Cricket World Series?
If you are of the opinion that too much too soon would take the charm away, please! Save it.
Cricket is one of the few sports in the world where we have to wait 4 years before crowning a world champion. Frankly, it stinks. If you are even considering arguing that the luster would be slightly lost if it was a yearly event, take a look at American sports. Superbowl is played every year and so are the NBA, MLB and NHL championships. You can't argue that a ring is the most valuable possession of athletes, owners and fans alike and it just doesn't make sense that it takes away a little something because you get a chance every year.
At least with Soccer & Rugby, each country has leagues that are played at the highest level with the best players. Local Cricket leagues do exist. But the difference is that they are played simultaneously along with the international version, hence making it impossible for the best available players to match up against each other. And I will not blame the fans for not following the Ranji trophy and the likes with fervor because the quality of Cricket isn't the best. They are merely the farm system that feeds the big leagues.
Being an international sport, some might argue that the logistics would make it difficult to set up an elaborate yearly event that spans a dozen countries. If the International Olympic Committee can organize a Super-Mega sports festival every 4 years, ICC should be able to pull something together each year. It can't be impossible.
7 of the 8 teams (barring England) have mild Cricketing conditions in December, right? Its summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Subcontinent is moderate too. End of the calendar year also! It all seems to fit ;)
Individual countries can still continue their international yearly schedule, and when December rolls around, the top 8 teams will be invited to the playoffs! In fact it doesn't have to be a quick 3 and out, knock-out tournament. 3 weeks should be plenty good time to set up some round-robin games and then play the semis and finals. Don't tell me that there is too much Cricket already!
This way there is a definite goal each year. Revenue will flow through the roof, and it opens up more opportunities for the entire cricketing community to come together often. Not just that, when you say that you haven't won a championship in 20 years, it doesn't mean in just 5 tries!
Cricket is one of the few sports in the world where we have to wait 4 years before crowning a world champion. Frankly, it stinks. If you are even considering arguing that the luster would be slightly lost if it was a yearly event, take a look at American sports. Superbowl is played every year and so are the NBA, MLB and NHL championships. You can't argue that a ring is the most valuable possession of athletes, owners and fans alike and it just doesn't make sense that it takes away a little something because you get a chance every year.
At least with Soccer & Rugby, each country has leagues that are played at the highest level with the best players. Local Cricket leagues do exist. But the difference is that they are played simultaneously along with the international version, hence making it impossible for the best available players to match up against each other. And I will not blame the fans for not following the Ranji trophy and the likes with fervor because the quality of Cricket isn't the best. They are merely the farm system that feeds the big leagues.
Being an international sport, some might argue that the logistics would make it difficult to set up an elaborate yearly event that spans a dozen countries. If the International Olympic Committee can organize a Super-Mega sports festival every 4 years, ICC should be able to pull something together each year. It can't be impossible.
7 of the 8 teams (barring England) have mild Cricketing conditions in December, right? Its summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Subcontinent is moderate too. End of the calendar year also! It all seems to fit ;)
Individual countries can still continue their international yearly schedule, and when December rolls around, the top 8 teams will be invited to the playoffs! In fact it doesn't have to be a quick 3 and out, knock-out tournament. 3 weeks should be plenty good time to set up some round-robin games and then play the semis and finals. Don't tell me that there is too much Cricket already!
This way there is a definite goal each year. Revenue will flow through the roof, and it opens up more opportunities for the entire cricketing community to come together often. Not just that, when you say that you haven't won a championship in 20 years, it doesn't mean in just 5 tries!
posted by Sriram at 9:00 AM
4 Comments:
Its a good idea..but the problem I see is...too much of anything will get boring.Cricket is too painfully long to have a world series every year.
We must have a ranking system each year...and have playoffs and finals every year..nexr year wipe the slate clean and start again...
Then it might become sonewhat okie..but still the game is too freaking long !!
Yes..good idea and I agree, about time we replace the once in 4 years idea. With all the new things the ICC is trying, do you think the ICC would not have thougt of this ? Especially as money minded as they are...what are the hindrances to this idea though ?
1. Weather changes in diff. countries ?
2. Getting all teams together for a month in one place ?
3. Initially all the cirkcet thaathas opposing ths idea ?
I don't know what else. I have to give you the nod here. Your reasoning sounds more sound..atleast if it's hard to do every year to begin with, start off with once every 2 years.
sayee, i'll attempt to discuss shortening the game in a separate post. for the sake of this article, when you say its a long game, i'm assuming the duration of each match. I think that doesn't have much bearing on why there shouldn't be a world series every year. i'm not seeing the connection..
dinesh,
you are right about the cricket thathaas. LOL! they'll get over it just like the ODI's and the 15 over rule and the powerplays and the super subs. (1) and (2) --fair concerns, but not showstoppers.
I'm sure ICC is working along these lines. They have to. But you know what, more often, we over estimate their capability to invent.
Good idea. I think they are headed down this path with the ICC championship which occurs every 2 years. So we pretty much have some kind of a "world" cup every 2 years. Maybe they need to prop up the ICC championships a lot more and extend it from being just knockouts. It appears the winners are not always justified. For e.g. WI won the last one...Now come, on!
So they are headed down that path. Every year is do-able. All these bi-lateral 7 match & 5-match series are meaningless anyway. Or another idea could be to make these bilateral series count towards some kind of qualification or playoffs for a world series.
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