Too much Cricket !

I remember when cable TV first made its appearance in our tiny little town - it was back in February, 1992 coinciding with the Cricket World Cup. I was then in 5th grade and the World Cup seemed like the perfect start to my life long love affair with the sport. For the next whole month, my brother would religiously wake me up at 4:00 am in the morning or whenever he thought the game was turning out to be interesting. India performed miserably, but there were still a lot of fond memories - Greatbatch going on a rampage for the kiwis, Inzzy playing one of the most spectacular ODI innings I have seen, Miandad teasing More with jumping jacks, India's one run loss to the Aussies......

Growing up, whenever there would be an Indian cricket series happening, I would end up doing home-work in front of the TV. But in those days, cricket matches were few, and were eagerly anticipated. Everyone would ardently await for the a cricket team to visit India, or for a tournament like Sharjah or Toronto to happen. I knew exactly the composition of all 9 test playing nations. I remember exactly how many centurions there were in a series, or how Tendulkar got out in the first ODI. Those were the days when every cricket game was important and people followed it religiously.

But somewhere down the line, cricket turned out to be more profitable than most cricket boards imagined, and the whole fraternity turned greedy. First they started eroding into the offseason, typically June-September. Then they started playing in nations like Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya etc. More triangular series and international tournaments sprung up and teams started playing each other on a regular basis. Indo-Pak is no longer a much anticaped battle, and the same goes for Ashes. There was a time when I knew only Wasim Akram to have played in more than 300 ODIs and I thought only Sachin would beat him. Nowadays, 300 games seems to be a norm for any decent player.

The game has thoroughly been exploited by over zealous, avaracious board managers at the expense of its fans. Cricket is now more like baseball in US, where they play 160 games each year, with most people interested to see only the Playoffs. Soon, a time would come when people would be interested in seeing only the World Cup or a Champions Trophy. The younger generation might disagree (dammit, I am still a part of it !!), but those who have seen cricket 10 years ago, would agree that it is different. Cricket might still be profitable and might still be loved by it's fans, but my romance with cricket has definitely faded !