In awe of Indian cricket

THE EDITOR: As I reflect on an extremely high quality Test match and Test Series, Australia versus India, one cannot help but ask how can the rest of the cricketing world use this as motivation for improvement to the game in general and to assist in making cricket a truly global sport.

India is a cricketing giant, now awakening from slumber. The IPL, more than any other single factor, has catalysed the transformation of Indian cricket on and off the field.

The open acceptance of commercialisation and the overt corporate culture that the franchises have adopted have allowed Indian cricket to search high and low, in a previously unheard of way, to seek out talent that will benefit the franchise/corporation. This has helped all national cricket teams of India, as was evident in the recent series.

The game is bigger than ever in India. In fact, it is no longer a game, it is an industry. The IPL is now the foremost domestic tournament in the world – taking over from the English county system. It is in fact akin to an annual cricket trade show, where the best of the industry is on display.

Participants engage in research and development to keep at the cutting edge of the sport and we have seen the quality of the game improve and bring with it improved facilities, improved administration, new technology and enormous pay cheques.

Now India stands at the threshold of really opening up the sport to become a truly global game. Just as IPL took the game, in a participatory manner, throughout India, the time has come for India to lead the way, at ICC level, to open the cricketing doors of the world and embrace the interest shown by the over one hundred ICC members.

Let them all meaningfully participate in world cricket, from T20 to Tests, in a phased manner. The sport of cricket has far too much value to have only 12 full members from a list of 104 council members. Introduce Tests cricket, initially in tiers, to include up to 24 Test-playing nations and use the T20 version to nurture and encourage participation by all other countries in the two white-ball formats.

No need to fear anything, BCCI. You are the world leaders in cricket and part of you remit is to encourage excellence in the sport, on and off the field. Over to BCCI, over to ICC.

BALDATH MAHABIR

Via e-mail