The conventional form of the game – ‘Test Cricket’ – needs to be injected with some turbo-fuel to exist. The time has come for every Test-playing cricket country and especially the International Cricket Council (ICC) to see the signs on the wall. The commercial success of the limited-overs version of the game has put Test cricket into the back-burner, with a possibility of it going into extinction.
The T20 and the recently-introduced T10 and The Hundreds, all franchise-based cricket leagues around the world, are rapidly changing the very core and DNA of the game. With so many of them mushrooming to capture the popularity that has emerged with its success amongst cricket-loving fans and followers, the days to play the serious version of the sport have dwindled expeditiously.
The title of a book written on the history of Indian cricket by Richard Cashman comes to mind, “Patrons, Players and the Crowd”. The three most important ingredients in the success of any sport. The Limited-overs cricket has brought in favourable excitement from the crowd as well as the fans.
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The version is ideally suited to the fast-moving result-oriented world that we presently live in. The Patrons are the sponsors who have come into the cricket arena due to the millions of eyeballs that the shorter version has generated.
Rich franchise business owners and corporates through multi-media opportunities are finding innovative ways to capture the maximum advantage that this cricket boom has created. The most important ingredient is the players.
The financial gains that have emerged for the cricketers have finally brought about serious value and richness into their lives.
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