Is Cricket Turning Into Baseball?

In what may surprise a few that know me I am at a point where I feel the game of cricket is being destroyed for the sake of money. Yet all that it is going to do is turn away those who love the game and it may never get them back. This summer is seeing some very strange decisions by the officials of cricket in Australia and one has to wonder what their personal vested interest in the game is. I don't think it is for the better of the game at the moment and not even close to the interest of the people who watch the game. Test selectors have decided that bowlers are no longer capable of playing more than two games let alone a whole summer after an alarming rate of bowler break downs during test matches. Many are asking the question as to why so many of our breaking down. I instead ask other questions. Are they picking players who are injured? If they know the players are injury prone why do they rush them back into a side before they prove they can play lots of back to back cricket? Are they doing too much gym work so their bodies are more suited to the quick power bursts rather than for endurance? Is the lure of cash in Twenty20 cricket ruining their ability to bowl line and length and expecting something to happen every ball? This then starts whole new debate on how Twenty20 cricket will eventually ruin the long format of the game if things continue in their current trend. This summer the Big Bash League has raised more negative thoughts and comments than it should have and it seems the media which has a vested interest in the success of the competition has decided that it will not highlight the farce the competition has become. So much focus has been placed on the BBL that the main domestic competition hardly gets a mention yet if not for the Sheffield Shield we would not have any first class cricketers. Many will tell me that the game needs the short format of the game due to the changing nature of the spectator and the need for instant gratification our society now demands. In seeking this instant gratification though some decisions have been made where the old saying comes to mind "That's just not cricket". The first issue that comes to mind is when rain interrupts a game that has already started. While many think the DL is the way to work out calculations it is very flawed in the very short format of the game. The main incident that comes to mind is the Melbourne Stars victory over the Perth Scorchers. Although the Stars may well have deserved to win it can only be seen as a result for the sake of getting a result rather than a washout. When the rules clearly state that a minimum of 5 overs must be bowled to constitute an innings it becomes very questionable that they allow a result in a game where only 2 overs are bowled and the last ball was permitted to be bowled on a pitch where if it was the start of the innings it would not have been. This is something you would never see in a Test Match or One Day International. If the field is not fit for play then no exception should be made. But now there is precedence it will happen many more times. No one likes a chucker in cricket but Twenty20 is going to see a rash of players come though and since the days when Murali was rightly called but due to political reasons in the game was allowed to continue for what should always be seen as a tainted record it makes it harder for officials to call out players. Instead we have a situation where a coach who rightly questions the validity of a player will be sanctioned instead of taking action against the player. If a player has been banned from bowling on one competition due to a suspect action it is baffling as to why they are allowed to bowl in another. With the high speed play required of Twenty20 this is something that will creep in more and more with umpires scared to do anything that will slow down the play. As it is they miss front foot no-bals so I don't expect them to be able to spot chucking either. But then when you see how the umpires who call chuckers are handled when they make the hard calls, I can see why an umpire takes the easy option of saying nothing. Better to have a career that pays rather than the reputation of a good umpire who is out of a job. The way the game is being run all we will be left with though is the short format of the game as everyone fears due to the almighty marketing dollar and we will be left with what will resemble a hybrid baseball game where bowlers are substituted with pinch hitters and any delivery is allowed as long as the game ends in a result. Hopefully though is article is way off the mark and I am not shown to be right in the future.