the ICC was quick to take action on the umpires Steve Bucknor
and Aleem Dar, match referee Jeff Crowe and his supporting staff there
was nothing that could be done to even censure the ICC.
After all the umpires, match referee and the rest of the staff are
employees of the ICC and as such the governing body should also be a
part of the staff that went to make a joke of the game that day.
If what is happening and what happened in Barbados that day is an
indication then with the ICC allowing individuals to tinker with the
game, it won't be long before they attempt to introduce playing cricket
in the dark like what happened in the World Cup final.
When I was on a tour of Australian covering a visit by Sri Lanka, I
had the good fortune of meeting the late 'Tiger'Bill O' Rieley and
discussing cricket, especially the limited overs game.
This is what the great bowler said: I would rather turn my chair and
keep looking at my back wall, rather than watch the game being made a
joke and a mockery.
Had O'Rieley been alive I wonder how he would have described the
Twenty20 fiasco. India at one time showed reluctance to figure in this
game. But subsequently changed their stance and are now in the starting
line. However they don't seem to believe in this style of game, or the
money that will flood if they were to win it and have held back some of
their top players. Ditto with Pakistan.
Today it is the ICC's greed for money that is allowing the game to be
taken to low depths. And the ICC does not care a damn for the time
honoured and established Test cricket which is what the game is all
about.
Instead of trying to make Test cricket more attractive and get the
turnstiles creaking for more spectators, the ICC is determined to
introduce gimmicks.
President Rajapaksa's master stroke
President Mahinda Rajapaksa will earn encomiums for setting in motion
an inquiry on the dropping of Upul Chandana and his subsequent
retirement from the game.
The wiry leg spinning allrounder who is one of the rare allrounders
in cricket today was forced to give it up in sheer frustration.
Allrounders of the calibre of Chandana rarely shine in the cricket
firmament. And when they do shine, the cricket selectors have a knack of
spinning them out of the game.
President Rajapaksa was spot on when he got the cricket authorities
to bring back the blasting 'black superman' Sanath Jayasuriya who was
forced into retirement by two cyclopic selectors. And how Jayasuriya
repaid the faith reposed in him by the President is history now.
Likewise if Chandana is resurrected, he could do another Jayasuriya.
Finding leg-spinners in the game the world over today is like looking
for a needle in a haystack. And once they strike that elusive leg
spinner, they don't treat him kindly and with the respect he deserves.
That is because not very many captains have confidence in leg
spinners. Leg spin-googly bowlers once they strike a length can make
batsmen look fools. Having been one of them I can vouch for this.
On a Test tour to Australia, Chandana made the Aussie batsmen look
novices and he came in for admiration and high praise from the
knowledgeable there. But that success does not seem to go in Chandana's
favour. Sad.
Chandana has credentials to show. There are some who continue to
fail, but have the luck of being persisted with until they click.
There was an opening batsman who continued to fail.
Instead of dropping him they pushed him to all batting spots possible
until he scored in the middle order and now he is smiling, and become a
permanent fixture in the team.
This proud son of the South Chandana does not seem to be having the
right connections to go places, that probably is his failing.
Now that the President has decided to take strike, one hopes that
Chandana would make a re-entry to the game and cock a snook at his
detractors. With important Test tours ahead for Sri Lanka, if Chandana
decides to come back he will add nerve, sinew and muscle to the Lankan
team. As a fielder he is like a Jonty Rhodes. As a bowler he is a Warne
and as a striker of the ball he is a Flintoff.
Is there another cricketer with these natural abilities? The cricket
authorities will have to explain this. |