proCricket ....

the new americanized version of the game is set to launch on jul 2, taking advantage of the long weekend here in the states. here is a link to their official press release. what surprises me is the fact that the ICC is actually disowning the league. i think the new rules should be quite exciting, and certainly worth a try. basically, it essentially is removing the middle 25-30 overs of a one-day innings and leaving only the start and end fireworks. but unlike in baseball, where there is truly a competition between pitcher and batter (since batter gets three strikes, but has to run every time he hits the ball) - cricket is just too much batting firepower. ofcourse, its entertaining, but not enough competition between bat and ball. its only competition between batting of one team and the other. even those are not on the field at the same time.

also, in my opinion, cricket is one sport which certainly has lagged behind the times, and is still stuck in some time warp half a century ago. it is the only team sport that comes to mind that does not allow a substitution. yeah, they allow a substitution of fielders - but a fielder cannot score. i truly think its about time the ICC wakes up and allows sbstitutions in the team during the game. a proposed idea is the twelve man team with the best 11 taking the field (something like baseball). i think it would certainly benefit teams like india, who are always one bowler short ....

but one area where cricket seems to be ahead of most sports is the use of technology - cricket has allowed the use of cameras for making decisions a lot more than most sports. even the "spotshot" that ESPN uses in tennis matches (only the viewers on TV see it - it is not used in making decisions on court) has been adapted from the hawkeye technology that first started with cricket. football (american football) is notorious for bad decisions, and only the NFL allows tv replays. MLB should certainly start using cameras to determine outs at bases. esp. in today's sports where so much is at stake, there is certainly nothing wrong in making sure the decsion is right, esp when the technology is available.

and going back to the original topic, i certainly dont see proCricket hurting the sport - if at all, it might infuse some fresh and new ideas and hence better entertainment into the sport .....