Cricket is probably the only sport in
the world that has 3 different versions. Originally it was a 5 day
format recognised at the international level it is Test Cricket. Test
Cricket is even today reckoned as real cricket . It is called Test
Cricket because it is a Test of a player's temperament and skills.
The rate of scoring in Test Cricket is the slowest.
Now as times change the taste of people
changes . Test Cricket that was quite popular in the early and mid
1900s was losing its audience to other sports people wanted something
that consumed less time and was more exiting . The long 5 day format
no longer attracted them . So in the 1970s one day cricket came into
existence. This format of the game was surely faster and with the
guarantee of a result. Initially it was not standardised so the game
was played for 60 overs each side in England and in other parts of
the world the game was played for 50 overs each side. It attracted a
lot of audience back into the game since this format was more
entertaining than Test Cricket it was faster as well.
Cricket World Cups are played in the
one day format of the game. The first 3 Cricket World Cups were
played in 1975, 1979 and 1983 respectively in England while the first
two world cups were won by West Indies. India won the 83' world cup
beating the mighty West Indies. This win propelled the popularity of
cricket in India and it became a national passion. Today India
contributes around 70% of total ICC revenues and has has over 70 % of
the global audience of Cricket watchers.
While the popularity of cricket in
India and in the subcontinent kept increasing. In the remaining
portion of the world the popularity of cricket was constantly coming
down as in the age of Internet and computers people wanted things
even faster . So T-20 cricket came into existence. This game is
played 20 overs each . Ever since T20 cricket came into being cricket
has become even more exciting with run rates of 9 per over or 10 runs
per over being achieved on a consistent basis. It not only increased
the popularity of the game and got more people to the stadium but
also got more money into the game.
Cricket Leagues like Indian Premier
League came into existence. Other countries also has smaller T -20
cricket leagues. The influence of T-20 cricket is clearly visible on
other formats of the game as the rate of scoring both in test cricket
and one day cricket increased after T-20 cricket came into existence.
The batsmen today are lot stronger as compared to the batsmen of the
past they work hard on power training use bigger bats and lots of
sixes are hit. There is one down side of T-20 cricket the bowlers are
hit around consistently by the batsmen and because of T-20 cricket
the defensive technique of batsmen have gone down so they are usually
exposed in Test Cricket.
