BCCI: Busy throwing Crap at Cricket and Indians

Ponting says, "If we're going to be playing more and more of it [Twenty20], we're going to have to look at starting to take the game a bit more seriously" and adds, "Maybe there is a long-term future for it."

BCCI says, "We are very clear that we will not participate in the Twenty20 championship and no one can force us to play," and adds, "This form of the cricket is not played in our part of the world. We don't need this version of the game because one-day cricket is already very popular"

I cannot help but be bewildered with the abject blindness of BCCI to shifting market forces. Michael Porter must be seething with rage.

I love cricket in any form but it is clear that the ODI format needs to be shortened.

BCCI thinks just because Indians are just plain fanatical about their cricket it means they will continue to be so. Granted ODIs have been BCCI's golden goose but its reaching a point where they have the goose by the neck and are strangling it to lay more eggs. Of course, everybody knows what happens next in the story.

Pure market dynamics will drive out interest in ODI in favor of Twenty20. What worries me is that while other countries have already had some exposure to Twenty20 India does not have any experience with it (although, I read something about some domestic Twenty20 matches). Regardless, it took India around 30 years to master the one-day format and I am afraid by being blind to market forces and not adopting Twenty20 they might take another 15 years if not 30 to master the new format. BCCI has never cared for cricket lovers in India so I urge Team India to take up this matter to the board.

Basically, I don't understand why BCCI is so worried about Twenty20. Even if it is played alongside or supplants ODIs; Twenty20 has the opportunity to bring in more money than ODIs because it increases the target audience.

Finally, this is not the first time ODIs saw a change in its format. In fact it has been done before twice: Once while reducing from 60 overs to 50 overs and then from 8-ball overs to 6-ball overs.

Everybody knows most ODIs now have a predictable pattern. The reason ICC introduced power plays was to make the middle overs more interesting. Both ICC and BCCI know there is a lurking malaise in ODIs. While ICC has to be commended that for once they got something right, BCCI seems to revel in its ineptitude.