Innovations in Cricket
Cricket started with 3 day
matches in 19th Century in England which was increased to 4 days
and 5 days . In 1920s Test
matches were played until they were finished, sometimes the matches extending to more than 7 days. This type of matches were mostly played between England, South Africa, Australia and in one match a team had to catch a ship and the match was called for a draw by umpires. Finally just before the II world war 5 day matches were standardized and were called Test Matches.
The time has flown by and the entire world was making rapid progress in Industrial Developments, living standards and comforts which required people
to work for greater number of hours to live and to maintain a comfortable life. Style. Consequently leisure was put on the backburner.
Therefore One Day matches were innovated by all concerned.A World cup tournament was first held in 1975 in England ODI pattern and each side had to play once each of 60 overs. The first championship was won by West Indies. After sometime the 60 over a side was reduced and standardized to 50 over a side.
Further innovations are made in the recent past resulting in faster or instant
cricket. The new versions are Cricket Max. 6 a side cricket and 20 over a side Cricket.s Cricket. Audience want to see more and ,ore shorter forms of cricket which can be completed in period of 2 to3 hours.
Even after the introduction of ODI cricket some believe that Cricket still demands too much attention for too long as spectator sport compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. The new form of cricket mentioned in the aforesaid paragraphs is exciting and fun as the match goes on. Spectators get interested in watching aggressive batting and fast scoring runs.
Despite all the excitement in the new versions of cricket hard core enthusiasts of cricket believe the newer forms of cricket are flawed by several reasons.Such as lack of emphasis on bowling skills, elimination of long term strategies and planning throughout a match.
What is Twenty 20 Cricket?
Twenty 20 cricket is the recent attempts to Jazz up cricket and it was
Discovered by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003. In this form of cricket the team plays maximum 20 overs instead of 50 overs which is the standard ODI . The British counties participated in Twenty 20 Cup competition every year which features numerous spectator friendly musical interludes for exciting events such as dismissal of a batsman or hitting a boundary or a six.
Changes from ODI cricket include a free hit after a ‘no ball; and 5 runs penalty if the umpire thinks that the bowlers are wasting time. The free hit ball means that the batsmen is not given out of the no ball but also can’t be dismissed of a ball bowled after no ball. so that the batsman can play aggressive strokes. India has just hosted its first Twenty 20 tournament over the weekend.
In early 2005 Australia defeated Newzealand in the first men;s international 20 – 20 match at Auckland. Recently England defeated Australia in the much publicized 20-20 match.
What is cricket Max?
Cricket Max was invented in New Zealand (NZ) by the former captain Martin Crowe in the late 1990s and is now played by NZ as first class cricket as an yearly competition . It is a short form of cricket , each team can play two innings with a maximum of 10 overs for each innings There is free hit ball and a wide is given two extra runs instead of usual one.. Every Bowler can bowl a maximum of four overs per match and arel distributed between the two innings. The field is marked with trapezoidal max zone one at each end of the field beginning 60 metres from the striker’s wicket where the trapezoid is 40 metres wide and extending to the boundary where the trapezoid is 50 metre wide. Any ball hit in this region ( max zone) will get the double runs. whether running between the wickets or by hitting a boundary. Fielders are not allowed in the max zone when the ball is bowled. Only thhe Max zone in front of the striker is valid for all these rules.
What is Sixes Cricket ?
Sixes cricket is a short sport with a team of Six players on each side .Each team gets one innings with a maximum of five overs. Due to less fielders the runs are easily scored in a short time. Six a side matches are typically frenetic affairs. Each player can bowl max of one over and wides and no balls score two runs each instead of one. After fall of five wickets the last batsman can also bat on The last batsman ( 5 th wicket) to get out remains as a non striking runner. This batsman swaps end whenever the runner ends up on striking end. A batsman who makes 30 or more runs has to retire not out . When one of the last pair of batsmen is
Out the retired batsman can resume his innings . Sixes cricket is played as high profile tournament in Hong Kong involving the best players of all nations of cricket.
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