PlanetCricket
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- Joined
- Jan 13, 2010
Article by Ollie_H -
As an economics student in the IB, we are taught about the effects of Supply and Demand, albeit this is fairly basic economics that one could understand after a 5 minute read of a website but it also provides the simplest and easiest of answers to ?fix? Test Cricket. On the 3rd July 2010, England played Australia in the 5th ODI of a seemingly pointless series. One big point in the commentary has stuck in my mind all day. The ?Big Bash? vs. the Friends Provident T20. These are the T20 tournaments of Australia and England respectively. The question begs to be asked, what is the difference between the two tournaments? Well they are both T20 tournaments placed into a cricket season and the Australian ?Big Bash? has 4 Internationals allowed compared to the English 2. But that is not the most amazing difference, the major difference is amount of games played in the competitions and their respective turn outs. The ?Big Bash? has just 16 games compared to the massive 100+ games in the FP T20.
The main fear on many cricketers mind is the amount of cricket they play in a season/year. The ECB even noticed these fears in the multiple reports laid out after the players were growing increasingly ?burnt out? and in response the ECB decided to scrap one of the Domestic Competitions, so whilst the cricketers thought they would be getting less cricket, the ECB managed to find a way to INCREASE the amount of days of cricket played even after taking out one of the Domestic Tournaments. This is where Cricket is going so wrong, it doesn?t need the addition of radical changes to the format of the game, it needs to reduce the amount of cricket played. As I said earlier, the basic theory of Supply and Demand can be used to explain how the governing bodies are covering all corners. Cricket has produced a surplus in Supply of cricket, thus not receiving the increase in Demand.
Let?s look at the amount of cricket played compared to other sports after the recent announcement of where the next series of cricket tournaments will be held. Between the start 2010 and the end 2015, easy maths tells us, a 5 year period. The ICC will host at least 3 T20 World Championships (2010,2012,2014), 2 Full World Cups (2011,2015), 1 ‘Mini World Cup’ (2013). That is 6 ?World Cups? in the next 5 years. Lets look at the other sports. Football will hold 2 World Cups (2010, 2014) and Rugby will also hold 2 World Cups (2011, 2015). There is a stark contrast to the amount of Cricket played compared to other sports in the world, which is why they have become so great.
Cricket has an incredibly easy ?fix? if it is so broken? as many of cricketing bodies seem to believe. It comes in the form of 3 easy and simple words.
PLAY LESS CRICKET.
Again, we can compare the amount of cricket played to other sports. Cricket is the only sport that is played Internationally all year round, without the players being able to play Domestic Cricket. It covers a vicious cycle, the well known big major players of the game are taken up playing Full-Time international cricket, so they are never able to ply their trade in the Domestic Setup. In the recent news, Kevin Pietersen has played just a handful of games for his ?Home Club? the Hampshire Hawks since rising to fame 5 years ago, and now does not even consider the Rose Bowl as his ?Home Ground? and just sees it as another game.█ The Barclays Premier League stops at the weekends when there are International matches being played, although the Guinness Premiership rugby plays on through the Autumn Internationals or the 6-Nations, they still do not play enough Rugby for the International Players not to be able to ply their trade domestically.
So let?s scrap all this talk of new radical changes to cricket and fears that Test Cricket is over because in reality it isn?t, the game can be as strong as ever and will be if we do one simple thing, reduce the amount of Cricket played.
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This is the 1st of a Series of Two-Part Article Entitled ?If It Is Not Broken, Don?t Fix It?
More...
Cricket is a fantastic sport, possibly, if not my favourite sport and has been for the majority of my life. But the way the governing body and separate country bodies act really makes me hate it, almost like it tugs at my heart strings with every forthcoming announcement about change, it is a LOVE-HATE relationship. The recent news the Cricket Australia are to trial a 2 Innings a Side One Day game takes the biscuit for me. But it is not just Cricket Australia that sees cricket as ?broken?, the ICC also fears that they can see the end of Test Cricket in the future.
Of my knowledge, only two types of Sport have had to make so many different forms of the game, Cricket being one and Snooker being the other. Both have done so to draw in new crowds and make forms of the games exciting. Whilst it works to an extent, it is the completely wrong way of viewing something. Cricket has tried so many different options to fill out crowds, but the one thing they haven?t done, is the one that will work.
Of my knowledge, only two types of Sport have had to make so many different forms of the game, Cricket being one and Snooker being the other. Both have done so to draw in new crowds and make forms of the games exciting. Whilst it works to an extent, it is the completely wrong way of viewing something. Cricket has tried so many different options to fill out crowds, but the one thing they haven?t done, is the one that will work.
As an economics student in the IB, we are taught about the effects of Supply and Demand, albeit this is fairly basic economics that one could understand after a 5 minute read of a website but it also provides the simplest and easiest of answers to ?fix? Test Cricket. On the 3rd July 2010, England played Australia in the 5th ODI of a seemingly pointless series. One big point in the commentary has stuck in my mind all day. The ?Big Bash? vs. the Friends Provident T20. These are the T20 tournaments of Australia and England respectively. The question begs to be asked, what is the difference between the two tournaments? Well they are both T20 tournaments placed into a cricket season and the Australian ?Big Bash? has 4 Internationals allowed compared to the English 2. But that is not the most amazing difference, the major difference is amount of games played in the competitions and their respective turn outs. The ?Big Bash? has just 16 games compared to the massive 100+ games in the FP T20.
The main fear on many cricketers mind is the amount of cricket they play in a season/year. The ECB even noticed these fears in the multiple reports laid out after the players were growing increasingly ?burnt out? and in response the ECB decided to scrap one of the Domestic Competitions, so whilst the cricketers thought they would be getting less cricket, the ECB managed to find a way to INCREASE the amount of days of cricket played even after taking out one of the Domestic Tournaments. This is where Cricket is going so wrong, it doesn?t need the addition of radical changes to the format of the game, it needs to reduce the amount of cricket played. As I said earlier, the basic theory of Supply and Demand can be used to explain how the governing bodies are covering all corners. Cricket has produced a surplus in Supply of cricket, thus not receiving the increase in Demand.
Let?s look at the amount of cricket played compared to other sports after the recent announcement of where the next series of cricket tournaments will be held. Between the start 2010 and the end 2015, easy maths tells us, a 5 year period. The ICC will host at least 3 T20 World Championships (2010,2012,2014), 2 Full World Cups (2011,2015), 1 ‘Mini World Cup’ (2013). That is 6 ?World Cups? in the next 5 years. Lets look at the other sports. Football will hold 2 World Cups (2010, 2014) and Rugby will also hold 2 World Cups (2011, 2015). There is a stark contrast to the amount of Cricket played compared to other sports in the world, which is why they have become so great.
Cricket has an incredibly easy ?fix? if it is so broken? as many of cricketing bodies seem to believe. It comes in the form of 3 easy and simple words.
PLAY LESS CRICKET.
Again, we can compare the amount of cricket played to other sports. Cricket is the only sport that is played Internationally all year round, without the players being able to play Domestic Cricket. It covers a vicious cycle, the well known big major players of the game are taken up playing Full-Time international cricket, so they are never able to ply their trade in the Domestic Setup. In the recent news, Kevin Pietersen has played just a handful of games for his ?Home Club? the Hampshire Hawks since rising to fame 5 years ago, and now does not even consider the Rose Bowl as his ?Home Ground? and just sees it as another game.█ The Barclays Premier League stops at the weekends when there are International matches being played, although the Guinness Premiership rugby plays on through the Autumn Internationals or the 6-Nations, they still do not play enough Rugby for the International Players not to be able to ply their trade domestically.
So let?s scrap all this talk of new radical changes to cricket and fears that Test Cricket is over because in reality it isn?t, the game can be as strong as ever and will be if we do one simple thing, reduce the amount of Cricket played.
————
This is the 1st of a Series of Two-Part Article Entitled ?If It Is Not Broken, Don?t Fix It?
More...
