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LAST WORD
SANJAY MANJREKARTHE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • [email protected]I get out?” The whole world is watching and there
is so much at stake here. It is not just a defeat in a
seven-match one-day series; those setbacks are
forgotten two days later.
The stakes make all the difference. Fans can rattle
off the names of the World Cup champs since the
event started in 1975. It is at the tip of their tongues.
It is the same with bowlers. When it comes to
bowling that 49th over in a close game, it is not just
about controlling the line and length of the ball,
but also about those jangling nerves as you run in.
Yes, that cliche is so true. Events like these separate
the men from the boys and that is why you see the
truly established, class players topping the charts
with runs and wickets. These
are not just men with skills, but
also those with a temperament
of steel. Shakib Al Hasan, David
Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat
Kohli, Mitchell Starc and Jasprit
Bumrah, to name a few.
Another revelation that hit me
as the World Cup went on was
that, for a while now, since Dho-
ni and Virat became an integral
part of the Indian team, I have
been a huge admirer of modern-day Indian bats-
men and their ability to chase down targets. In our
times, it was the harder thing to do than bat first.
I remember our coach Ashok Mankad suggesting
before an India-Pakistan game at Sharjah, “Let’s
bat first.” He thought chasing against them in a
highly intimidating atmosphere where there was
massive support for Pakistan would take a toll on
our nerves, and he was right.
And here I was seeing Dhoni, Virat and Co chase
down scores nonchalantly.
But come the World Cup, the old adage came
true—put runs on the board and watch the chasing
team handle the immense pressure unsuccessfully.
In the 20 games before the semis, 16 were won by
the team batting first, and it is not just because of
the pitches.... Yes, you guessed right, it is because it
is the World Cup!The quadrennial spike
T
he 50-over format is going through an inter-
esting phase.
Bilateral ODI series are seeing a steady
decline in viewership. The sheer excess being one
reason; the randomness without any relevance, the
other. Also, after tasting the pleasures of T20 cricket,
50-over cricket seems just too long for today’s fans.
Almost half the game is about batsmen running
ones and twos, which is never really entertaining
for the crowd. And, because of the length of the in-
nings, close finishes are very rare; even in this World
Cup, real nail-biters can be counted on one hand.
In T20s, well, every second game is a cliffhanger,
and weaker teams compete better against strong
teams. The shorter the for-
mat, the less the inequality.
Afghanistan and the West
Indies are great examples of
this. The West Indies have, in
fact, won the world T20 title
twice, but have not won a
50-over World Cup in the last
40 years. Afghanistan looked
like what they are in the
longer formats—minnows.
ODIs are slowly and
steadily losing their sheen, but here is where it gets
interesting. The World Cups are getting bigger and
bigger every four years. This time, too, it has broken
all records of viewership.
The ICC is in a bit of a quandary. ODIs are losing
their connect with the masses, but reach new peaks
every four years when the world comes together.
Be that as it may, we have once again seen how
the World Cup is such a special event. There is an
ODI between two countries and then there is an
ODI between two countries in a World Cup. And
they are like chalk and cheese. We see high scores
on a regular basis in general one-dayers, but come
this World Cup, even with the small grounds in Eng-
land, those kind of scores are not being seen.
Batsmen just bat differently when the match has
the World Cup tag on it. It is the grain of anxiety that
seeps in when you are batting out there.... “What if
PHOTO AFPFLYING HIGH: The semi-final between India
and New Zealand in Manchester