A week after IPL, dinner time TV viewing has gotten so boring! Thankfully IPL ended the way I wanted - MI winning (I chose not to blog out my thoughts before the finals , purely on account of superstitious reasons!) a really tense encounter. It in some ways summed up what the excitement of the IPL is all about.
If IPL is meant to bring in viewers because of the sheer excitement is provides, what is the Champions Trophy supposed to do? It is a, once in 4 years, 50 overs a side tournament in some sort of a knockout format! 2 groups of 4 teams each, the top 2 from each group make it to the finals. It gets over in 18 days (unlike the World Cup which lasts more than a month) and so is supposed to be exciting!
Really? The excitement is all for the ICC - which is out in the counting house, counting all its money. Not sure in this era of T20 cricket, who would want to spend a whole day watching a game!
Yes, the games may end up in tight finishes (more likely high-scoring tight finishes; net result being that this tournament will set a record for the highest no. of runs scored in a tournament etc.). Yes, TV revenues will be high (the game timings very clearly cater to the Indian TV audience, with provision for Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Sri Lankan audiences). Yes, the ICC will pat itself on the back for having conducted another tournament successfully!
But, what is the fun in having a tournament where only 8 teams compete! That too in a format that takes the whole day to play! If cricket should expand, there should be more teams playing T20 internationals so that the game catches on. Test matches can always exist to cater to the purists (and to allow us folks the treat of watching a Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav etc. play some great and menacing cricket). A Champions trophy is only a money making idea, nothing else.
Anyway, enough of my ranting (I don't see the point of one-day internationals anyway). For this CT, here's hoping England or SA win! Why not India? Well, not that I love India less; it's just that I love cricket more :)
If IPL is meant to bring in viewers because of the sheer excitement is provides, what is the Champions Trophy supposed to do? It is a, once in 4 years, 50 overs a side tournament in some sort of a knockout format! 2 groups of 4 teams each, the top 2 from each group make it to the finals. It gets over in 18 days (unlike the World Cup which lasts more than a month) and so is supposed to be exciting!
Really? The excitement is all for the ICC - which is out in the counting house, counting all its money. Not sure in this era of T20 cricket, who would want to spend a whole day watching a game!
Yes, the games may end up in tight finishes (more likely high-scoring tight finishes; net result being that this tournament will set a record for the highest no. of runs scored in a tournament etc.). Yes, TV revenues will be high (the game timings very clearly cater to the Indian TV audience, with provision for Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Sri Lankan audiences). Yes, the ICC will pat itself on the back for having conducted another tournament successfully!
But, what is the fun in having a tournament where only 8 teams compete! That too in a format that takes the whole day to play! If cricket should expand, there should be more teams playing T20 internationals so that the game catches on. Test matches can always exist to cater to the purists (and to allow us folks the treat of watching a Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav etc. play some great and menacing cricket). A Champions trophy is only a money making idea, nothing else.
Anyway, enough of my ranting (I don't see the point of one-day internationals anyway). For this CT, here's hoping England or SA win! Why not India? Well, not that I love India less; it's just that I love cricket more :)
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