Shift in Performances in World Cups

As I am writing this on a spring evening, Zimbabwe fell just 5 short of chasing 332 against associates Ireland in ongoing world cup at Hobart. Instead of “What a chase”, we tend to say “Just fell Short” nowadays when 300 on the board have become as common as spotting an Indian during India’s match anywhere on this planet. This has been a world cup of 300’s till now. Somewhere some ex-cricketer turned commentator said it aptly, “300 is the new 250 now”. It surely has become just that. 

My first vague memories of Cricket world cup was 1996 when I was beginning to develop greater interest in the game keeping alive the Indian “middle-class” tradition. One of the stronger memories of a world cup was the unfortunate semi-final against SriLanka at Eden Gardens that left Vinod Kambli crying and around 1 lakh Bengalis throwing stuff around. I remember the excitement when Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana fell in the first over. But Aravinda De’Silva in the form of his life scored a brilliant half century to give India a target of 250 odd runs. Almost every friend of dad was tensed because “250 is a big score”. Yes, 250 was a big score once upon a time in world cups.

I chose this topic of changes in performance for this blog is because the shift has been gigantic. Bigger bats, ICC’s decision of allowing only 4 fielders outside the circle and general nature of pitches going dry and flat over the globe has contributed to this shift. For people of my generation, the 90’s kids, it seems more like cricket tuning to speed of our lives as we grow up! Those were the lazy childhood days of ample time to see Tendulkar getting set, Dravid tiring down the bowlers and praying India would reach 260 at the end with some hitting. All this while spending whole day lying on the floor without the rush of million homework that today’s school kid have to face. Life has changed for us since then with rarely anytime to watch a full ODI. A Batsman getting set on the crease with classy defence doesn’t catch our eye anymore. We need more and we need it at a speed. 250 is too low a score now. It does not give us many sights of balls flying all over the park.

ICC thankfully has understood this changing demand of our life on fast lane (pun intended!). Only 4 fielders are allowed outside the 30 yard circle and the batsmen love it. Bats are becoming broader and broader to combine with broader muscles of today’s gym-trained batters. Our lives have become faster and so has the game. Batsmen nowadays don’t believe in tiring down the bowler but hitting him out of the attack. The general increase of love for more output at faster speed is reflected in cricket too. Nowhere has this change been as evident as in the World cups over the years. From a meagre total of 183 being defended to a total of 270+ being chased easily we have seen this jump.

In this world cup only we have witnessed two totals of 400+ and a 372. They feature in the list of top 5-6 team totals in all world cups. All made in 10 days span. So performances have increased at a great speed from world cup to world cup. It reflects the overall change around us in day to day life. While we enjoy the slam-bang cricket, somewhere the thrill of small total is diminishing. But then till the time game remains enjoyable, we are not complaining!