Overnight, the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia has released a set of new match rules for BBL10. The response does not appear to have been one of universal acclaim (putting it mildly).
Our own much anticipated, much derided The Hundred will have its own tweaks to the match regulations, designed to make the game “more exciting” and also “more accessible”.
As someone who can find excitement watching the 3rd day of a County Championship match on a fixed-camera live stream, I am probably not the target audience for either the BBL or The Hundred.
I won’t make the case for “proper cricket”, here — no-one would pay to watch the sort of cricket I enjoy playing, and I do accept the demands for innovation and (added) action in the short form games.
But I do enjoy cricket in all formats, and I am concerned that some of the innovations we are being promised could conspire to keep existing fans away from the (new) game, and give new followers ideas about the game that won’t stand up to prolonged exposure.
So — how to modify the game of cricket to make it faster, more exciting (a better fit for commercial TV schedules), but keep it closer to its origins? What might work?
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