where are we heading towards in cricket:

It is not the cricket as we know it.Players being auctioned and the so called team owners shelling money in order to set up a team.

It is not new to the game of cricket the term innovation.There was a time when test matches were the only known form of a game in cricket.No one thought beyond it and it was the ultimate test of a players build.

Then there arrived a thought to reduce the hardships-if any-that are borne by the players as they are playing for 5 consecutive days.So there arrived a thought to replace the fashion of 5 days by a single day with the limited 50 overs per side.

Though the thought was objected,as objections rule innovation in a game,and there was a time when limited overs was held to be a substitute for tests.But things changed with gaining acceptance among the crowds as the entertainment ruled in the 50 overs game and the audience found the concept to be gradually acceptable.The players also found it to be a welcome respite from tests,in the fact that the techniques in both the forms are nearly the same,and both the bowlers and the batsmen find a role to play in a game.

But things have changed with the arrival of 20 20.The bowlers are merely looked upon as a goat in the hands of the butcher(read batsman).The batsmen who had mastered the techniques gained with playing tests simply aim at scoring runs,and in 20 overs,technique hardly matters,as far as one can score,and perhaps as far as the ball hits the bat.The bowlers on the other hand pray that the next ball is a maiden one,and all they can try is get some wickets,as runs start flowing in tandem once a momentum is set.

The batsmen on the other hand,instead of rotating strike as they are supposed to,rotate the bat as fast as they can so that it would make a better fan than a bat.

There is no doubt that the 20 20 will face a similar fate as the versions which we know.Further the IPL players are comprised of players from different teams.Nationalistic feelings run high during a cricket match.Every match is like a war:A war is a match without balls;A match is a war without guns.

How many of us would like our tems winning with the help of a Mathew Hayden,or how many Australians would like it.

What the IPL can do is to centralise the players,rather than what they've done....