India became Test cricket’s No. 1 team in 2009, winning the two series they played in, against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. But India played just six Tests in the year, and only three overseas – which caused indignation around the cricketing world, which detected in this a conspiracy by the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) to starve and murder Test cricket, to make room for the lucrative T20 leagues.
Along with celebrations, the news also raised howls of protest from people horrified by the possibility that India would lose the No. 1 ranking without being able to defend it.
The fate of Test cricket hangs in balance; it’s apparently at the mercy of the BCCI. This highlights the impotence and irrelevance of the International Cricket Committee, and its inability to enforce the Future Tours Program. This highlights also the power of the rupee and the Indian cricket fan who, ironically, remains the most harassed entity in cricket.
The rupee can do anything in cricket – even quieten inimical cricket boards of the other countries into acquiescence and complicity in the disregard of the longer format of the game. The other boards must consent also because they face a very real fear of losing their contracted players.
Andrew Flintoff is one example – plagued by injury, he retired from Test cricket after the Ashes. Offered an incremental contract by the ECB for limited-overs cricket, he turned it down. “One of the things I want to pursue more than anything is playing in different worldwide locations," he said. What he meant was: “I want to pursue money in different worldwide locations.”
Nothing wrong with that, of course. We’re all mercenaries, and I suppose given the same choices, we’d all do the same. Flintoff has played international cricket for 11 years, often through pain and injuries, and he’s got the right to feather his nest when he can.
But this represents an unprecedented challenge to Test and nation-based cricket. There’s more. A survey by the Australian Cricket Association, reveals that “almost a quarter of Cricket Australia's 25-man contract list would consider declining future offers from the national board to expand their playing options” as freelancers. Real money for freelancers comes only from India. So a large number of Australian cricketers could give up the chance to play for the country to chase the rupee.
This story, coming just days after the pretty tale about Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s quest to repair his beloved but tattered baggy green cap, shows just how money can alter perceptions and subvert nationalistic sensibilities.
In 2009, the Indian team had some notable accomplishments in limited-overs cricket as well. It won away series in the West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. It also won the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka.
But there was little to cheer about in the bigger events. The team, allegedly the favourites to win the Twenty20 World Cup in England for some obscure reason – their T20 record is actually quite discouraging – got knocked out at the first hurdle; the same happened at the Champions Trophy in South Africa. But overall, not a dissatisfactory year for Indian cricket.
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What about 2010? The players want more Test matches, for starters. And it seems only the BCCI has the power to accomplish anything in cricket, good or bad. Unexpected glory as the world’s top team has given the BCCI pause for thought; ironically, it’s in a position to now emerge as the saviour of Test cricket. It would be good for the BCCI’s collective ego and it might actually attempt that – but quest for more may turn out to be more tempting.
