In months of March-April this year, ICC scheduled the World T-20 Qualifiers for associate teams in Ireland and Scotland. Two spots were reserved for 12 teams in World T-20 scheduled to be played in India in March 2016. Tricky scenario is that they will again have to participate in a qualifier event before the commencement of actual world cup where they will compete against the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. So you see how tough is their journey to the center arena of World Cricket.
So in the aforementioned qualifier event, Nepal and Oman were competing in a match. I wanted to see the match live on Star Sports 1 which was the official broadcaster of this event. But I didn't get to see it for Star was supposedly broadcasting only 16 matches from the tournament. I was dumbfounded for I wanted to see the progress made by teams such as Papua New Guinea, Jersey, Oman, Namibia, Hong Kong, Nepal and many others first hand. But then again, some of my favorite teams qualified for the main draw (again) of the competition and Star, luckily for me, broadcast each and every one of their matches but not before making me realize that ICC was giving far more weightage to advertisers' and sponsors' money than it actually needed and if you make an assessment of the profit ICC are making, you will see that they actually don't.
Let's go back to some dates well before this ICC World T-20 Qualifiers. December-January 2014. Sri Lanka and South Africa were both touring New Zealand for their preparation of World Cup Campaign and they played ODIs as well as test matches with New Zealand. I totally get it that all three teams don't bring too much revenue to ICC's table but still they are three 'full-time' members out of 10 of ICC. So why am I complaining? Because no Indian Broadcaster found it necessary to telecast those NZ matches in India. New Zealand under Brendan McCullum were making a steady progress to the top of the world cricket and they later proved their potential on world stage in soon to be followed World Cup where they went down fighting to Australia in the final. New Zealand became the darling of World Cricket and from their home series with Sri Lanka onwards, they are playing the most entertaining and aggressive brand of cricket in all of World. But I believe no one is getting to watch their cricket for everyone including ICC don't find them that much entertaining and thus fine them unable to fetch them any money despite their obvious resurgence.
Fast forward to December 2015. Sri Lanka is again touring New Zealand and both of them are finished with two exhilarating test matches. Pity is that you can't again watch them on Live TV in India. You can only see their 3-4 minutes highlights on Youtube that too with 24-hour lag. I watched that cricket, lovely, marvelous and very fast and all in fast forward mode but the fun of watching them in live action was certainly missing. More than New Zealand's Cricket, I love their cricket grounds and picturesque landscapes but I guess, they don't bring enough pleasure to all the other parties involved that are given the responsibility of propagating the legacy of our beautiful game all over the world. Now Brendan McCullum is retiring and in March 2016, he is going to play his last test match against Australia. Australia as you know is an integral part of the revamped ICC that is metaphorically known as 'Big Three'. So I am hoping against the hope and big time too that this time, Indian broadcasters will certainly take note of it and try to bid for this 'marquee series' telecast. I will be more skeptical and suspicious of the after-events of Australian tour of New Zealand for whether I and scores of Cricket fans all over the India will be able to see them playing live in New Zealand again. But let's say all the good things for now and pray to Cricketing Gods for miracles to happen.
P.S. Merry Christmas!!!!
So in the aforementioned qualifier event, Nepal and Oman were competing in a match. I wanted to see the match live on Star Sports 1 which was the official broadcaster of this event. But I didn't get to see it for Star was supposedly broadcasting only 16 matches from the tournament. I was dumbfounded for I wanted to see the progress made by teams such as Papua New Guinea, Jersey, Oman, Namibia, Hong Kong, Nepal and many others first hand. But then again, some of my favorite teams qualified for the main draw (again) of the competition and Star, luckily for me, broadcast each and every one of their matches but not before making me realize that ICC was giving far more weightage to advertisers' and sponsors' money than it actually needed and if you make an assessment of the profit ICC are making, you will see that they actually don't.
Let's go back to some dates well before this ICC World T-20 Qualifiers. December-January 2014. Sri Lanka and South Africa were both touring New Zealand for their preparation of World Cup Campaign and they played ODIs as well as test matches with New Zealand. I totally get it that all three teams don't bring too much revenue to ICC's table but still they are three 'full-time' members out of 10 of ICC. So why am I complaining? Because no Indian Broadcaster found it necessary to telecast those NZ matches in India. New Zealand under Brendan McCullum were making a steady progress to the top of the world cricket and they later proved their potential on world stage in soon to be followed World Cup where they went down fighting to Australia in the final. New Zealand became the darling of World Cricket and from their home series with Sri Lanka onwards, they are playing the most entertaining and aggressive brand of cricket in all of World. But I believe no one is getting to watch their cricket for everyone including ICC don't find them that much entertaining and thus fine them unable to fetch them any money despite their obvious resurgence.
Fast forward to December 2015. Sri Lanka is again touring New Zealand and both of them are finished with two exhilarating test matches. Pity is that you can't again watch them on Live TV in India. You can only see their 3-4 minutes highlights on Youtube that too with 24-hour lag. I watched that cricket, lovely, marvelous and very fast and all in fast forward mode but the fun of watching them in live action was certainly missing. More than New Zealand's Cricket, I love their cricket grounds and picturesque landscapes but I guess, they don't bring enough pleasure to all the other parties involved that are given the responsibility of propagating the legacy of our beautiful game all over the world. Now Brendan McCullum is retiring and in March 2016, he is going to play his last test match against Australia. Australia as you know is an integral part of the revamped ICC that is metaphorically known as 'Big Three'. So I am hoping against the hope and big time too that this time, Indian broadcasters will certainly take note of it and try to bid for this 'marquee series' telecast. I will be more skeptical and suspicious of the after-events of Australian tour of New Zealand for whether I and scores of Cricket fans all over the India will be able to see them playing live in New Zealand again. But let's say all the good things for now and pray to Cricketing Gods for miracles to happen.
P.S. Merry Christmas!!!!
Comments
Post a Comment