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Craig HillIndoor, Outdoor Cricket: Can it work?
August 15th 2006 13:33
Melbourne's indoor stadium the 'Telstra Dome' has housed some spectacular sporting events such as regular AFL matches and a host of cricket one-dayers.
So one must ask. Can cricket be successfully played indoors? The answer is still being figured out, as Cricket Australia continues to experiment and trial games at the Telstra Dome.
Everyone knows that the worst thing that could happen on the day of a match is terrential rain. First of all, the players don't get to play and thus a result cannot be drawn, and lastly the crowd don't get what they paid for. So for cricket indoors - one point.
Contrastingly, you might say that playing the game in an indoor stadium somewhat alters/eliminates the unpredictabilty that is produced from the physical environment. Environmental variables such as wind, cloud cover, sun/lighting, and rain all become altered in some way, which ultimately affect various essential factors in the game of cricket. Firstly, the pitch is a drop-in style pitch which does not become subjected to the elements (eg. run and sunlight), and thus is almost a batman's paradise on all occassions. Players will find that the ball will swing in a predictable manner due to the fact wind speed does not vary and that cloud cover is completely eliminated altogether. To add to this, the lighting of the game will be completely artificial and thus, batsmen may have difficulty in spotting the ball or just the fact that the whole game is played under lights may give the game an awkward 'artificial' feel.
However, you may want to argue that the lights will do the game good. Fielders won't complain about the sun in their eyes, and the possibility of play being abandoned early due to bad light will be a thing of the past.
Despite this, there is one major factor in indoor cricket which prevents it from being frequently used as a venue for cricket matches. That is the roof. Stadiums are intricate pieces of architecture, which has limitations. From a financial perspective, to make a roof high enough to ensure that the ball will not be able to touch it is almost impossible, as the whole stadium will have to lifted in order to accomdate for such a height. That means, extra seating... but for what reason? Having a capacity of 120,000 is a mere dream, and just too damn expensive! We've already seen the roof being hit several times, thus exposing a major flaw in the indoor cricket concept.
Essentially in my opinion, 'indoor' cricket is still a space age notion which without unimaginable technology cannot be completely successful. The recent one day games have been a success, however consistent matches at the arena would create a dull atmosphere - definitely not what cricket is all about. And for test matches... it would just be too awkward to see it played under lights all day.
So one must ask. Can cricket be successfully played indoors? The answer is still being figured out, as Cricket Australia continues to experiment and trial games at the Telstra Dome.
Everyone knows that the worst thing that could happen on the day of a match is terrential rain. First of all, the players don't get to play and thus a result cannot be drawn, and lastly the crowd don't get what they paid for. So for cricket indoors - one point.
Contrastingly, you might say that playing the game in an indoor stadium somewhat alters/eliminates the unpredictabilty that is produced from the physical environment. Environmental variables such as wind, cloud cover, sun/lighting, and rain all become altered in some way, which ultimately affect various essential factors in the game of cricket. Firstly, the pitch is a drop-in style pitch which does not become subjected to the elements (eg. run and sunlight), and thus is almost a batman's paradise on all occassions. Players will find that the ball will swing in a predictable manner due to the fact wind speed does not vary and that cloud cover is completely eliminated altogether. To add to this, the lighting of the game will be completely artificial and thus, batsmen may have difficulty in spotting the ball or just the fact that the whole game is played under lights may give the game an awkward 'artificial' feel.
However, you may want to argue that the lights will do the game good. Fielders won't complain about the sun in their eyes, and the possibility of play being abandoned early due to bad light will be a thing of the past.
Despite this, there is one major factor in indoor cricket which prevents it from being frequently used as a venue for cricket matches. That is the roof. Stadiums are intricate pieces of architecture, which has limitations. From a financial perspective, to make a roof high enough to ensure that the ball will not be able to touch it is almost impossible, as the whole stadium will have to lifted in order to accomdate for such a height. That means, extra seating... but for what reason? Having a capacity of 120,000 is a mere dream, and just too damn expensive! We've already seen the roof being hit several times, thus exposing a major flaw in the indoor cricket concept.
Essentially in my opinion, 'indoor' cricket is still a space age notion which without unimaginable technology cannot be completely successful. The recent one day games have been a success, however consistent matches at the arena would create a dull atmosphere - definitely not what cricket is all about. And for test matches... it would just be too awkward to see it played under lights all day.
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