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Asian teams have become serious forces to reckon with

Thu, Sep 24 09:24 PM

It is no longer possible for non-Asian teams to dismiss their subcontinent opponents as easy pickings on foreign soil, says Geoffrey Boycott.

A few days into the Champions Trophy and most of the talk appears centered on the 'dying out' of One-day cricket or, more correctly, 50-over cricket. I really don't understand what the various experts mean by this, since 50-over cricket appears alive and well in England where teams are still playing to full houses. Granted, a full house for us wouldn't be the same as a full house in India, for instance, but still, 20,000-odd people are regularly turning up for games where the cheapest ticket costs around £45 and the average daily ticket price is between £70 and £100. So 50-over cricket is certainly not dying in England. Not yet.

Having said that, I also think there are just too many 50-over games these days. It's like standing next to a busy road watching cars pass by: you know there will be another one two minutes later. There are too many unimportant tournaments and the players are tired of them but they dare not speak up for two reasons. One, the administrators may punish them by not selecting them for the next tournament, and two, they will lose plenty of money thereby. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, do you?

Plenty of players talk privately about the TV malaise too, which adds to the money-making craze. So many TV channels, so much air time to utilize - and cricket is perfect for this purpose, because it goes on all day, unlike football or rugby, for instance. This is the reason there's so much cricket on TV, and why it has as many as three world championships, so to speak.

Does FIFA have more than one World Cup? No, but cricket has a World Cup, a Twenty20 World Cup, as well as the Champions Trophy, and this for a sport played by far fewer teams than football. So the Champions Trophy is in danger of becoming just another tournament instead of a showcase event, which the smart Jagmohan Dalmiya had intended it to be.

It is the pressure of the international calendar, once again, that has caused the Champions Trophy to be played in South Africa even though it is far too early to be playing there. Just look at the way the Wanderers track behaved for the Pakistan-West Indies game on Wednesday and you will know what I mean.

It doesn't help that each team is getting just three games, so if you lose the first one, the pressure is enormous. South Africa, one of my pre-tournament favourites, has put itself in an unenviable position by losing the first game to Sri Lanka. And England will be lucky to get away with a single win in this tournament, let alone against the in-form Sri Lankans tomorrow at the Wanderers. About the only thing England are doing right at the moment is putting 11 players on the field. After that, it's anybody's guess what they will do.

But the one thing I am very certain about is that the Asian teams have become serious forces to reckon with away from home. It is no longer possible for non-Asian teams to dismiss their subcontinent opponents as easy pickings on foreign soil. India have won the T20 Cup in South Africa, Pakistan won it in England, so who knows, it may be Sri Lanka's turn this time. (Gameplan)

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