Re-inventing the game of cricket

Bat and ball / Frank Gregan / 31 October 2011 / Leave a Comment

What if catches won televison deals rather than just matches?

"At the end of the year, when all the fixtures are completed, a two up - two down promotion and relegation is applied. Wouldn't that be something? Imagine India, England, Australia or South Africa being in the bottom two towards the end of the year and fighting to stay out of the wilderness."

There are a few tournaments with an eventual winner but for the most part international cricket is one, big, never-ending season. But what if all that changed, wonders Frank Gregan.

"I thought you said we were good at this?" one of the guys that I play golf with quipped as we stood at the bar at the nineteenth and watched England getting their butts kicked once again in India.

"We are," I replied a shade too defensively.

"So how come we get beat all the time?"

"It's difficult to explain," I said opting for a condescending manner, the intricacies of the
beautiful game of cricket far too difficult for my mental midget buddy to comprehend.

"Try me, I'm an educated man but I can't begin to understand how you can profess to be good at something when you get hammered all the time!"

It made me think, how do you explain to someone the point of cricket? How do you justify a team like England going to India, getting absolutely smashed and then just toddling off to the next event? No repercussions, no scapegoats, just a case of, oh well, not to worry, what's next?

Andy Flower's men now look forward to touring the United Arab Emirates in the New Year where they will take on the cricketing nomads Pakistan and so the cycle continues. It's not so much a case of 'whats the point?' It's all about 'where's the structure?'

The game needs to engage the supporters and provide meaningful, tense and exciting fayre. It would be much better served if it could grab the attention of its followers with a nail biting season of identifiable success and failure. It's food for thought: how can cricket re-invent itself and capture a bigger market share without losing its core values?

It needs a fresh approach. The Indian Premier League is testament to the fact that cricket supporters enjoy a structured competition. How about this then for an innovative and refreshing re-structuring of the game that would have WG Grace turning in his grave and the Chief Executives of every major national cricket board reaching for the Prozac...

Determine the top 12 cricket playing nations and rank them. Divide them into two divisions, each with six teams, let's call them the Premier League and the Challenger's League. Each team plays each other home and away, two Test matches in each country, four ODIs and two T20s. 10 points are awarded for a Test win, five for a draw and 'nada' for a defeat. Four points are awarded for an ODI win and two for a tie. Finally award two points for a T20 win and one for a tie and we have have ourselves a competitive, structured and meaningful international cricket league.

Now here's the twist. The Premier League gets all the razzmatazz, all the bells and whistles that goes with wall-to-wall television coverage and media rights. The Challenger's League gets next to nothing, ball to ball coverage can only be found on Icelandic regional radio and match write ups are posted on blogs as homework assignments for first year journalism students.

At the end of the year, when all the fixtures are completed, a two up - two down promotion and relegation is applied. Wouldn't that be something? Imagine India, England, Australia or South Africa being in the bottom two towards the end of the year and fighting to stay out of the wilderness. The format can be tinkered with but the mission of attaining a cricket structure with rich rewards for the successful and harsh and punitive punishment for the failures must be achieved.

It won't happen. The status quo of meandering from series to series and chopping and changing rankings in the various formats will continue. England's next opponents, Pakistan, are in action in the third Test against Sri Lanka on Thursday and are priced at [3.35] to wrap up the series 2-0. Sri Lanka are [4.0] and with the wicket in Sharjah expected to be flat, the draw is favourite at [2.16]. It's a meaningful Test but imagine the pressure if the losing side was to be relegated from the Premier League and have to spend at least a year in cricketing oblivion. Now that really would give the match a meaning!