Commercial aspect of cricket

Has the gentlemen's game lost its spirit and glamour?:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Sri Lanka's phenomenal success in the field of cricket can be attributed to the culture of school's cricket. From the provinces to the metropolitan Colombo, the season of big matches or the cricket matches between leading schools provided not only a lot of fun and frolic but also much needed impetus to the game in terms of producing talented cricketers for the national pool.

Besides school cricket, club matches also provide a readily available platform for amateur players to sharpen their talent in the field.

In the Sri Lanka's long march to achieving test status, the active role played by enthusiastic cricket fans and the general public can not be undermined as it encourages leading commercial establishments together with radio and television channels to come into the game in a big way.

One of the fascinating features of the mass appeal for the gentlemen's game is that it has transformed the game from being an exclusive prerogative of the upper middle class and the favourite pass time of armchair critics to a people's game.

From the meadows to public play grounds, softball cricket has been played by teenagers despite their technical knowledge of the game and is, more or less, confined to haphazard TV and Radio commentaries.

Season of big matches established new conventions and traditions among the teenagers some times creating new terms and phrases such as 'Hat Collection' and host of activities associated with big matches such as parading in trucks with brandishing flags belonging to different schools.

Apart from providing social space for meeting old and generation of students on the same ground, often going back along memory lane, the big matches also lead to abuse of freedom such as initiating teenagers to alcohol and sometimes to hard drugs.

Forced collection of money and fracases during the matches between rival student groups in some instances ended up in police intervention leaving indelible scars on the reputation of schools, seriously questioning the entertainment aspect of big matches on the whole.

Although this seasonal cricket fever is understood given fun and frolic associated with big matches, it is incomprehensible why the entire nation is pre-occupied with test matches often wasting much needed man power.

Cricket, once the favourite pass time and legacy of colonialism has, by now, become one of most popular games and perhaps, the most commercialised game in Sri Lanka.

Its excessive commercialisation has, in fact, robbed the game of its gentle nature and the spirit which inculcates discipline and fair play, often prioritising the monitory aspect over morals and entertainment of the game.

This over-emphasis on financial gain leads to serious malpractices from obtaining multimillion worth exclusive media rights to large scale match-fixing, creating a black market for the game and reducing it to a mere horse racing.

The commercial aspect and prospect of it being a dollar spinner has also paved the way for the entry of racketeers into the governing body of cricket.

The prime motive is for new comers who enter the sport bodies, often by foul play, disregarding some of the vital aspects such as improving school cricket which nurtures talented budding cricketers for the national pool.

Excessive commercialisation has also altered the rules and regulations of the game. Especially limited over matches changes the very nature of the game from being a gentlemen's game which was watched enjoying the finer points of the craft to a businessman's game, hastily watching it from giant television screen at show rooms to television sets at offices, bus-stops and virtually reducing the game to a mere status of video games or cheap games played on mobiles.

The trend which gaining ground is that deliveries of the limited over matches which has been confined to 50 overs, has now further reduced to 20 overs and perhaps continue to reduce if the authorities wish to change the pace of the game to suit the fast moving lifestyles. This dangerous trend will not only hamper the long term prospects of the game but also rob it of its gentle nature.

Ironically, the seasonal cricket fever has now become occasional fever lasting only for one or two hours and during these hours thousands of valuable man power is being lost while professional cricketers playing the game not for the love of it but for some other gains. Sadly, cricket is no longer a gentleman's game like in the days of yore.

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