Many of the expressions in the English language are either nautical (that’s how they ruled greater part of the world) or based on the game they invented in the 16th century: cricket. The expression “not cricket” is popularly used to denote: not fair, honest or moral, and in bad, poor, or worst possible taste.
After its inception in 2007, my curiosity got the better of me and I started watching Indian Premier League 2024 matches. Soon, “not cricket” is the expression that came to my mind.
Michael Holding, the former West Indian cricketer and commentator was asked as to why he chose not to commentate on T20 matches. His response was: “I commentate only on cricket.”
During our era, in a 1964 match against England, Indian all-rounder Bapu Nadkarni bowled a record twenty-one consecutive maiden overs. In today’s game standards, it means that a complete T20 innings would have gotten over without scoring a run. Cut to today, here is a commentary on a bowler: “A very tight over from him; he has just given away only seven runs in this over.”
I also recall that in a test match against the mighty West Indies (I think it was in Dec 1966 in Bombay), Bapu Nadkarni hit a sixer. An excited fan, listening to the commentary on his radio, broke his transistor-radio in excitement. We lost the match thanks to a 400 plus first first innings total by the WI. However, that sixer (a rarity those days) glorified our resistance against the best cricketers in the world. In contrast, the IPL T20 matches are so heavily tilted in favour of the batters that, recently (on 27 Apr 24), in Eden Gardens, in a match between KKR and PBKS, 42 sixes were scored (252 runs in just sixes!) A total of 532 runs were scored in the match; nearly half being in sixes.
Such sixes and fours are because of pitches being especially made batter friendly and the reduced boundaries in length. It has to be a spectacle or a tamasha that wins the moolah for BCCI, the richest cricket club in the world. It is not all; watching the IPL T20 matches over TV has been made into a punishment for the viewers by making them watch advertisements over and over. I can visualise, for example, a man telling us to convert his credit card into CRED UPI, “Please, please, please, please………..please a thousand times, convert your credit card to CRED UPI. It will earn us crores of rupees and may also get you discounts ranging from one to five percent. We are prepared to run this ad for you, the Guantanamo way, of playing it over and over again even in your sleep. Just don’t forget CRED UPI.”
Here is the truth about these ads versus watchability of IPL: with the repeated ads and strategic times-out, we run an over, on an average, in 5 minutes; ie, 50 seconds a ball. As it is, there are only a handful of countries in the world who play cricket. Doesn’t BCCI have any responsibility towards promoting this game, the only game that we actually excel in? How can anyone be interested in watching this game @ 50 seconds a ball? Does money mean everything to BCCI?
One of the most popular ads is that of Kamla Pasand Elaichi, a proxy ad for the unhealthy Pan Masala. Who are the cricketers who have succumbed to the lure for money to these ads for unhealthy products? Well, hold your breath, our cricketing role models: Virendra Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and Chris Gayle. What a fall!
Has the IPL tamasha really made us into better players world wide? Aha, we won the ICC T20 World Cup only once in 2007, the inaugural one in South Africa when we bowled out Pakistan for 152 runs in 19.4 overs and won by 5 runs. In 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, the seventh one since its inception in 2007, the highest number of runs, 345 that is, were scored between Australia and New Zealand. Australia made 173/2 in 18.5 overs and won. The team playing second won the cup a total of seven times out of eight. In IPL T20 2004 edition, ever since 27 Mar, when in a match between SRH and MI, more than 500 runs were scored, it has happened four times. Surely, our performance in IPL and the rampant run fest indulged in by our players don’t appear to be helping our abilities and potential in winning the world cup.
In democracies people pay for everything: armies, roads, railways, education, and entertainment. BCCI doesn’t become the richest cricket club in the world without people paying for it, whether in the stadia or on the net. I don’t suppose that BCCI can ascribe credit to itself for befooling all the people all the times. It is only a matter of time before people, at large, realise that IPL T20 tamasha isn’t cricket.
I recall my visit to Spain and curiosity to see a bull-fight. There appeared to be so much of bravado involved in killing a bull in a bull fight until I learnt that what appeared to be sport is primarily a play in three parts (tercios): Tercio de Varas, Tercio de Banderillas, and Tercio de Muerte. In the first two acts, with the help of picadors and banderillas, the bull is sufficiently weakened so that in the final act, an accomplished estocada (swordsman) gives the bull a clean and quick death by thrusting a sword into the already weakened hump in the shoulder. I was among the large percentage of people around the world who see the cruelty of the bull fight only once.
I wonder how many more of IPL T20 matches I shall see before the bull is finally killed?
