Defeats changed course of cricket

Recent events in cricket show that like any other sports the graph of cricket is also falling in Asian countries. Some years ago it was a dream of any country to win series in the Subcontinent on spin wickets but recent defeats of Sri Lanka and India have completely changed course of cricket there. Only last month Sri Lanka lost series against Australia - it was the Australian team’s first win on Sri Lankan soil.

After retirement of key players, specially spin wizard Muralidharan, Sri Lanka are struggling with new players. India also lost series against England. After 28 years England won Test series against India on Indian soil. Trott and Bell complete England’s historic revival.

India is also struggling after the retirement of Dravid, Luxman and other key players. The introduction of T20, IPLs and commercialisation of cricket in the Subcontinent is main cause of poor performance of young players in Test cricket. Following the rising trend of IPLs and T20 players are still not able to adjust themselves in Test cricket environment. The famous innings of Hanif Mohamed, Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Mindad, Saeed Anwar, Arvinda D’Silva and Ranatunga have become a dream for cricket fans which is very unfortunate.

Khawaja Umer Farooq,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,
 E-mail: ofarooq@emailsrvc.com