too much T20... excess salt in the food ??

Well, there seems to be just T20 cricket being telecast on TV these days... immediately after the 2nd round of IPL ended, the 2nd edition of the World Cup began. I wonder whether this overdose of T20 leaves any kind of interest in the cricket watchers' community in the lengthier forms of the game. Even the 50 over game for that matter may seem to be tooo long to watch fully, because of the advent of the so called "the most exciting version" - T20! Can you imagine yourself sitting in front of Star Cricket from 9 am to 5 pm to watch a 50 over game, especially after you have become so used to watching a complete cricket game in 3 hours flat?? To add to the spice of T20 cricket are attractions like 8-10 sixes in each innings, last ball finishes, unlimited number of twists and turns!! Given all this, I doubt if many cricket enthusiasts will be left with any patience to watch an entire 50 over game, which was quite happening before the invention of the 20 over format. Personally, I strongly feel most may not be able to do it.

If this is the condition of the ODIs, what words could I use for the future of the longest version of the game. Test Cricket - considered to be the truest form of Cricket, is losing its popularity slowly but surely. The day is not far when a 3rd day of an Ashes Test at Lord's or MCG will have empty stands. T20 cricket has become a hot commodity these days, for the marketers, for the players as well as for the Cricket boards! It has led to complete commercialization of the game.

I am not writing this blog as a result of my disappointment after the T20 World Cup debacle that India faced. That could be one of the reasons, but definitely not the only one. The reason being given for their poor show was the fatigue factor. One must remember that this fatigue was a result of not a 5 match test series against Pakistan, it was because of the just concluded IPL 2. It is very obvious that too much of T20 can be disasterous for the players' stamina, a critical requirement for the 5-day format. We all know as a fact that the Suresh Rainas, the Rohit Sharmas and the Yusuf Pathans cannot be part of the 11 of an Indian test squad, a fact proved again in this T20 World cup where all of them were caught struggling against the good-old short ball! This means that an Indian test team will have players mostly different from the ones in the T20 team, atleast in the batting department. And which also means that the popularity of T20 will be of no match to that of Test cricket, least in India.

I wonder if the cricket boards (read BCCI !) are pondering over the dark future of ODI and Test cricket. One may argue by stating that T20 has been consistently pulling crowds, with most games running into full houses, but my counter-argument would be that T20 is good from the crowd's perspective - its full of masala, a kind of a 3 hour thriller movie show! But is it as good from the GAME's perspective? Isn't Cricket the loser and Money the winner in this growing popularity of T20 cricket??? My sincere request to the 'Owners of the game' - please let the game live long... Its not worth losing it!