Keep in mind: hindsight is Twenty20
A bit of mindless blogging.
There's a new show in town: its called Twenty20 cricket, and is a shortened version of the traditional game - no doubt encouraged because of the potential for widespread popularity. Former Pakistani captain referred to it as cricket's conversion to baseball, and has cautioned the cricketing world of the potential repercussions.
I watched a bit of twenty20 cricket the other day, and honestly found it quite entertaining. My dad was also really excited about it, and has been talking about it enthusiastically. Of course that has alot to do with the fact that the Twenty20 final is between long-standing rivals - India and Pakistan.
However - I share Javed Miandad's concern that twenty20 cricket will strip the game of its character. Sure it might get more popular, but as with all popular (professional) sports - it becomes all about the show time and less about the talent. While it admittedly takes talent to smash a cricket ball around a stadium, thats not what cricket is all about. Cricket was a leisurely sport, an adversarial sport - the bowler against the batsman and vice versa. Traditionally, one needed to balance his ability to smash the ball around with patience and poise. Now - its again all about the show time. Showtime was my big beef with professional basketball - players got so into showing off their skills that they forgot about the basics - shooting, passing, rebounding. Its a fact - women's professional basketball is MUCH more sound than the mens - their shooting averages are higher even if their scores aren't. In the NBA all-star game a few years ago, and probably today if they had the mixed shoot-arounds, the women outscored the men in the shoot around. I repeat - it is a fact - the women are much more grounded in the technical aspects of the sport than the men. The same goes for college hoops - which is why I'm entirely against high school ballers going straight to the NBA.
I digress, but my point is the same - when the game gets shorter, smashing the ball around gets more important than HOW you smash the ball around - technique is thrown to the way side in exchange for popularity. And as much as I may enjoy watching Yuvraj hit six sixes in an over against the Aussies - I much prefer watching a long standing partnership between Rahul and Sachin in either the one-dayers or the tests ... for true talent lies in technique not in brute strength.
There's a new show in town: its called Twenty20 cricket, and is a shortened version of the traditional game - no doubt encouraged because of the potential for widespread popularity. Former Pakistani captain referred to it as cricket's conversion to baseball, and has cautioned the cricketing world of the potential repercussions.
I watched a bit of twenty20 cricket the other day, and honestly found it quite entertaining. My dad was also really excited about it, and has been talking about it enthusiastically. Of course that has alot to do with the fact that the Twenty20 final is between long-standing rivals - India and Pakistan.
However - I share Javed Miandad's concern that twenty20 cricket will strip the game of its character. Sure it might get more popular, but as with all popular (professional) sports - it becomes all about the show time and less about the talent. While it admittedly takes talent to smash a cricket ball around a stadium, thats not what cricket is all about. Cricket was a leisurely sport, an adversarial sport - the bowler against the batsman and vice versa. Traditionally, one needed to balance his ability to smash the ball around with patience and poise. Now - its again all about the show time. Showtime was my big beef with professional basketball - players got so into showing off their skills that they forgot about the basics - shooting, passing, rebounding. Its a fact - women's professional basketball is MUCH more sound than the mens - their shooting averages are higher even if their scores aren't. In the NBA all-star game a few years ago, and probably today if they had the mixed shoot-arounds, the women outscored the men in the shoot around. I repeat - it is a fact - the women are much more grounded in the technical aspects of the sport than the men. The same goes for college hoops - which is why I'm entirely against high school ballers going straight to the NBA.
I digress, but my point is the same - when the game gets shorter, smashing the ball around gets more important than HOW you smash the ball around - technique is thrown to the way side in exchange for popularity. And as much as I may enjoy watching Yuvraj hit six sixes in an over against the Aussies - I much prefer watching a long standing partnership between Rahul and Sachin in either the one-dayers or the tests ... for true talent lies in technique not in brute strength.
posted by zai5h at Monday, September 24, 2007
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