Cricket: A radical search for way to relieve tedium
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Your support makes all the difference.Jagmohan Dalmiya, the secretary of the Indian Cricket Board, is an expansionist and a radical who has brought unease to the game's traditionalists by suggesting, among other things, that draws in Test matches might have outlived their acceptability.
Should he wish to support the point when the International Cricket Council reconvenes today at Lord's, where Dalmiya hopes to be made chairman, he might simply produce a clutch of this morning's newspapers, in which can be found descriptions of a Test match moving at a tedious pace towards stalemate, watched by a crowd barely larger than turns out here for the Sunday League.
The third Test has, indeed, offered a compelling argument for finding some way of ensuring that futile exercises do not recur.
A flat, slow wicket with only the occasional hint of life has generated cricket of much the same character, which has been reflected in the size of the audience.
The ground was full on Friday and Saturday, but very few of the 13,000 holders of advanced tickets for each of those days bothered to show up again yesterday, with many more of Trent Bridge's white seats left to gleam in the sun than were occupied.
Dalmiya was present to witness the scenes himself. "Draws can be an important part of the game," he said, "but in international sport there is no point in playing for a handful of people.
"I would always prefer to see a good day's play in a Test rather than a one-day match but something has to be done because people are not interested in watching five days without a conclusion."
What Dalmiya did not say is what he would actually do, other than appoint a committee of experts. He had "certain ideas", he said, but would divulge no detail other than to say the results would have to be obtained through "real cricket".
This would rule out the possibility of a cricket version of the penalty shoot-out. More feasible is a limit in time or overs, on the length of first innings, the extreme duration of which killed this contest.
Dalmiya's view will not be without support, especially among marketing men, but first he must be elected. However, even if he polls most votes in the ballot it is not certain he will be.
This is the first time that there has been a contest for the post and the ICC must first decide whether a winner needs a simple majority or a more clear-cut proportion of the vote.
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