The previous edition of more from Champions Trophy talks about people complaining of India gaining unfair advantage because they are playing all their games in Dubai including the final if they qualify. Now, the whole cricketing world revolves around India. If the ICC hadn’t accommodated the Indian games either in Dubai or somewhere else, definitely, we would not have participated in the tournament. Millions of dollars would have been lost. It is something neither the PCB nor the ICC can afford to lose. Moreover, we did not demand for a neutral venue just because of the clout the BCCI has. This is purely for obvious reasons. We Indians do not want anything to do with Pakistan. However, the issue refuses to die down.
Jos Buttler, whose England team have been enduring a miserable run over the last month, mainly because of India, took a jibe at India by reiterating India’s advantage. Sunil Gavaskar would have none of it. He gave a befitting reply to England in general and Jos Buttler in particular.
“They will still come and start moaning the next morning. See they cannot lose. If they lose there has to be an excuse and the excuse cannot be that they weren’t better that day or the other team was better, they will start blaming everything,” he said, on the Dressing Room show.
“They will start blaming India also because India are playing all their matches in Dubai and why are we not playing our matches at one venue,” Gavaskar concluded.
Gavaskar is on the money
He is correct isn’t he? I mean, England’s performance in white-ball cricket has been atrocious. Just recently, England lost 7 games out of 8 against India. In some of them, they were utterly thrashed. Ben Duckett famously said that so long as England defeats India in the finals of the Champions Trophy, it did not matter even if they lose 0-3 to India in the ODIs. That has comeback to bite them in the back with another exit in the group stages of one more ICC tournament.
Buttler as captain has been a miserable failure though he has a T20 World Cup win. They must concentrate on improving their white-ball cricket rather than poking on things over which his understanding is pretty much zero. It is better he keeps quiet when asked such questions. Buttler’s future as the England’s ODI captain looks bleak at the moment. He will do well to prepare himself to talk to the ECB over his future as the captain. The team that was built by Eoin Morgan, is now struggling to go past the first round of ICC tournaments. Buttler has been an uninspiring captain and that is clear as day.
Ashwin’s interesting take
Ashwin feels that the ODI tweaks like two new balls, five fielders inside the 30 yard circle has been brought to nullify the Indian spinners.
“Before this Afghanistan versus England match, I was wondering whether there is any future for ODI cricket,” Ashwin said on his Hindi YouTube channel Ash Ki Baat.
“Let’s be very honest with it. In T20Is, there is so much crowd engagement, and consumption is high because it ends inside four hours. I feel Test cricket will excel more once the first-class structure of teams like Afghanistan improves.
“But in ODIs, there is no contest. Until 2013-14, ODI cricket was played with one ball. Before 2015, the new rule was implemented where five fielders were allowed in the circle, and two balls were introduced. I think in many ways that rule was meant to nullify India’s spin domination. That is just my take.”
“There used to be a time when one-day cricket was played with the red ball. It is time to seriously give it a thought about this particular format of the game,”
My take
These are some interesting observations. I do not think that the rules were laid to nullify Indian spinners though ICC is notorious to introduce the bouncer limit to control the impact the West Indian fast bowlers created. These were the same rules under which a Shane Warne or Muralitharan or Swann played under. These bowlers were far better than any Indian spinner over the last 20-25 years. When they didn’t complain, I don’t think that Ashwin can complain.
However, I am not willing to dismiss all of Ashwin’s suggestions. He wants a return to the red ball. ODI cricket has lost its sheen for sometime now. It needs to be reinvigorated. White-ball does not move in the air nor does it offer that much help to the spinners. Perhaps, red ball is the answer but the ICC is unlikely to move away from the white-ball.
As Ashwin says, it is time, ODI cricket goes back to one ball per innings. It just may help reverse swing and will bring spin into the game because the spinners will have a better grip on a 30-overs old ball and more importantly, to help all the bowlers, the 5 fielders of even 4 fielders inside the circle must be scrapped. It will certainly bring down the 350-375 scores that is the norm nowadays. The bats are way too powerful and most of the grounds are short. The bowlers are in the game just because someone will have to bowl. They have been made redundant already. It is time to restore some balance in white-ball cricket. Let all kinds of mindless innovations happen in franchise cricket but not at the highest level.
Wrapping up more from Champions Trophy
England will have to revamp for a better campaign in the next round of world tournaments. As for Ashwin’s suggestions, some of them are pretty good.
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-champions-trophy-squad/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-fabulous-win/
https://icricketcritique.com/news-from-the-champions-trophy/
