Only a few hours had passed since the ICC ODI Men’s World Cup final where the Aussies took a record sixth title crown of the pinnacle of the one day game that another India v Australia series has emerged.
In fact, not only has the latest India v Australia series emerged perhaps much too sudden, it goes live in the next few hours. Although, this is a five-match T20I series with the first game almost upon us.
But does that not tell us something or are we really that daft at this time.
Regardless, Here’s The Cricket Calendar
Let’s first understand why we are having this brainstorming about Cricket calendar. The cricket calendar refers to the scheduling of cricket matches by different boards in consultation with each other. These fixtures are then approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and published as the Future Tours Program (FTP). Generally, this practice is repeated every four years by the ICC.
In the initial years, the boards used to schedule the matches, but the problem was the stronger and richer boards played more among themselves, thereby giving or almost no chance to the newer cricket nations. In the 1990s, the ICC took up the matter in their hands and decided to schedule the FTP in such a manner that every country could play against each other twice in a four-year cycle.
What is the issue here?
The cricket calendar started to get manic in early 2000 and the players begin to give their opinion about how hectic the schedule had become. The issue was exacerbated with the arrival of T20 cricket. Now there were three formats in which international cricket was being played. The year 2008 proved to be a watershed in cricket. With the arrival of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the game changed forever. The blossoming of franchise cricket in the next decade posed new challenges to cricket administrators.
Now the cricket calendar comprised of three formats of International Cricket and plethora’s of franchise leagues, which simply would mean you would need more days to schedule cricket matches and the calendar still comprised of 365 days.
Another threat looming large in the next decade for the custodians of the game was the rise of franchise cricket, which was seen as a grave menace to the existence of international cricket.
A Dyspneic Decade
The decade of 2010 changed the game further; An enormous amount of money was in-fluxed in the game and a huge price was paid by everyone involved in it. With every ounce of money, the game left lesser space for players to breathe in. This was an era when cricket seemed to shift from a gentleman’s game to business and ultimately to money churning machine which had lesser emotions towards its major stakeholders.
In fact, this new brute leviathan has started to challenge the existence of formats, smaller members of the cricket fraternity and international cricket itself.
Such has been the vicious circle that no one has been able to escape from its clutches. Every member country, administrators, players, sponsors and organizers have been captivated by the power of money on offer.
Today, almost every member country who is among the top 10 ICC members has started a league of their own to churn out money.
This has ultimately left less space in a cricket calendar which is left scratching to breathe.
All this has meant a decline in the value of the game. Too much availability of cricket has resulted in cricket fans selecting specific tournaments to watch.
It is a decisive factor in the dwindling numbers of spectators in the stadium.
Those who are the custodians of the game need to realise that excessive cricket does not mean good cricket.
The congestion of cricket calendar is something which has been discussed for quite some time.
It is time that sensible and honest action must be taken, but till then we will keep on witnessing ludicrous scheduling.
