It started knowing no bounds – they called it a Test Match. Initially, the test matches were of unlimited duration – played till the time the result came out. Then the pundits felt it was a little boring for the spectators. They transformed the rules, limiting the duration to five days.

Cricket in 1920s

Dressed in white attire, the players seemed more or less like gentlemen, playing a professional game in a polite manner. Barring a very few exceptions, the game moved on smoothly with the countries of Australia and West Indies mostly dominating for decades. But cricket was hardly getting onto the general public and majority just waited for the final result.

Cricket in 1940s

In the early 1970s, the authorities took a step further and manipulated the rules to a greater extent. It started to be called as One Day Cricket which dawned on to the new era of cricket. It was limited to be of 60 overs each side and both teams needed to bat and field only a single innings compared to twice in Tests. The basic purpose was to draw in more audience, and thus a professional game started turning into an entertainment.

The first tied test in early 1960s

The format then saw World Cups organized in each four years starting from 1975. With each successive World Cup, more countries added on to the list of cricket playing nations. Dominated by West Indies for the first two years, it was India who dethroned them in 1983. That victory in the final multiplied the cricket fan following in India geometrically. The 25th June of 1983 renovated the meaning of cricket in India and scripted a new story for a game which, though was played since decades, still hadn’t caught on the nerves of general public. But even though One-day cricket started to sore new heights, Test Cricket was not made to lose existence. It was said that the real test of a cricketer is Test Cricket.

Kapil Dev, the Indian Captain, after winning WC 83

Days progressed and it was time to make the game more exciting. 60 overs limit was reduced to 50. Unlike Test Cricket, 60 overs game lost its existence. Gradually, the introductions of many more reformations arrived, like colored dresses, day-night matches played under the flood-lights, decisions by the third umpire and white kookaburra ball.

The game of cricket got more and more exciting with the two versions played in tandem regularly. The law makers saw to it that the existence of the tougher version – the Test cricket – does not lose shine. After the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar in late 1989, the Indians became fanatics for this game and it did not take long for cricket to be added in the religion category in this secular country – and ofcourse, Sachin was its God.

Sachin Tendulkar

Cricket changed the definition of competition, entertainment, rivalry, patriotism, patience and hard work over these years. It united the diverse country. The extensive use of sledging was an add-on feature to this entertainment package. The introduction of technology put the players as well as umpires on their toes and the errors were highly minimized. Some experts countered it by saying that cricket has, more or less, become a game of robots. Errors added a humane touch which seems to be losing by the use of hawk-eyes and action replays.

The ODI Cricket

Then we saw the world entering into the 21st century. It was time the pundits felt the sport was being dragged and losing its value, so to add spices, they introduced 20-20 cricket. Each side would bat and field for a maximum of 20 overs and the match didn’t last for more than 3 hours. There would be lovely cheerleaders dancing whenever a boundary was hit or a wicket was claimed. A free-hit on no-balls, dug-outs, females and allowance of using microphone in the field was made to see to it that it was no less than a bollywood flick full of glamour. This form of cricket attracted a lot of audiences and though this version was introduced in India last, it saw its bloom most rapidly here.

It was argued for long that this version will change the meaning of cricket as technique and experience had no place here. It would also dilute the gentleman spirit of the game and the bowlers would lose their charm. But people counter-attacked that in today’s world, general public did not have 8 hours to stick to their televisions or in the stadia to watch players blocking or leaving the balls for the majority of time. They wanted some explosions of the bat and 20-20 promised to provide the same.

After a lot of brouhaha, Indians got ready for their first international series of 20-20, and straight away it was the 1st World Cup. And to everybody’s dilemma, India won it to be the 1st WC Champions. The TRPs saw the final of the WC to cross the 14-point mark. This was a record.

Indians winning the 1st 20-20 WC

Soon after, a regular Test series and One-Day matches for India were scheduled to be played against Australia in their home country. The TRPs fell to be around 4-5 mark. This is still a good score for a ‘duller’ test series or ODIs and this can be attributed to the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in the team, spat between Bhajji and Symonds or just the fact that it was played in the ‘hottest’ spot of the world.

Then followed the epic IPL, which re-instated India as top-class hosts. Money flowed like water and cricketers – known and unknown – took part vigorously. The average TRPs was around 8, and no other channel or program during the IPL had even managed to gather half of it. IPL also pitched a brother against brother and divided the nation into eight, though it can be argued that it was only professional.

It was followed by a tri-series in Bangladesh, Asia Cup and the lately concluded tests and one-day series in Sri Lanka. It is indeed, shocking to see that One-Day cricket has started losing its prime audience. For the final match of the series, the TRP recorded was mere 0.94. The viewers have decreased tremendously. The sponsors are not ready to come up for the One-Day series, leave the question of Test Match aside.

Cheerleaders in 20-20 cricket to add glamour

This scenario is not only in India, but globally exists. South Africa is on the verge of cancelling the series against Pakistan at their home due to lack of sponsors. No channel is coming up to broadcast the series because there is no sponsor. So sponsors, public and even the players are no more taking interests in 5-day Tests or 8-hours ODIs. They want money, entertainment and explosions from the bat. Cricketers want to play more of 20-20 cricket as it had more money, more fame and more glamour. Why to sweat toiling in the field for whole day or 5-days when they can earn multiple times playing the shortest version?

Many possible steps were taken to rope in more public in the ODI format, even skimpy clothed cheer-leaders were called in abundance. But this had no advantage and the stadia continued to remain unoccupied during most of the times.

The question that pops in the minds is whether the One Day Cricket is losing out to the 20-20 format? Whether the age-old gentlemen’s game become more of a war between the competing teams? Whether we would again get opportunity to see those real techniques used in longer version of the game? Whether we would again see the supremacy of bowlers, traumatizing the batsmen? Whether people still would like to cheer for their nation in the ‘real’ cricket?

The fact is – Indians no longer fancy cricket as they used to do until the era of Sachin. They have started turning to other sports and the gold medal by Abhinav Bindra in shooting at Beijing Olympics added for this ‘unfavoritism’ of cricket. Now it would be interesting to see what could be the next introduced version of cricket? 10-10 or even 5-5?