Truthful Tuesday | Let T20 cricket be the way it is
SportsCafe
T20 is often equated to entertainment, yet post the conclusion of every high scoring match, we see people going over the game with a fine-tooth comb and berate the format. In this edition of Truthful Tuesday, I give my opinion on why T20 cricket should just be enjoyed - and not criticized.
Since its inception in early 2003, T20 cricket has grown to become quite the monster. A format which was once seen as nothing more than a pastime, in just 17 years time, has now become the most globally acclaimed, popular and entertaining variant of the game. And it has its own reasons for the same: it is short, more friendly to the casual consumer and it basically sandwiches the best aspects of ‘entertainment’ in cricket - be it runs, wickets or drama - within a three-hour time span. It has perhaps seen a surge equivalent to that of smartphones in the last decade and a half. The viable nature of the format has meant that it has kept injecting fans with the dopamine they need - and that too in regular intervals, almost non-stop - to keep them hooked to it, which has seen the format grow and expand (the sport of cricket) like nothing else has, in the past.
However, whilst it has grown - and continues to grow with every passing second - on one hand, on the other, it has also simultaneously rattled the cage of many a fan, who like to believe that the format in itself is not a part of the sport but just sheer entertainment which relates to cricket in no way. And you can understand that argument, too, for at times it does end up making a mockery of the general perception of cricket that we’ve known - and loved - while growing up.
Since the concept of T20 cricket revolves around the phenomenon called ‘entertainment’, it basically meant that there was a heavy and biased imbalance towards the bat that needed to be devised in order to realize the dream that was the 20-over format, and, over the course of the last decade, it has been done. Be it bigger bats or shorter boundaries or flatter wickets or lightning-fast outfields, there have been constant, conscious efforts that have been taken to keep the ‘high’ and the frenzy going, because let’s face it - we do, more often than not, associate entertainment to fours and sixes. And these efforts to tilt the balance towards the bat have touched the nerve of many, who fear that the ‘death of the art of bowling’ is pretty near and ‘T20 is not cricket’ because it only favours the batsmen.
When England chased down 223 with almost an over to spare on Tuesday, there were more cries about how the bowlers - on a flat Centurion wicket - were taken to the cleaners than there were plaudits for the batsmen who got the job done; When India and West Indies scored 489 runs in 40 overs in Florida in 2016, there were jokes on how teams would be better off fielding bowling machines rather using actual bowlers; And, to cap it all of, every T20 match played in New Zealand is all but seen as a detestable handicap match with bowlers having both hands tied to the back owing to the short nature of the boundaries. But should we really be bothered or upset about T20 being an absurdly batsman-friendly format when clearly, the idea behind the whole concept was exactly meant to be that?
It goes unsaid that for Cricket to survive as a sport, parity needs to be restored between the bat and the ball, but having already established T20 as this other-worldly alien format which serves no purpose but entertainment, it perhaps would be ideal for both the fans and the sport to seclude and isolate it and admire for what it is - a placard to keep everyone inside and outside the sport happy.
And for that, for the format to sustain and keep remaining the spectacle it is, compromises would need to be made and the balance would need to be constantly tilted. Because let’s face it: a casual consumer of the sport is bound to be attracted by fours and sixes more than hard-fought battles between bat and ball (at least in a 20-over game). And that, incidentally, is the very motive of the format - to attract the casual viewer. And mind you, in no way is it wrong or in no way does it contaminate the sport; there are two other formats of the sport alive and kicking which purists can always turn to absorb the actual essence of the sport, which is on a completely different end of the spectrum compared to that of T20 cricket.
Thus it is, in many ways, unnecessary to berate the format for what it is. Do you want a fascinating first hour where you want to see the ball jag around and trouble the batsmen? You’re more than welcome to switch - or stick - to Test cricket. Do you want a contest where you’d like to see a team that has had 15 overs of bad cricket make a measured come back and deliver a knockout punch? You’ve got ODI cricket for that.
That, however, is not what T20 cricket is meant for. T20 cricket is for getting punished for blinking; T20 cricket is all about “You miss I Hit” and - as sad as it sounds - T20 cricket is all about batsmen smashing bowlers to the smithereens. And we, as fans, rather than castigating it, need to deal with it and embrace it.
