Cricket Woes

Nothing lifts the spirits more in such desperate times than the memory of a young player gaining simple pleasure from one of his first tastes of cricketing success. India's cricket commercialism was shaken to the core because last week a carefree 17-year-old Bangladeshi, Tamim Iqbal, smacked the bowlers to all parts. Yesterday, Sri Lanka also looked to their younger batsmen. Where their seasoned batsmen failed, they prospered through Upul Tharanga's security and Chamara Silva's mid-innings spark.

It all means that Bangladesh and Ireland are in the Super Eights and India and Pakistan are not. The crooks and charlatans on the fringes of the game will be appalled. But Woolmer, were he still alive, would have recognised the essential romance of it, the reminder that financial resources can still occasionally count for nothing when matched against the beating of a human heart.

David Hopps is absolutely right.

In the past weeks of watching this World Cup, it is very clear that Cricket is undergoing a deep crisis - the game is in trouble. The commercialization and superstardom of the last decade has robbed it of the pure pleasures of the game. Is it the dour professionalism and dominance of the Aussies? Or the in-fighting of Cricket Boards in India and Pakistan? The thing about these young Bangladeshi is not just that they can play ... but that they are enjoying every single minute of being out there. That same glee is in the NewZealanders and in the Irish teams. It is curtains for many of the Pakistani, and perhaps Indian, players. Is there any hope for a rejuvenation there?

COMMENTS

Ajnabi | March 23, 2007

David Hopps is also dead? Must be a conspiracy. Mush was right...

sepoy | March 23, 2007

Thx for the catch.

Jonathan Dresner | March 24, 2007

Someone's dead, though, and it doesn't bode well for the future of subcontinental cricket. Even I know that, and I'm a sumo fan.

Ajnabi | March 24, 2007

JD: Sumo wrestler Marisa Yamane was fatally stabbed a couple of years ago, but that was not the ides of Japanese wrestling. So why should subcontinent cricket be any different? But what would I know, I'm only a kanchey fan.

sepoy | March 24, 2007

Goli Mari!

Early Modern Notes World Cup 2007 | March 25, 2007

[...] have been kids having fun and unlikely [...]

Jonathan Dresner | March 25, 2007

Umm... because it was a retired wrestler who was stabbed for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with sumo, as opposed to an active coach who appears to have been killed for professional reasons. Don't get me wrong: Sumo's got its own serious problems.

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