In the last two decades the Indian subcontinent has emerged as the commercial capital of world cricket. It’s a stock market that’s been all bulls and no bears. But of late, the sub-continent has seen a huge dip in stadium attendance and television viewership for Test matches.

In a country which doesn’t have a huge sporting culture, where people hesitate in letting their children take up sports as a profession, the triumph in the 1983 cricket World Cup started a new era. The country had seen a lot of success in hockey but it was the introduction of colour television in 1982 and the telecast of the 83 World Cup – accompanied with the lack of silverware in hockey – that did the trick for cricket.

That World Cup win was followed by victory in the Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket in 1985. The scenes of Kapil Dev lifting the World Cup, Sunil Gavaskar letting the cork off the champagne bottle on the Lord’s balcony and then Ravi Shastri driving away with the Man of the Series Audi in 1985 lingered on in the minds of the watching public.

The 1987 World Cup, held in India and Pakistan, attracted still more admirers, and the 90s saw a surge in spectator attendance at the stadiums. Pakistan’s win in the 1992 World Cup in Australia, followed by an unexpected victory for Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup hosted jointly by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, saw cricket become big in whole of the sub-continent.

A few years later Bangladesh too got Test status. These four countries are not so successful at other sports and cricket is the only game the fans can look up to. This, along with the huge population, worked in favour of the sub-continent becoming the game’s commercial hub.

Some intriguing clashes between India and Australia and India and Pakistan saw a steep rise in the popularity of the longer version of the game in late 90s. In the new millennium Indian Test cricket saw new highs as India, 1-0 down and following on at the second Test in Calcutta, made a historic comeback to claim the series against Australia. Indian Test cricket moved further up as they levelled a series in Australia, then in England, and later beat the West Indies and England on their home turf.

India played their first Twenty20 game in December 2006 on their tour to South Africa. The Indian board were a reluctant entrant to Twenty20 and India’s second game came only in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa in September 2007. The board did not give it much importance and senior players expressed their desire to not play.

India went in with a young team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and, on September 24, 2007, he stood with the trophy in his hand, a moment that would go down in the history as the “great divide” should Test cricket lose its supremacy.

The Test series between India and South Africa earlier this year failed to generate much interest. On the other hand, popularity of Twenty20 soared and, as a reaction to the Indian Cricket League, the Indian Premier League was born. The Twenty20 format, which was hailed as the saviour of domestic cricket, seemed to be gulping the shares of Test and one-day cricket. The IPL was such a huge hit that people started speculating about players retiring early from international cricket just to play in such leagues.

The fire got fuel as the Asia Cup tournament that followed turned out to be a dud. People in the sub-continent are waiting anxiously for the Champions’ Twenty20 to be held after the Champions’ Trophy.

India and Sri Lanka look to be the two best Asian teams currently and the ongoing Test series between the two is surrounded by huge anticipation

The series has seen the return of Harbhajan Singh to international cricket after being banned for the so called “Slapgate” scandal. The series will feature a fully-loaded Indian bowling battery with Zaheer Khan back to full fitness. People are waiting to see how either Dinesh Karthik holds up in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The battles between Zaheer and Jayasuriya, Sangakkara and Kumble, Jayawardene and Harbhajan, Sehwag and Vaas, Tendulkar and Muralitharan have always been exciting. But this time all eyes are on the youngster Ajantha Mendis who bowls with a hard to figure out “Carom Flick” action. Experts have tipped the technically-sound Rahul Dravid to figure Mendis out. This promises to be a gripping battle within the battle.

Should this series fail to live up to the expectations, it would be hard to revive Test cricket in the sub-continent. But let us keep our fingers crossed and hope the series is a big hit and that Test cricket remains the premier format of the game.

 

http://drmohit.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/07/india-and-sri-lanka-playing-for-test-cricket-s-survival.htm