The Homeboys

Seems like the only place where you can make money in cricket today is in India. In the past decade, I would have mentioned South Asia but even that minor luxury of space is speedily diminishing.

The JSCA, Ranchi stadium is set to host its 2nd ever Test Match from 19th Oct, 2019


After the world cup ended in July- 2019, the team decided to tour West Indies in August. That series ended on 03 Sept with a 3 day practice match, 02 Tests, 03 ODIs and 03 T20s. The series with South Africa is now ongoing with most ace players rested. As the third test starts today, India has a clear and winning lead in the 3 match Test Series. Bangladesh, West Indies, Zimbabwe, SriLanka and Australia will tour the country next until January. That’s a lot of countries coming in for a 6 month period. In February 2020, the Indians decide to step out and go to New Zealand – a first since August end. Certainly a five month of home season doesn’t sound too bad- it may give the team a break from the stresses of overseas tours. But the amount of cricket played in these five months is certainly disappointing. Those five months are seeing 5 different countries touring the nation- easy to fill up the entire year calendar for a major team until 20 years ago.


After the world cup ended in July- 2019, the team decided to tour West Indies in August. That series ended on 03 Sept with a 3 day practice match, 02 Tests, 03 ODIs and 03 T20s. The series with South Africa is now ongoing with most ace players rested. As the third test starts today, India has a clear and winning lead in the 3 match Test Series. Bangladesh, West Indies, Zimbabwe, SriLanka and Australia will tour the country next until January. That’s a lot of countries coming in for a 6 month period. In February 2020, the Indians decide to step out and go to New Zealand – a first since August end. Certainly a five month of home season doesn’t sound too bad- it may give the team a break from the stresses of overseas tours. But the amount of cricket played in these five months is certainly disappointing. Those five months are seeing 5 different countries touring the nation- easy to fill up the entire year calendar for a major team until 20 years ago.

Teams and their supporters have been turned into an overmilked cow who have been exploited by the centralized nature of cricket today. The ICC’s nature of funding and political control has given rise to calendars that are pushing for maximum profit extraction at the cost of development of the game. The 2007 world cup saw 16 teams (from 97 entrants) competing and there was hope that this would encourage new youngsters in new countries to play cricket. compare this to the 2019 cricket worldcup where just 10 teams participated. The number of matches played between the teams has been kept the same to ensure that revenues are not compromised despite diminishing participation.

Indian fans have probably been the greatest sufferers in this change of wind. The lack of interest in cricket globally has led to decreasing standards of play. To make up for reducing quality, the TV consumers have been wooed with cheerleader-ism through advertisements and gimmicks such as the IPL. By appealing to a false sense of pride in the Indian audiences by playing a below quality game on dead pitches and home grounds, the BCCI has enriched itself while harming cricket.

While cricket may survive in the long run through altering its rule, the game has been harmed severely in the past decade. Certainly the control of England and Australia in the earlier days on politics of cricket was harmful, but the BCCI with its newly discovered money power has added fuel to fire. Sadly, there is no one stop the run of this mad bull. Political control of cricket and the power that it commands in society benefits its controllers. The only ones suffering are the fans and the game of cricket.

Entrance to the JSCA Stadium, Ranchi.

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