Cricket -Then and now.

 Hello readers

Hope you all had a great week.

Today we want to talk about the most loved and played game in the Indian sub -continent and the rest of the commonwealth countries cricket.

OK let’s start then, Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England. Written evidence exists of a game known as creag being played by Prince Edward, the son of Edward I (Longshanks), at Newenden, Kent in 1301 and there has been speculation, but no evidence, that this was a form of cricket. Thanks to Wikipedia for the great information.

Prince Edward, the son of Edward I (Longshanks),

 at Newenden, Kent in 1301

It was just a game which was played in the villages of England. Later it was John Wisden who made it a national game. At this point of time, we would love to thank the British.

This game has always been a gentleman’s game which shows the true grit, courage and skill of both the batsman and bowlers trying to outsmart each other.

In India as it is popularly quoted “Cricket is a religion” and often people also mention that we forget all differences among each other and just focus on motivating and praying that our team wins! And in some of the fans homes their cricketing superstars will be worshiped like any other god. 

Actually the agenda for this blog is to give the maximum information we know about this game, and also express some concerns about decline in the charm of the game and the reasons according to us.

We have seen great players around the world ,who were very dedicated to the sport starting from the unbeatable Sir Don Bradman ,Sir Vivian Richards, Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev, Glenn McGrath ,Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich ,master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly ,the list is almost endless these great souls are more than cricketers to all of us ,many lives in this great country were and are and will be motivated by these people and changed their lives forever ,for the determination and motivation that they have given us ,which is required to achieve anything in life.

It was West Indies which dominated the world cricket in the 60s, 70s and early 80s. The game was taken to a different level by this great team under the lights of the greatest cricketing personalities like Alvin Kallicharan who is considered to be the best middle order batsmen of that era. Clive Lloyd who happens to be the greatest test captains of all times. And the famous fast bowling unit of the team like Andy Roberts and Griffith who were as fast as any speedy trains. Their speeds used to touch above 160kms per hour. It was this bowling attack and the rest of the medium pacers of the great West Indies team used to create a nightmare in the minds of the opposite team.

Indian marvels like B S Chandrasekhar, E A S Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Jayasimha, venkataraghavan, G R Vishwanath, Farokh Engineer, Wadekar,Syed Kirmani and many more whose contributions to the Cricket are priceless. G R Vishwanath was considered to be the player of square cut; he used to play text book cricketing shots. And when the ball was given by the captain to Chandrasekhar, the commentators would call him as a wizard bowler and a magician with the ball, who has saved India in many difficult situations.

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These marvels  have become role models for the young budding cricketers. We have to remember the greatest cricketers of all time and pay tribute to them.    

One cannot forget the facts of the famous controversy of the bodyline bowling tactic by the England team against the Aussies. 

Early days of cricket was played with true spirit and we're used to play for the crowd. They had a very great passion toward the game and a huge respect for the country that they represented for. 

The batsmen used to face the fast steamy deliveries without any protection. They were not wearing any helmets, the arm guards, thigh pads and the chest guards. But they used to display great talents with the bat. 

Tiger Pataudi one of the greatest test captains of India and a very great batsmen who used to play with one eye. He had lost his right eye. 

There was a time line where schools and colleges were declared holidays to watch cricket matches especially in the test match season. How amazing is that!

We feel test matches, are actually the true test for any player to prove himself on the field. Test cricket is the best cricket. It is the greatest bliss for any player to play for the tests by representing his country. 

The picture shows the first test match played in London,

As illustrated in the London Times.

Moving on ,just think all those exciting days of our childhood when we used gaze at the T.V screen hoping for the win and feeling jubilant after we had won the match ,and felt that pure happiness when one of your favourites, player completed his century or broke a record that day .These days are just immemorial.

The 2011 world cup Winning cricket team

Cricket since the 90’s and after the millennium:

It was actually the era of the famous victories of England, Australia, West indies dominates the test cadre and India dominating in the one day international cadre with great players leading the team like Kapil Dev who sailed India to clinch the world cup in 1983 , We feel that was the best time of Indian cricket.

 The 1983 World cup Victory.

The lost Charm:

Well we have spoken about cricket which all positive till here let’s also speak about some issues which we feel is hampering the charm of this great game.

The first and fore most point would be the commercialization of cricket beyond the limit, we do agree that in this 21th century, the world is in huge business boom and ,all sporting events are subjected to some business and profits which is totally acceptable ,but when it  comes to cricket we can ,see commercialization to a new level.

Yes we are sure you have got an idea of what we are talking about, and your right, we are talking about the so called other forms of cricket like the 20-20 format which includes the IPL (Indian Premier League), which has turned this sport into pure business, bookie and filthy politics within the management heads, and the sport has turned into just a entertainment show! What a disaster.

We know we do have similar leagues in other sports like in football the (Barclays premier League),but we feel it doesn't fit in to cricket ,this is a game of strategy and skill ,not cracker show we hit , 120 balls in an hour however we want and get praised or that !that is ridiculous, and just disrespecting the sport

The sad part is that players lose their actual zeal towards the game, and becomes less productive in the actual matches other than these meaningless leagues, where they represent their countries.

The other forms of cricket may be more successful than the classical forms of cricket, and we are sure many of you would disagree that IPL is an obstacle for cricket, but if we just give it a thought, maybe there will be a change in your thinking.

These are all history which has to be recalled again and again. Our generation viewers have become more T20 oriented. And there is slight decline in the number of test cricket viewers. If you thoroughly understand the game of cricket then there is nothing like test matches    

Thanks a lot for taking time in reading this, let’s appreciate cricket the way it was and continue to maintain the tradition, let’s encourage all sports, to the extent possible.

Living with hope.

Tejus R.S and Harish Murthy.