Cricket. What happened to you?

Is it just me, or do others feel that cricket has lost it’s lustre?

I remember the days, back in the mid 80’s. Lillee, Border, Marsh (both), Boon, McDermott, Merv, O’Donnell, Jones.

We had a magical team back then. Cricket was THE national Australian sport. Played everywhere. Watched by everyone.

What’s happened?

We’re facing a 7 game losing streak in One Day Internationals. We don’t hold the Ashes. Crowds are falling. Match Fixing allegations are flying.

It feels like the game is self-imploding. If it weren’t for the big money coming from India, I think it would be even closer to death.

We lost to Sri Lanka the other night because we couldn’t get their No. 10 and 11 batsmen out! Sad sad sad.

The last few years have really been disappointing for me as a cricket fan. I’ll go as far as to say that I’ve lost interest in most aspects of the game apart from test matches. 20/20 matches, for me, have ruined the original shortened version of the game, the 50 over ODI’s. The everyday fan is so keen to see players attempting to smash every ball and to have the game wrap up in 3 hours that they’ve given up on the laborious 50 over match.

At least test matches still hold that traditional feel, but when the Pakistani’s start to mess with match fixing, it even ruins the pure perfect version of the game.

I went to Lord’s in July and watched the Australians play Pakistan on the hallowed turf. It was a fantastic atmosphere being at the ‘home’ of cricket. Listening to poms around me, taking in the MCC members, drinking the English beer. It really hits home as to what cricket is about.

How can it recover? How can cricket come back to what it used to be?

Maybe McDonalds should start giving out posters of the teams from the ‘World Series of Cricket’ again. Maybe we should ditch 20/20’s and focus on the One Dayer again. I mean, did you see the 20/20 the other night? We were crap. We couldn’t slog to save ourselves, and if you don’t slog in a slogfest, what’s the point??

I still love the sound of leather on willow, the voice of the Channel 9 commentators and the local ABC radio covering the tests, but I am getting close to giving up on the shortened bastardised version unless something changes soon.

And to those that say 20/20 is the future, take a look at yourselves. It’s nothing more than a short, talent-less money grab. You don’t need a lot of skill to swing the bat and hope for a 6 or to bowl slower balls every 2nd ball to confuse the batter that has pre-determined his slog (shot).

I would be happy for 20/20’s to disappear from the game altogether, but of course that’s not going to happen whilst it is making more money than ODI’s and Test matches.