BAZBALL AND THE ASHES: WHERE IS INDIAN CRICKET IN BETWEEN

The Ashes – the crowning epithet of cricket rivalry. The above picture sums it all. Pat Cummins throws his bat and helmet in glee as Australia win the first Ashes test against England at Birmingham. The match was full of ups and downs, highs and lows. It was the first match in the 2023-25 WTC cycle and Australia collected 10 vital points as against England’s 2.

Australia strode well with its key players. And what a match it was. Usman Khawaja – who recently confessed he felt he did not belong as close to the Australian dressing room as he wanted to be – was at peace with himself and strode tall among all the players of Australia and England with his masterful knocks of 141 and 65 !!

English bowling lacked quality on the placid Birmingham pitch. Ollie Robinson’s 77 mph friendly dollops looked as if Usman was practising at nets toying with placements – a gentle nudge on the offside or a startling flick to midwicket – often tells the mindset and the skill bank of the Aussies pitted against a shaking Ollie Pope, for one, whose crying face looked akin to a swimmer who forgot to swim amongst a swathe of performers passionately eager to show off their skills – the swinging yorker from Cummins shattering his citadel. So brutal was the annihilation that Pope would lose a few nights’ sleep awakened by the crushing sound of the ball hitting the stumps; and the Ollies are stars ! Right(?). But yes, he is Ben Stokes’ go-to man, he needs to sleep well.

Bazball and Brexit. England, in all its glory, is weighed down by the new coinages, it seems – be it cricket sport or governance of the nation. Is Brexit good for United Kingdom(?) or Bazball for cricket(?)– no and yes, there is no looking back as for Brexit how improbable a proposition it might seem to the Commons now. Looks like the House would never get in order. But Bazball will.

Bazball has its positives, but what is Bazball? As a game of cricket Bazball is highly entertaining. It ensures Test cricket - till recently snubbed as five days of waste – produced results and Stokes’ encouraging declaration in the first innings, 393 for 8 declared in the first Ashes Test, (many thought the innings should have had its own set of legs to travel a bit longer), paved the way for a stunning finish. England lost the Test match but Ben Stokes, the English captain, won many hearts for stoking a debate: was the declaration good for cricket(?). Of course, it was. ECB’s (England and Wales Cricket Board) Bazball had done the trick, Test cricket had become exciting! If this is not brilliant cricket then what is.

I am coming to the marketing skills of ECB later, who surely and steadfastly guided the Ashes brand of cricket – men’s as well as women’s – to a very entertaining level and now women’s Ashes series has become as hair raising a drama as the men’s, the scales are different though but the values are enormous. Crowds are sweeping the grounds; its revenue model has lit up and what not. ECB can triumphantly hand over the cricketing world a case study to adapt and learn!

But now let us move to another part of the world where cricket is worshipped, its players enamoured.

India. Does Indian cricket need marketing? Prima facie no. Why? Because the cricket loving crowd of India throng the stadiums in thousands generating revenues unmatched by any other cricketing board.

The movers and shakers, IPL. The Indian Premier League is the crowning glory of Indian cricket. It lords over all other sport in India. Such is the stature of these lords that they tend to escape all scrutiny - for example; would the cricket playing guys be meted to such nonchalant inattention and repugnance as the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) boys and girls (no pun intended)? Would the MeToo movement scissoring Indian cricket players, if at all, face the same apathy as these hapless grapplers are facing now(?). Definitely not.

Cricket is a religion in India and the Board is getting richer by each passing year, courtesy IPL. Built on the EPL (English Premier League) model IPL brings a lot of revenue to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) coffers. The rich Board is blinded by cash !!

But cash cannot produce quality cricket players.

Have you noticed. In EPL, being one of the strongest football leagues in the world, how many players England have of the calibre of a Lionel Messi, a Cristiano Ronaldo or a Kylian Mbappe(?) None.

The bitter truth is we are not producing cricket players of a very high quality in spite of IPL likewise England is not producing world class footballers in spite of EPL.

Does it ring a bell(?). It sure does. It is high time one listened to it!

So crushingly good Leagues are not producing crushingly good players for their countries. How many Indian players in the IPL drew the same attention as that of a Jos Buttler, a Harry Brook, a Liam Livingstone, a Trent Boult or a Faf Du Plessis(?). Very few.

Does it ring a bell(?). It sure does.

Lost. In between the Aussie cricket supremacy and Bazball glow Indian cricket somewhere has lost its way. Star cricketers don’t play domestic cricket, do not face the grind and as a result have lost the bright sheen in their armoury. In a striking contrast the Australian cricket has everything that Indian cricket does not have, sledging included. For all wise men to sit up and take notice, Australia’s domestic cricket is neither IPL-esque nor its football EPL-ish.

There has not been a brighter basket of talented cricketers than the Australians at the moment. The result is there for all to see.

Well, well, well.

One has to look at the WTC (World Test Championships) Final, June 7-11,2023. India lost by 209 runs. Picture below sums up. India was thoroughly outplayed by the brilliant Aussies, things were so bad that we sitting in India were praying when the match would end, when we would blank out our TV sets - for us the ignominy was awful, unwatchable !!

And now the Indian Board needs to wake up from its sweet slumber. Our Virat Kohlis, Rohit Sharmas and Ravinder Jadejas have crossed the better part of their thirties and money from IPL has stymied their hunger for playing and performing for the country. If corrective action is not taken forthwith Indian cricket will perish slowly but surely.

To BCCI. If you still do not budge, please continue at your own peril.

The marketing skills of ECB. Finally, the Women’s Ashes is not an after-thought – and the fans are flooding in. Ten years ago, a TV advert would be an unmitigated disaster but it seems ECB has woken up(?) and more than 75,000 tickets have been sold. Do we hear anything about Women’s cricket in India(?). The matches are very few and far between. But look at the billboard below !

Two England Teams, Two Ashes Rivalries, One Landmark Moment. ECB kept on keeping the spectator wide awake by increasing visibility.

And ECB wins. Historically, England Women’s internationals haven’t been at the top of the list of matches ECB had scheduled and it’s usually been left fairly late. Doing it early and alongside the men was a very conscious decision, to make sure that this Ashes summer would very much be seen as a men’s and women’s Ashes season combined.

Picture perfect. It cannot get better than this. Usman Khawaja is seen in a very happy space with his family after winning the Man of the Match award for his heroics in the first Test.

This article has been written just after Australia won the first Ashes Test and going one up in the five-match series ! Bingo.