The poor turnouts witnessed at the Test series and the five-match ODI series against second ranked Test and third ranked ODI South Africa team is a clear indication that the cricket loving public cannot be fooled into spending money to come and watch a cricket match played on dust bowls.
That is one critical factor the local cricket administrators appear to be missing out on. Cricket is in the business of entertainment and people pay good money to turn up and be entertained with batsmen hitting fours and sixes and generally play exciting cricket. However, when you produce dust bowls in their quest to win at any cost, and expect local cricket fans to come and support their team it is not going to happen as even the die-hard supporter sees no value in winning matches in this fashion. Nobody in his right mind will pay good hard-earned money to come and watch batsman scratching around as if they were locked up in a poultry coop.
The consequences of engaging in this brand of cricket are manifold, resulting in long term repercussions. A few obvious ones are:
(a) The gates were opened during the second Test and it was freely publicized over the media. Sadly, the stands remained deserted in spite of the number 2 ranked team in the world playing here in Colombo. Normally, when you have the caliber of players such as Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and the likes on show you would expect there to be a stampede to go and watch these world class players for free. So, why didn’t that happen?
(b) Playing on such dry surfaces also deprives our batsmen of playing their natural game as evident from the poor batting display from most of the top/middle order batsmen. Only Dimuth Karunaratne showed any signs of consistency scoring an aggregate of 356 runs during the series, which should cause much concern to the coaching staff. The weaknesses of our batsmen playing spin bowling should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
(c) Fortunately for us, the South African selectors blundered with their bowling combination for the second test by playing three seamers in spite of the bone-dry pitch that was on offer at the SSC. Had they picked the second spinner as they ought to have, the result could well have been quite different.
(d) The South Africans recorded their highest score of 290 in the fourth and last innings of the second Test. It was clear that their batsmen were coming to terms with the conditions and the Sri Lankan spinners with each innings. Had this been a 5-match series the possibility of them turning tables on us cannot be ruled out completely.
(e) The elimination of the toss during bilateral series has been discussed extensively at the ICC in an effort to avoid lopsided games and level out the playing field. After much deliberation the Cricket Committee has resisted pressure to do away with the toss and instead called upon member countries to produce fair tracks. If the recently concluded series in Sri Lanka is a benchmark to go by, that call is unlikely to be heeded by any member country.
The need of the hour is for the ICC to be far more assertive and appoint independent curators similar to the rest of the match officials and protect the entertainment value of the game and prevent broadcasters and advertisers from getting short changed with games been lopsided devoid of entertainment and games finishing within 2-3 days when it is supposed to go on for 5 days.
The euphoria over recording a 2-0 Test series victory against the Proteas soon became undone when Sri Lanka lost the first three matches to concede the five-match ODI series to South Africa.
It is quite understandable that the average cricket fan rejoices any victory that our cricket team chalks up. The remaining two games (that Sri Lanka won) were dead rubbers and it was no surprise the spectator turnout was poor.
As highlighted the exuberance of scoring cheap brownie points by chalking up wins in this fashion is not going to fool anyone, particularly the knowledgeable cricket fans in the country. On a more positive note the Sri Lankan captain was seen advocating better playing surfaces after the losses in the first two ODI’s. This undoubtedly is a breadth of fresh air, and a welcome change of policy.
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