World Cup, I like you but I am in love with Test Cricket…

IPL, I like you but only as a friend.
World Cup, I like to flirt with you time and again.
It is Test Cricket I am truly in love with.

2019 has been nothing short of a cricket lover’s utopia. A nail-biting IPL final between 2 of IPL’s most successful franchisees, a grouping (or absence of it) format rendering the World Cup more competitive and more relevant. If that wasn’t enough, the World Cup Finals turned out to be one of the greatest ODIs of all time. And for the pessimists and self-righteous people out there, no, these weren’t ‘fixed’ matches or tournaments – it’s humanly impossible to plan such details and then execute it under more than a billion watchful eyes.

It was a sports lover’s utopia on the eventful Sunday of the 14th of July. If you were one of those shuffling between the World Cup and Wimbledon Men’s Finals and cursing your luck that both these amazing matches had to reach their culmination at the same time or if you were one of those having 2 (3 if you were watching the Grand Prix, too) screens in front of you playing these events simultaneously, a shout out to you.

Talking about cricket, despite all the talk and opinions regarding the finals – how it was erroneous of the umpire to award 6 overthrows to England or how the result of the game shouldn’t have been decided based on boundary count – it is important to know that the applicability of rules cannot be bent ex post facto because it doesn’t favour the fan favourite. It simply cannot. That’s not to say that the rule makes perfect sense or that ICC or MCC can’t do any better. As my good friend pointed it out very appropriately and concisely and in the most British way possible – “Rules are imperfect are are placeholders for perfect rules. And just like life, you bloody move on”. Speaking of unfair rules, the reserve-day rule where the match resumes from the exact same point on the reserve day (unless DLS was imposed on the previous day) is one I deem to be ridiculous, for the obvious flaw in it. There will have to be some serious weather aberration to force the game into the reserve day and unless the game’s first ball itself is being bowled on the reserve day, there is an outright disadvantage for the chasing team – their combinations are messed up while they have to bat all or most of their overs on a pitch subjected to harsh weather conditions all the time knowing that the team batting first enjoyed batting on a pitch that was surely better than the one on offer on the reserve day.

The irony of it all isn’t lost on me. The ‘fans’ who are complaining about the boundary count rule are the same ones who vehemently enjoy 350+ scores in ODIs where fours and sixes are hit by the dozen. Taking the number of wickets fallen for each side into consideration for determining a result cannot be a viable solution for the same reason counting the boundaries cannot be. Despite what many people think, I still maintain that having super-over after super-over until there is a definite winner is also not a solution; at least not a great one. Gun to my head, if I was asked for a solution I think would behoove both the sides in the same fashion while still having a concept of super-over would be to have a super-over contest of 2 or 3 overs, for ODIs. One-over super-over is fair enough for a T20 game but not so much for an ODI game.

Having said that, I have never been a firm believer in the concept of super over as a decider. For that matter, I have never been a firm believer of knockouts in cricket. It is high time we start considering introducing best-of-3 or best-of-5 series for the semi-final stages of multi-team tournaments. Take away the disadvantage of a strong team performing badly on a given day and allow the consistently stronger side to showcase their dominance across the ‘mini-series’. Yes, sir, Virat Kohli, finishing at the top of the table should mean something.

It is unfortunate yet somewhat reassuring for a cricket geek like me who likes to favour the underdogs that this will be a World Cup which will be remembered not for the favourites winning the tournament but for the underdogs losing it; and this time this feeling will last. I don’t know how much it was about not wanting England to win as much as it was about wanting New Zealand to win but it is overwhelming to see the support pour for New Zealand the way it did. A food for thought – it wasn’t the boundary rule that lost New Zealand the World Cup; it was the lack of conviction from Martin Guptill when he presumably thought that a grounded shot on the last ball of the World Cup final, chasing into the super over, would allow him to run 50 yards without getting run out. A lofted shot making the boundary or a lofted shot getting dropped had the similar odds, if not more, as a grounded shot yielding 2 runs. Again, just a food for thought.

It was calming to see Kane Williamson walk up the stage the way he did, with his patented smile and ice cool head. For someone who follows him closely during Sunrisers Hyderabad matches and even in New Zealand’s bilateral series, it didn’t come much as a surprise. It came more as a heartbreak. And that is why, I only flirt with World Cups.

The World Cup, though, wasn’t only about the finals. It was about decision making and how some captains managed to stay ahead of the game while some simply failed to. It was about the 10 best ODI teams of the world battling it out at some of the most iconic grounds in world cricket. While it will be safe to assume that each of the 10 teams wanted to win the world cup equally bad, the goals and takeaways were very different for each team. Indians were reduced to tears after their semi-final exit, partly because it was so close yet so far and partly because anything short of a World Cup win was simply unacceptable. At a similar junction, the Australians realised how proud they were about where they managed to reach, which is why the semi-final exit didn’t affect them as much. For Afghanistan, it was about taking each match as a learning step while for SriLanka, it was about realising who were their match winners around whom they could form the rest of the team, going forward. For South Africa, it was a harsh wake up call that something is categorically wrong while for Bangladesh it was assurance that their cricket is moving in the right direction.

That’s all over. Within these 14 days we have had one hell of a test match (arguably) and 2 completed ODIs. We have had Zimbabwe Cricket Board being banned. Lasith Malinga has bid adieu to ODI cricket. The Test Championship begins on August 1 and I for one think that this kind of a championship couldn’t have come sooner. For one, it adds more value and weightage to each and every test match. 73 matches, 9 teams and 23 months. Each match promises to be more exciting than the previous one.

And what better way to kickstart a Test championship than with an Ashes test, although an India-England or India-Australia or South Africa-Australia test would have been equally thrilling, if not more. Test cricket is who I am truly in love with. Primarily because Test cricket doesn’t always have room for flash-in-a-pan kind of performance; it demands consistency for longer periods of time. Consider the recent Ireland vs England test for example. Despite the adrenaline-rush kind of nature of one-day cricket, test cricket is what demands the players to be at their best – ball after ball, over after over, spell after spell, session after session, day after day and match after match.

Test cricket is peculiar. It has a certain luring flair about it. It exhibits grace and divinity. The sight of the new red leather ball moving sideways or the old leather ball turning while releasing a puff of dust off the pitch, it is pure art. And the connoisseurs, true artists. The serenity of mind involved in leaving difficult balls and waiting for a loose delivery, which might never come, is some kind of mind-boggling sorcery in itself. That is why Test cricket is not one to be flirted with; it is one to be cherished, it is one to be embraced, it is one to emerge yourself in and it is one to admire with all your heart.

And whether you are a cricketer or a cricket admirer or a mere spectator, the approach remains the same.

Until next time.