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Craig HillThe Curse of Meaningless One Day Tournaments
September 22nd 2006 00:48
The Curse of Meaningless One Day Tournaments
The recent DLF Cup held in Malaysia has done little to contribute to world cricket and done much to highlight the faults currently in the game surrounding player and spectator burn out.
Malaysia’s only previous experience in hosting international cricket was the ICC trophy in the mid to late 90’s, hardly cricket’s most glamorous stage. In an age of one-day cricket overload placating the few Malaysian cricket supporters with some meaningless tri series was hardly what the doctor ordered for any of the participating teams.
The three teams are all preparing for the Champions Trophy in October and November, many participating with varying degrees of enthusiasm, note the recent withdrawals from the England squad. As a precursor to the World Cup the preparation provided by this tournament is both badly timed and ill suited to the type of preparation required by most of the nations. Long flights for all but the teams located in the South Asian region combined with the possibility of returning home after two competitive matches is hardly the type of precursor World Cup aspirants like South Africa and the West Indies would have had in mind in advance of the Carribean carnival of cricket in March and April next year.
Australia are preparing for the home Ashes series (more to come in future editions on that topic) and India are preparing for an away series against South Africa. Both I am sure would have preferred alternative surroundings than the Kinrara Academy Oval in sweltering KL to bring their stars McGrath and Tendulkar back into competitive action. Perhaps the old fashioned concept of possibles versus probables over 3-4 days with some genuinely testing time in the middle for batsmen and bowlers would have been more to their liking. The sponsors and marketeers however may hold a different view.
For these very sponsors and the audience procured through pay TV networks some of the cricket has been exciting. Tendulkar’s magnificent innings against India on his return match from injury and Johnson announcing his arrival on the international stage with 4 valuable wickets in an explosive spell being cases in point.
For the most part however this series had meandered along at much the same pace as park cricket on a Sunday with about as many spectators to match.
Let’s hope that those involved in the scheduling of international matches in the future will take note of the failings of the fixture overload and keep the players interests at heart and those of the cricket following public who are hungry for an appropriate amount of competitive good quality cricket to be broadcast.
David Hudson
* writers note: I will be writing regularly for cricketnews.com.au and would be pleased to receive any suggestions on my pieces and topics for future discussion.
The recent DLF Cup held in Malaysia has done little to contribute to world cricket and done much to highlight the faults currently in the game surrounding player and spectator burn out.
Malaysia’s only previous experience in hosting international cricket was the ICC trophy in the mid to late 90’s, hardly cricket’s most glamorous stage. In an age of one-day cricket overload placating the few Malaysian cricket supporters with some meaningless tri series was hardly what the doctor ordered for any of the participating teams.
The three teams are all preparing for the Champions Trophy in October and November, many participating with varying degrees of enthusiasm, note the recent withdrawals from the England squad. As a precursor to the World Cup the preparation provided by this tournament is both badly timed and ill suited to the type of preparation required by most of the nations. Long flights for all but the teams located in the South Asian region combined with the possibility of returning home after two competitive matches is hardly the type of precursor World Cup aspirants like South Africa and the West Indies would have had in mind in advance of the Carribean carnival of cricket in March and April next year.
Australia are preparing for the home Ashes series (more to come in future editions on that topic) and India are preparing for an away series against South Africa. Both I am sure would have preferred alternative surroundings than the Kinrara Academy Oval in sweltering KL to bring their stars McGrath and Tendulkar back into competitive action. Perhaps the old fashioned concept of possibles versus probables over 3-4 days with some genuinely testing time in the middle for batsmen and bowlers would have been more to their liking. The sponsors and marketeers however may hold a different view.
For these very sponsors and the audience procured through pay TV networks some of the cricket has been exciting. Tendulkar’s magnificent innings against India on his return match from injury and Johnson announcing his arrival on the international stage with 4 valuable wickets in an explosive spell being cases in point.
For the most part however this series had meandered along at much the same pace as park cricket on a Sunday with about as many spectators to match.
Let’s hope that those involved in the scheduling of international matches in the future will take note of the failings of the fixture overload and keep the players interests at heart and those of the cricket following public who are hungry for an appropriate amount of competitive good quality cricket to be broadcast.
David Hudson
* writers note: I will be writing regularly for cricketnews.com.au and would be pleased to receive any suggestions on my pieces and topics for future discussion.
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