Matches (21)
MLC (3)
IRE vs WI (1)
WTC (1)
Scotland T20 Tri-Series (2)
TNPL (3)
Vitality Blast Men (4)
Vitality Blast Women (3)
Blast Women League 2 (4)

Page 2

Everything's for sale

An American celebrity league, drop-in stadiums, and sponsored appeals

Scott Oliver
11-Jun-2013

Despite the world game undergoing its Great Schism - India and T20 on the one side, England and the reversion to timeless Tests on the other - there is, on both sides of the divide, a common thread: TV rules everything, which means a profusion of new gimmicks (because TV men assume that the game itself isn't interesting enough). Thus:

1) In the drive for "interactivity" and to make the game user-friendly, swathes of kidult gamers who last saw daylight in 2003 are now "allowed" (i.e. hoodwinked) to vote on bowling changes and moving the fielders. $2 per SMS. Bargain.

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What does the future hold for cricket?

A host of new member countries, an even shorter format, and more such delights

Scott Oliver
02-Jun-2013

Predicting the future is difficult. Very difficult. Notoriously difficult, even with tea leaves, astrology charts, animal entrails and algorithms. In cricket, the clairvoyants use many forms of futurology: divination by wagon wheel, by pitch map, by Manhattan. And it's still nigh-on impossible (which is why assorted "game-outcome operatives" try and make things more predictable by bribing and/or blackmailing participants). But not totally so. So, if you want to place a few heavy, cast-iron bets on the cricket, or simply cannot be bothered waiting for events to unfold, then here's where the sport is heading.

The year-on-year growth of the IPL, the massive heft of both India and the BCCICC (Board of Control for Cricket in the Indian-Controlled Countries, formed from the merger of the BCCI and ICC) behind this format, and the search for even more TV-friendly forms, sees the continued proliferation and then miniaturisation of T20 cricket.

1-on-1 cricket is developed to fill the early-evening light-entertainment slot. It consists of a single super-over per side (re-named "over", then re-re-named "super-duper-over") with ad breaks between each ball and, for consenting bowlers, ad breaks within the delivery stride. R Ashwin and R Croft make a commercial killing. Tied games are decided with a super ball.

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