Monday, October 5, 2009
Unusual Suspects crash the party.
Official ranking systems are pilloried at the best of times in sports. But this week when 3 teams from the Top 4 were knocked out before the Champions Trophy semi-finals the ICC might actually have been thankful. I have said this before - ODI fatigue arises out of unequal contests and poor quality cricket. Pakistan, England, New Zealand each came to South Africa with poor recent records and missing top players but played thrilling cricket, perhaps unburdened by the favourites tag. Pakistan are certainly the most talented and balanced team in ODI cricket and under Younis Khans leadership they should win more regularly in future. England and New Zealand have shown they can spring surprises but need to add more X-factor players besides Kevin Pietersen and Shane Bond if they are to win high-pressure games. India, South Africa and SriLanka werent focused enough and the knock-out format punished them for this. Australia have once again shown their class in ICC tournaments. Instead of lamenting the loss of top players or complaining about their gruelling schedule they've lifted their ODI game since the Ashes loss and scrapped past the group stage.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Johnson takes top gong at ICC awards
Mitchell Johnson has taken home the coveted ICC World Player of the Year award at the annual ICC event last night. Indians dominated the winners list with MS Dhoni and Gautham Gambhir winning ODI and Test player of the Year respectively. Dhoni was also named captain of the Test team. Other members of the World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Why One Day Cricket will survive … and Thrive - Part II
In my last post I briefly touched upon the money aspect that was the fuel for the explosion of ODI cricket in the nineties. India is easily the world’s largest cricket sponsorship market with no dearth of sponsors ready to put their name to a tournaments title sponsorship or signing up for on-air deals. For a large corporation planning a brand launch there is no comparable media buy to rival the reach that an India cricket match brings. With the price of television rights increasing with the advent of new channels, media owners who shell out big bucks must maximize to break even. Fifty over a side matches simply offer more scope to slot in commercial inventory than a Twenty20 game.
Eighty percent of the games revenues come from India and as long as the sponsors keep pouring in the money the ODI format won’t go away. Even the risk of an early Indian exit from a major tournament as happened in 2007 when ratings dropped 50% drop in ratings and losses amounted to Rs 150-160 crore after India crashed out of the WC 2007 does not deter advertisers. Unsurprisingly India has played the most ODIs in the post WC 2007 period – 72 vs. 58 for the next team. To their credit the ICC has tried to innovate by introducing the Powerplay changes and modifying the Champions Trophy format to sustain fan interest. Where it has faltered is in the basics like allowing month-long 7 match bilateral series that drag on forever, turning a blind eye to small grounds that deliver meaningless 350+ scores and venues like the Premadasa where results are highly toss or weather dependent.
The 50-over format has not been helped by the quality of cricket on offer either with one-sided results even among top 8 teams becoming commonplace: Eng-SA 4-0, India-Eng 5-0, SA-WI 5-0, Aus-WI 5-0 and now Aus-Eng 6-1. In the last decade while Australia have won 3 successive World Cups the supposed No.2 South Africa have repeatedly disappointed unable to overcome their chokers tag in every major tournament. What ODI cricket needs is more equal contests and for the 2nd tier teams like Pakistan, NZ, West Indies and England to challenge the Top 4 more seriously. The Twenty20 World Cup and IPL have had two great editions because both had surprise winners each year that captured the minds of spectators and viewers well into the final stages. A case in point was this year’s Twenty20 World Cup which despite the early exit of the pre-tournament favourites India and Australia retained pulling power due to the Pakistan teams’ fairytale run to the title.
This week’s Champions Trophy could yet change the minds of those calling time on the format if it produces some quality cricket and a worthy winner on the 5th of October at the Centurion. Quite ironic that a much-maligned tournament that few teams have embraced should now be the last roll of the dice that ODI cricket hedges its future on.
Eighty percent of the games revenues come from India and as long as the sponsors keep pouring in the money the ODI format won’t go away. Even the risk of an early Indian exit from a major tournament as happened in 2007 when ratings dropped 50% drop in ratings and losses amounted to Rs 150-160 crore after India crashed out of the WC 2007 does not deter advertisers. Unsurprisingly India has played the most ODIs in the post WC 2007 period – 72 vs. 58 for the next team. To their credit the ICC has tried to innovate by introducing the Powerplay changes and modifying the Champions Trophy format to sustain fan interest. Where it has faltered is in the basics like allowing month-long 7 match bilateral series that drag on forever, turning a blind eye to small grounds that deliver meaningless 350+ scores and venues like the Premadasa where results are highly toss or weather dependent.
The 50-over format has not been helped by the quality of cricket on offer either with one-sided results even among top 8 teams becoming commonplace: Eng-SA 4-0, India-Eng 5-0, SA-WI 5-0, Aus-WI 5-0 and now Aus-Eng 6-1. In the last decade while Australia have won 3 successive World Cups the supposed No.2 South Africa have repeatedly disappointed unable to overcome their chokers tag in every major tournament. What ODI cricket needs is more equal contests and for the 2nd tier teams like Pakistan, NZ, West Indies and England to challenge the Top 4 more seriously. The Twenty20 World Cup and IPL have had two great editions because both had surprise winners each year that captured the minds of spectators and viewers well into the final stages. A case in point was this year’s Twenty20 World Cup which despite the early exit of the pre-tournament favourites India and Australia retained pulling power due to the Pakistan teams’ fairytale run to the title.
This week’s Champions Trophy could yet change the minds of those calling time on the format if it produces some quality cricket and a worthy winner on the 5th of October at the Centurion. Quite ironic that a much-maligned tournament that few teams have embraced should now be the last roll of the dice that ODI cricket hedges its future on.
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