Onus on administrators to find ideal balance between bat and ball

Australia finally won the major trophy that has eluded its grasp for more than a decademdashthe ICC Menrsquos T20 World CupThey clinched the trophy by clouting deliveries to and over the boundary whilst producing a mixture of bowling that combined just enough wickettaking with the right amount of containment They also had the good fortune to win the toss when it really mattered in a tournament where the major matches too often became a win the coin flip win the match eventThis was one of the major flaws in a tournament that achieved quite a lot of successTherersquos an appeal for a worldwide T20 tournament featuring contests between nations In addition therersquos a widespread clamour for the increasingly popular franchise cricket that has experienced enormous success However there also needs to be a widereaching survey into the changes required to improve the T20 format To make it even more popular than it is tournaments have to include a way to ensure the game doesnrsquot become a win the toss win the match eventThere seems to be two widely diverging views on T20 cricket There is the longterm cricket fanrsquos fear that the game will become an allpowerful event that favours musclebound sixhitting batsmen and is too often won by the chasing team Then there is the opinion of the not so discerning fan who is unworried by the seeming lack of a contest between bat and ball and canrsquot get enough of the mammoth sixhittingAction must be engagingNot surprisingly at my age I prefer the game to remain a contest and if it quickly becomes a batting exhibition I lose interest very quickly Irsquom of the view that fans should be engaged by the contest between bat and ball enjoy the tactical battlesmdashboth team and individualmdashand require a certain amount of artistry in the battingIf these features are either missing or nearly nonexistent then itrsquos a struggle to envisage the game as truly being a form of cricketThen there is the balance between sport and entertainment In my opinion the balance in T20 cricket needs to be somewhere in the vicinity of 6040 sport to entertainment At the moment itrsquos unbalanced and too much in favour of pure entertainmentThe administrators need to find both the ideal balance between bat and ball and educate fans on cricketrsquos values It is fine when middled deliveries finish up in the stands but a bowler should be extremely angry if a blatant mishit still clears the ropes This problem can be addressed on larger Australian grounds but Irsquom not sure what lsquogeniusrsquo produced the ludicrous mixture of better bats and smaller boundariesThis combination is reducing leather flingers to the status of virtual bowling machines It is a serious slight on good bowlers and needs to be rectified immediatelyWhen bowlers are induced by the regulations to deliberately aim balls wide of the stumps to avoid major scoring opportunities it debases the game Bowlers should have the choice to aim the ball at the stumps as this is by far the best way to keep batsmen under pressure Aiming the ball off the stumps and mainly relying on a batsmanrsquos blunder to be dismissed reduces the contest drastically and therefore the spectacleCricket is a game to be enjoyed Fielding is a worthwhile occupation that is best enjoyed when itrsquos combined with the opportunity to have a decent hitT20 is different to Tests ODIWhen I watch sports like baseball golf and tennis played in their shorter forms Irsquom heartened by the fact that the game still remains basically the same The sport witnessed in the T20 format is a distant variety of Test cricket and not always easily associated with the 50 over gameCricket needs to entertain but it must also maintain a strong association with its roots The administrators need to remember this crucial point when they plan for the gamersquos future