 "Cricket")
What do these numbers tell you: 72, 47, 96, 45, 49, 82? A batsman on a good run? These are actually team scores in Test cricket. Are you thinking Kenya, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe? Wake up, these innings totals were scored by the biggies of Test cricket - England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, respectively - all in the past three years. You could cheerily reply, "Well, it seems their opponents bowled really well then." But would you have a reply if we asked, "Tell us the names of who these bowling heroes could have been?" You would begin with Dale Steyn of South Africa, promptly recall James Anderson of England too, perhaps his teammate Stuart Board, probably scratch your head and say Lasith Malinga before we point out that the streaky-haired Sri Lankan no longer plays Test cricket, and finally mention Umar Gul of Pakistan. More questions: who are the other bowlers in their teams? And can anyone please help with the names of bowlers from West Indies and New Zealand?
Here is another quiz for you. Till the end of the second Test match of the current Ashes series, which two Australian batsmen had the most runs and the best average? Michael Clarke? Shane Watson? Phil Hughes? Oh, you didn't know they had a batsman called Phil Hughes in their team? It doesn't matter; the batsman with the most runs was a bowler - the two-Test-old Ashton Agar who comes out last to bat. And the best average belonged to another bowler, pacer James Pattinson.
Has cricket, especially the purest variety played in Tests, hit rock bottom? The evidence is startling. Only seven batsmen playing today have an average of above 50, compared to 9 five years ago; and none of the seven have come into Test cricket after 2004. No one has the class of Brian Lara, Inzamam-ul-Haq or Ricky Ponting. Only two bowlers, Steyn and Anderson, have over 300 wickets. There is only one genuine all-rounder in the world: Jacques Kallis, the old South African warhorse. And how many crowd-puller superstars can the game boast of, the kind who would make advertisers go weak in their knees? Only one: Mahendra Singh Dhoni of India. And it's not just the standard of batting, bowling and fielding; spot-fixing scandals (even an umpire, Pakistan's Asad Rauf, is under suspicion), drunken brawls, partisan commentators, name calling - it's hardly the gentleman's game it was supposed to be. In a poll conducted by Business Standard over the past week, 63.9 per cent of the respondents felt that cricket was at its lowest in the past five years (see chart).
Country after country has seen a sharp decline in its cricket. Najam Sethi, interim chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, recently told the media: "Our cricket has reached the lowest ground. We are not winning matches." Former greats like Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have publicly commented on how the once mighty Australians have fallen to their lowest ever. Says former Australian star Mark Waugh: "We were the dominant team for two decades; now we look like also-rans." Even in the victorious ranks of the English team playing the current series against Australia, not all is well. "Do not be fooled by the heroics of (Ian) Bell and (Jonny) Bairstow; this order has failed to deliver consistently for over a year," wrote columnist Scyld Berry in The Telegraph. He added that despite winning matches, England isn't a dominating team: "Some precious ingredient has gone missing since 2011 when England batted India and, before them, Australia into submission."
The West Indian team, once adored and feared in equal measure, today shines only in the T20 leagues, leaving the unofficial historian-spokesman of Caribbean cricket, Tony Cozier, to sadly note, "Why would a player fancy a grind over five days for less money, fame and adulation over the glamour of the Indian Premier League?" Sri Lanka, though it can boast of batsmen like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, has been unable to fill the void left by the departure of Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya. New Zealand looks lacklustre. "New Zealand doesn't have a big enough talent pool," admits the country's all-time great, Martin Crowe. South Africa (with two stars, Hashim Amla and Steyn) and India (with no settled bowler and a half-classy batsman, Virat Kohli) look good in this mediocrity. Digest this: apart from Sachin Tendulkar, only one Indian has an average of above 50; that's Cheteshwar Pujara (65.65), who's played only 13 Tests. Kohli, the great hope of Indian cricket, has an average of 41.96 from 18 Tests.
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The advent of the shortest form of cricket - the T20 carnival - has robbed cricket of the gritty men who played their game with brawn and brain in conditions tough and pleasant, enjoying not the glamour, but the nervous combat of it all. Men like Warne and Muralitharan, Tendulkar and Steve Waugh, Wasim Akram and Allan Donald, Daniel Vettori and Kevin Pietersen ground out stellar performances year after year. Where are such Test stars today? Age is slowing the reflexes of whoever still remain on that high perch. From Kallis (37) and Sangakkara (35) to Misbah-ul-Haq (39) and Graeme Swann (34), the names that are synonymous with Test cricket excellence are now in their autumn. And the truth is that there are no ready takers for their mantles. India's Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman have already hung up their boots. Tendulkar soldiers on, but the man has turned 40!
The West Indies, with their history of ferocious pace, today have Kemar Roach as the bowler with the most wickets - 85. He has for company, as frontline bowler, Darren Sammy with 77 wickets. They are not even a shadow of Courtney Walsh (519 wickets) or Curtly Ambrose (405 wickets). Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath is the country's top bowler at the moment with 200 wickets, 595 less than Muralitharan and 155 short of Chaminda Vaas. India's current best is Ishant Sharma with 144 wickets. Even discarded Harbhajan Singh had touched greater heights with 413, which itself was 216 less than Anil Kumble's 619 scalps. Tim Southee from the land of Sir Richard Hadlee is the best of New Zealand's playing crop with 83 wickets. Pakistan is slightly better off, with Umar Gul having 163 in his bag. But put that in its perspective alongside Akram's 414 and Waqar Younis' 376.
The batsmen who have scored the most runs for their countries in the last four years are on their last legs, but have no young men snapping at their ankles. Clarke, Alistair Cook, Tendulkar, Ross Taylor, Amla, Sangakkara, Azhar Ali and S Chanderpaul are the leading run getters for their countries. Taylor's average over 31 Tests is a measly 43.47, while Ali's for Pakistan is a sorrier 42.26 in 27 matches. Even the prolific Cook of England has a regular average of 52.77 in 48 matches, which is still better than India's best, Tendulkar's 51.06 in 39 matches (not counting Pujara, who has played 13 Tests).
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No wonder, instability in the teams is at a high. Players enter and exit the team, as they fail to impress the selectors and the fans with their skills. In Reportage Online, columnist Daniella Doughan noted: "The (Australian) selectors gave out 29 new Test caps between 2000 and 2009, including Clarke, Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Brian Haddin and Peter Siddle; 22 caps have already been handed out between 2010 and 2013. As a result, players are making their debut, playing about three tests, and then getting dropped from the side as it 'under-performs'." India has blooded 17 players since July 2010, Pakistan 16, New Zealand 16 and Sri Lanka 12. The most consistent teams in the past three years, South Africa and England, have inducted 10 new players each.
It's easy to see why those being elevated to Test ranks have not been able to hold their places in the team. "Cricket is not a game that can thrive within the canvas of the lowest common denominator. The skills that are necessary to play over four and five days are the foundation of the enterprise that makes the short form so appealing," writes Mark Nicholas, former Test cricketer and commentator. Crowe says T20 has to cop the blame. "The batsmen can play and have decent techniques but they lack the mentality to play long innings." Bishan Singh Bedi, former India captain, is more scathing. "From the length of the pitch, weight of the ball to height of the stumps, nothing has changed," says the irrepressible Sikh. "The change is in the producers, directors and actors of the game. The tamasha is that they come to be seen. It was not there earlier."
Keiron Pollard is a prime example of what Bedi is talking about. The West Indian is a dream T20 cricketer - a good fielder, a decent bowler and a batsman who can whack the ball out of the park. But the fact is Pollard played only two first-class games in West Indies domestic cricket before he became a "star." Nicholas doesn't grudge Pollard his success but feels therein lies the problem. "Everyone - administrators, players, fans - are seeking instant gratification whereas Test cricket is about patience, grafting your way to success," he says.
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The fall in quality is drawing fewer and fewer people to the matches. As far back as 2009, former England batsman and commentator Geoffrey Boycott had said, "We're all seduced into believing Test cricket is fine…. you could sell Test match cricket twice over for huge amounts of money because it's the oldest form of Test match cricket and has history and tradition. But (in) every other series around the world there are declining attendances." Where are the crowds? Except for the current Ashes series, where ebullient home crowds have been thronging the stadiums to sing their team to victory over an emaciated Australian side, crowds have kept away. A crucial Test match between South Africa and Australia at Cape Town in the 2011 series drew a handful of spectators. The stands are embarrassingly empty in other countries too, particularly in the West Indies and New Zealand. Test matches in India too struggle to fill the stands.
With diminishing statures, cricketers are no longer the sought-after names for endorsements. On Indian TV screens, the home of the commercial cricketer, the only celebrity is Dhoni, and some distance behind him is his national deputy, Kohli. Even the likes of Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh have faded away from the small screen. Because cricket draws eyeballs but there are no big stars - domestic or foreign, like Brett Lee or Ricky Ponting - the ad spots are monopolised by Dhoni with 20 brands and Kohli with 15. The Sehwags, Gangulys and Dravids no longer inspire. Shailendra Singh, the CEO of Percept, says that lack of star power is evident. "Earlier brands were signing cricketers on the back of a good series that created 'stars'," he says. But now, advertisers are cautious. "Companies too spend the majority of their ad money during IPL, where stars are created every second day."
Things may not improve anytime soon. A generation of new stars requires role models and inspirational performers, who are now missing in action. In the West Indies, youngsters are no longer enthused about cricket. They would rather play basketball, which has now become the most popular sport there. There is no sign the fearsome West Indian pace battery may revive. "There's a dearth of quality fast bowlers," says Javagal Srinath. The world's fastest vegetarian bowler can be forgiven for his understatement - he always had a genteel demeanour. The real truth lies in a bigger reality. There's a dearth of quality cricketers. Period.
