Monday, July 20, 2009

Modern day cricket !!! More of a Drama...

I am writing a post on Cricket, which is treated not only as a game but also as a religion in our country. And the Sachins and Yuvrajs are called the Gods of this religion. I will throw some light on the taste of the spectators, which has transformed drastically in the past few years. The taste can be called the behavior of the consumers, which are spectators in this case.

 The cricket has changed its color right from the Don Brad man’s era to Sachin’s era. And now the world will see a great transformation in the way the game is being played.

Earlier during early 1900, we used to have spectators who appreciated the game of cricket and who spared 5 days of their busy schedule to watch cricket and they patiently watched the match. That was the Era of test cricket and we used to have full 5 days match and Lord’s was called the home of Cricket. Test cricket tested the perseverance, technique, skills, and character of the players. Players needed stamina to battle it out for 5 days and that was very much appreciated and lauded with respect by the spectators. Even though most of the test matches ended up in draw but still spectators were happy watching the test cricket.

Then during 1950’s, the cricket changed its state from test cricket to one-day cricket. This happened mainly because of busy schedule of people and lack of patience of spectators to wait for 5 days to get the results. They were happy watching 100 overs in one day and were more interested in getting the result in one day. The tastes of spectators changed drastically and they were more interested in watching batsman hitting all around the ground and bowlers making fun on fast pitches. The pitches were made fast so that bowlers also have something in the pitch to have a real go at the batsman.

Then came the Era of late 1980’s and 1990’s where cricket took the commercialization way and spectators were interested in who is winning the match and there were lot of gambling took place during that time. Spectators had the power to turn the match in their favor by hook or by crook. So those matches insulted the game of cricket and the players underperformed to get the results they wanted.

Then came the Era of early 2000 and the cricket changed its path from 50-50 overs cricket to 20 overs a side game. The match is a matter of just 4 hours and spectators were happy watching the match for 4 hours and getting the results. Then the 20-20 era resulted in commercialization of cricket where players and teams were sold and this was a huge hit across the world and tournament called IPL was a huge success in India. Spectators were least interested in who is playing as long as batsman is hitting all around the ground and cheerleaders are swinging their booties.

And now the era will come in which spectators will be interested in watching cricket for 2 hours after their office or working hours just to relax and nobody will be interested in testing and appreciating the skills of the players but will be more interested in the glamorous quotient of the game like cheerleaders and short version of the game. An era will come where match will be played 5 overs a side and the game for last for an hour but the preparations for the match will take more time than the match duration.

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