Possibilities infinite as white-ball format pushes boundaries
Game has become truly global in an age of T20 challenging what was thought to be possible
From Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strand: in the hymn he composed, the 19th-century Bishop Heber liked to think that pagans around the world were yearning for Christianity to “deliver their land from error’s chain”, but he could have been talking about cricket’s expansion.
Even if an alarming number of clubs are folding in the country where the game was invented, cricket worldwide is growing more rapidly than ever. A native Greenlander, Martin Pedersen, has represented Denmark in the International Cricket Council Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai, while there is scarcely anywhere on India’s coral strand where stumps are not pitched.
Hitherto an English-speaking sport, cricket is breaking that mould and flowing into all corners of the globe. Only when it becomes an Olympic sport will China give it full powerhouse attention, but it is still growing in at least nine cities there, as well as Hong Kong.
Canada’s inaugural T20 tournament is being launched with superstars Chris Gayle and Steve Smith, Shahid Afridi and David Warner. In Brazil, the enthusiasm of a former Kent second XI player, Matt Featherstone, has several thousand children playing. Afghanistan has demonstrated that, where there is a zealous will, there is a way to start from scratch and, within 20 years, beat any country in white-ball formats.
Formerly a male pastime with a few exceptions, cricket has become the sport of both genders now that women can become professional players in most of the 12 Testplaying countries. It has a unique appeal as an outdoor team sport which is non-contact – therefore not offending customs and taboos – but which can be as physical as you want in the T20 format with its increasingly power-packed hitting and dynamic fielding.
The next frontier should be Cuba, if only the ICC would recognise it as an associate member. Cuba has produced more Olympic gold medals per head than any other country, and if its semi-pro women’s baseball team were to play cricket, they could emulate the men of Afghanistan in rising from nowhere to the top.
The frontiers of the game itself are also being extended in 20 and 50-over cricket. Given the purple patch Jos Buttler has been in all season, anything could happen when he opens against Australia today in the sole T20 international before an Edgbaston crowd of 25,000. Australia’s bowlers, however, are far less ingenuous at T20 than they are in one-day internationals, and they will be stronger now that Aaron Finch has taken over the captaincy, and Alex Carey the gloves.
In the past fortnight, England, England Women and New Zealand Women have raised the numerical bar – which in itself captures many imaginations and extends the sport’s popularity. Batting can be compared to the universe itself: the possibilities seem not so much enormous as infinite.
England raised the bar by 8.3 per cent when they increased the highest ODI total from 444 to 481 at Trent Bridge against Australia last week. They became the first team to score at more than nine runs per over (9.62) through a complete 50-over innings. Another ODI world record was the 62 boundaries.
The next day, England Women raised the bar by 15.7 per cent when scoring 250 off 20 overs against South Africa, a few hours after New Zealand had set a world record by scoring 216 against the same opponents, also at Taunton.
New Zealand Women had just arrived from Ireland, where they had scored 490 off 50 overs against the hosts, which raised that bar by 7.7 per cent: New Zealand had set the previous record total of 455 against Pakistan. In the same series against Ireland, 17-year-old Amelia Kerr hit an unbeaten 232 to break the previous record of 229.
Whereas it is now possible to score at nine runs an over in ODIS, 13 runs per over has been achieved by three countries in T20 internationals. This is more than two runs per ball; if there is such a thing as a dot-ball, the next is liable to go for four. Coaches and analysts will not rest content until every ball of an innings is scored off – so that if a wicket has to fall, then it is a batsman run out going for a third.
It was Australia who set the record for the highest T20 international total: 263 for three against Sri Lanka, when Glenn Maxwell scored 145. Of the 123 balls bowled, only 26 were not scored off. Once every ball is scored off, coaches will want every ball hit to the boundary, then over it, so that 720 is reached off 20 overs.
Will bowlers bounce back? Yes, they can. By bowling the most difficult form of delivery, wristspin, so disguised that the batsman does not know which way the ball is going to turn and cannot set himself for a shot.
In the ICC T20 rankings, the top nine bowlers are all spinners, and the top five all wrist-spinners. It is good for cricket if wrist-spinners reign. But will not administrators continue to legislate in favour of batsmen, for instance by allowing boundaries to be so short, in order to make sure that most games are slog-fests?
Ultimately, there may be only one difference between cricket and the universe: that cricket will end, not begin, in one Big Bang.