How cricket became boring

Cricket has reached a stage where even committed watchers don’t know which teams are playing, when they are playing, who’s playing for whom, and, because they’re playing all the time, why they are playing at all. Rahul Bhattacharya in his column in Mint believes the game has become an embarrassment of riches.

From an average of 12 Tests a year over the last eight years, India was down to three in 2009. There is nothing still confirmed for 2010, which is normal practice with the Indian board, but particularly worrisome in the new age. In March comes IPL 3, thereafter the World Twenty20. Perhaps it is a cunning strategy to prepare audiences for IPL 4, where 94 games are to be stuffed senseless into six weeks. Nausea.

It was unthinkable that a day would come when the urban Indian male would admit he is bored of cricket. But the truth is that the sport is fast losing its charm among its most commercially influential devouts. Akshay Sawai has the lowdown in Open magazine.

What must worry cricket handlers the most, however, is that the age group most coveted by marketers, the urban youth with upper middleclass backgrounds, is more interested in football. The sport was always popular in India. But in the old days, the telecast of international matches was sporadic. Football fever peaked every four years with the World Cup and dissipated once Dino Zoff or Diego Maradona or Lothar Matthaus had hoisted the trophy.

From the mid-90s, however, Indians could enjoy comprehensive coverage of European leagues, all thanks to cable television. The impact has been significant. Today, there are many teenagers who respect Dhoni, but want to be Fernando Torres. Dhoni himself wanted to be a footballer.

In the same magazine, Boria Mazumdar explains how the glory of wearing the India cap is rapidly being eclipsed by the greed for big bucks in slambang leagues.

Since the advent of the IPL and more recently the CLT20, the fundamental difference between Australian and Indian cricket is this growing absence of pride in doing things for the nation. While the baggy green has reverential status in Australia, it represents the best Australia can offer, Indian youngsters find this concept totally alien, wasteful traditional romanticism associated with the cricket of a bygone era. New-age Indian cricket is the fertile playground to earn a fast buck, and more the logos of MNCs on the caps of the new-age Indian youngster, the merrier it is.