Gentleman’s game of cricket has taken many changes in the rules governing the game and the world cricket has changed drastically since then. Radical plans for the creation of two divisions in Test cricket and a one-day international league will be on the agenda of the International Cricket Council’s week-long annual meeting in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. The ICC has introduced weighted Test rankings but the complicated formula has failed to capture the imagination of cricket fans and the wider sporting public. With many top players increasingly tempted by offers to play in domestic Twenty20 events such as the Indian Premier League, where they can earn more money in less time than by playing Tests, officials are keen to give the long-format game greater “context.” This, they believe, would make it more attractive to broadcasters and so help generate greater revenues. The game of cricket is totally commercialised and ICC is trying all the methods to make it popular and at the same time profitable.
C.K. Subramaniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
