Cricket is still alive.
In the last decade, ODI cricket has gone through a lot criticism — two balls rule, DRS controversies, multiple iterations of the power-play rules, pitches being curated in favour of batting, Indian Cricket Board’s (BCCI) interfering with ICC, etc. — just to name a few. Many of these topics are still being discussed and used for criticising the recent developments in the game of cricket by the commentators and the experts during the matches. These topics has adversely affected the overall enthusiasm and passion of a typical cricket fan. For a fan like myself, it felt like my favourite sport (especially ODI format) was dying. But then, CWC (Cricket World Cup) 2019 came along.
It all started with the CWC 2019 schedule, and what a great schedule it was. All teams will play all other teams competing for only 4 finalists’ spots. At the first glance, it looked like a very long tour with one and a half month of timeline, but the result of this long tour will surely be decided based on the physical and mental strength of the players and teams. At this international stage, every team will have similarly skilled players, but the deciding factor will be the endurance. As many as 9 matches played by each team also gives a fighting second-chance to the teams who did not enter the tournament confidently but were strong enough to bounce back in the later stages of the tournament.
Only 4 finalists’ spots will force teams to play better cricket in all of their games, because unlike last two world cups, there are no quarter finals. Quarter finals as name suggest will be played by 8 teams. So, a couple of losses to strong teams can still provide you a spot in the quarter finals. That can lead to sub-par performances by the teams in the group stages. But with only 4 spots to fight for, each team has to fight more fiercely with the opponents. Even after winning 5 out of 9 matches, a team can end up in the fifth spot in the table. This fact demands dedication and perseverance from the teams, and reduces effects of the “lucky-wins”.
So, they did create a great schedule, but was that enough for keeping cricket alive? In my opinion, that was just a one step forward in right direction. England being the venue, taking second step forward was already done. English conditions enable bowlers to demand the respect in the game, and you can see that happening in the second half of the tournament. A reverse swinging ball in the death overs was seen in many matches which took away many advantages from the batters.
And then came the very big match, England Vs Sri Lanka. One can say that it was an upset because England lost it to out-of-form Sri Lanka, but I tell you, Sri Lanka didn’t win because England played poorly. On the other hand Sri Lanka won because two of their players outperformed all others players in that match (except for Ben Stokes). These two players are Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews, and personally I want to focus on Angelo Mathews. He came in when Sri Lanka was in really bad shape and conquered the English bowling attack and managed to make 85 runs without losing his wicket. This 85 run contribution increased the pressure on English batters by just the right amount, so that they failed. And don’t let number 85 out of 115 balls fool you. Its much more valuable in such a low scoring match, in difficult to bat conditions.
The impact of this England Vs Sri Lanka match wasn’t just on these two teams, but it changed the entire tournament, in a subtle manner. Over the next few matches — pitches looked more bowler friendly, teams preferred bowling first, low first innings scores started looking defendable, and so on. These observations go against “favouring-batting against-bowling” attitude of ICC towards the cricket.
One more criticism that kept getting thrown in the way of ODI cricket is — with batting, cricket becoming power game with core skill losing their charm. During CWC 2019, many of the match winning batting performances have very little to do with physical strength, but on contrary, these performances were flourished with the mental ability and the traditional battings techniques. Leading example of this, again is, 85 (115) by Angelo Mathews. There were many other such performances by other batters before Angelo did this, but Angelo’s performance was so unique and stood out, that it made everyone look at the other performances from that perspective. And now, when we look back at those performances — like Rohit Sharma against South Africa, Steve Smith against West Indies (and many more) — these performances look technically strong rather than physically strong. And, as a fan, this makes cricket more enjoyable to me.
All these positive sides of cricket have come up, thanks to CWC 2019. I must confess I am enjoying CWC 2019 more than I had expected, and I am not sure if I can look forward to such enjoyment in any of the upcoming ODI series. I hope ICC ensures the cricket will continue to be an enjoyable sport by making sure its purity isn’t compromised by any existing and new rules. I am looking forward to the ICC Champions Trophy 2021 and hoping that I will enjoy it at least as much as I enjoyed CWC 2019.
AmitHK