The World cricket Cup tournament is in full swing these days. Cricket has undergone tremendous change both in its format as well as in its character. It used to be once looked upon as a gentlemen’s game. No longer is the case now. Whenever any entity, be it sports or any other activity, becomes commercial money comes into play in it in a big way automatically. Too much money has come into it, lately. Whether cricket stalwarts like Bradman, Jardine, Truman, Lala Amarnath and Hafiz Kardar and men of their ilk would be turning in their grave over this reality is anybody’s guess.
When the idea of ODI’s was mooted back in the mid 1970s, many eyebrows had been raised by some of the cricket icons who apprehended that the shorter version of the game is likely to open flood gates of corruption, besides, distorting the basic concept of the game. They weren’t wrong as the later events proved. Many noted cricketers in almost every cricket playing country couldn’t resist the temptation of big money offered to them by the bookies for match fixing and other such misdemeanours. Cricket careers of many promising cricketers came to an abrupt end when they were caught red handed.
Time was when only a couple of countries played international cricket in the form of test matches and that too during fixed months of the year keeping in view the weather of their country. With the introduction of the ODIs and Twenty20 its scope has widened. Countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland, UAE, to mention a few have also now started playing cricket at international level. Weather conditions no longer matter. Cricket is being played at night in floodlit too if the weather is hot.
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