The Trouble with Cricket

No, this isn’t about the recent debacle over the betting scandals. It’s about making cricket more interesting so that more youngsters want to play.

How to make cricket more interesting

Sports like hockey, netball, rugby, basketball, baseball and football all have a better participation ratio than cricket. With these sports, you can actually get involved and interact with the other players – in real time. You get to touch the ball as well! In football, inevitably the most popular sport, even the goalkeepers can get in on the act by taking penalties or going up field for corners, if they get bored.

So, the way to make cricket more interesting is to involve more of the players. Of the 22 players on the pitch only 6 are active at any one time. These are the 2 bowlers, 2 batsmen, the wicket-keeper and the lucky fielder whose job it is to get the ball back to a bowler.

Enter Twenty20

Since its inception, the game (Twenty20) has spread around the cricket world. It has gone a long way to re-igniting interest in the game. However, to keep the sport alive you need to interest new, young players at grass roots level. When Twenty20 was introduced it captivated the cricket world but now things have settled down and interest is waning again.

A simple rule change could involve all 22 players.

How will it work?

Simply, share the Twenty20 (20) overs amongst all the 10 outfield players. Each player, except the wicket-keeper, has to bowl at least one over. You can imagine the ways the captains will have to strategise to accommodate all the players. The run rate will go up and the games will be less predictable.

If T20 was changed in this way, teams would need players to have multi-skills and it would make for more exciting test matches as well.

About T20

Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams. Each team bats for a single innings, which has a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket.
A Twenty20 game is completed in about three and half hours, with each innings lasting around 75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the time span of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful.