Fall of Cricket in Asia.

20 December, 2012 

Recent events in Cricket show that like other sports graph of cricket is also falling in Asian countries. Some years ago it was dream for any country to won series in subcontinent on spin wickets but recent defeats of Sri Lanka and now India have completely changed course of cricket in subcontinent. Only last month Sri Lanka lost series against Australia it was first win of Australian team on Sri Lankan soil. After retirement of key players specially spin wizard Murali Dharan Sri Lanka is struggling with new players.

India also lost series against England after twenty eight years England won test series against India on Indian soil. Trott and Bell complete England historic revival and England captain declared recent success against India more than won in famous Ashes between Australia and England. India is also struggling after retirement of Dravid, Luxman and other key players. True reality is that introduction of T20, IPLs and commercialization of cricket in subcontinent is main cause of poor performance of young payers in test cricket. After increasing trend of IPls and T20 players are still not able to adjust themselves in Test cricket environment. Famous innings of Hanif Mohammed, Sunil Gawasker, Javed Mindad, Saeed Anwar, Arvinda Disilva and Rana Tunga have become dream for cricket fans in subcontinent which is very unfortunate.

KHAWAJA UMER FAROOQ
Jeddah

Downfall of subcontinent’s cricket

Recent events in cricket show that like other sports graph of cricket is also falling in Asian countries. Some years ago it was dream for any country to win series in the subcontinent on spinning tracks but recent defeats of Sri Lanka and now India have completely changed the course of cricket in the subcontinent.

Only last month Sri Lanka lost a series against Australia it was first win of Australian team on Sri Lankan soil. After retirement of key players specially spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka is struggling with new players. India also lost a Test series against England on its soil after 28 years. Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell completed England’s historic revival.

England captain Alastair Cook rated his side’s historic 2-1 Test series win in India every bit as special as their 2010-11 Ashes success in Australia. India is also struggling after retirement of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and other key players. I believe that the introduction of T20, IPLs and commercialization of cricket in the subcontinent is the main cause of poor performance of young payers in Test cricket.

After playing a number of T20 matches players are not able to adjust themselves to the Test cricket environment. Famous innings of Hanif Mohammed, Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Arvinda de silva and Arjun Ranatunga have become dream for cricket fans in the subcontinent which is very unfortunate. 

 Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah