While cricket pundits and other experts are analyzing the insights of the game, fans are straining every nerve of their brain in eking out explorations of their own. The thoughts may be or may not be in line with the big intellects of cricket, but they aren’t something dismissible out of sight.
Fans are the ones who follow the game as closely as possible and as a result, thoughts are bound to generate. Some are humorous and some are logical. The following are five fan theories that need a look into.
1) Money degrading talent
It’s a general perception among the fans that young budding cricketers are running after lucrative deals which is not wrong by any stretch of the imagination. But the concerning element is that their goals are based around the monetary aspect of the game.
Pocketing money also means their growth as a player stagnates in T20 leagues where one only needs to shape up for the big shots. The desire for playing Test cricket also doesn’t proliferate among newbies.
Fans feel that the aspiration to play for the country, especially Test cricket, goes down just by the thought that the money isn’t big enough. Also the fact that somberly disguised empty stands seems to be the story in Test cricket and sometimes ODI cricket too which isn’t giving a boost to young aspirers.
English cricketers, on the other hand, are more focused towards their national side. They have turned their backs to big money. A leaf can be taken out of their books by young generations who are looking for inspiration to represent their national teams.
2) The final hurray
When Ben Stokes was vandalized by Carlos Brathwaite for four sixes in as many deliveries in the final over of the 2016 World T20 final, many fans were of the opinion that David Willey or Chris Jordan should have been trusted with the final over.
They were the in-form bowlers and would have been hard prospects to get away. Fans believe that pressure of a final over is something not all players are accustomed to. When dodged with the example of Joginder Sharma’s heroics in the final of the 2007 World T20, fans dismiss it off portraying it as a day occurring in once in a blue moon.
Fans also tend to believe that spinners aren’t appropriate choices when it’s about restricting batsmen in the final over. Saeed Ajmal was carted over the ropes on several occasions by Michael Hussey in the final over of the 2010 World T20 semi-final.
With even 12 odd runs required of the final over, spinners aren’t a safe option. Even if they bowl four decent deliveries, it’s just a matter of two meaty blows to hammer down the nails on the hopes of the fielding team.
3) Runs sell, wickets don’t
In accordance to the fans, people want entertainment and runs are what it lies in. Spectators shell out money to see fireworks unfold at cricket grounds. They want run fests and not low scoring games.
Today’s cricket will seldom see a wondrous spell of bowling getting the same accolades alike a blistering innings from the willow. One can’t blame the cricket associations and the curators for dishing out graveyards for bowlers for the simple reason that it’s a source of maximizing the money.
If we ask an average fan about what they would want to see between peppering of the boundary hoardings and prodigious seam and swing, the answer will inevitably be the former one.
Test cricket has been presumed to lose its sheen not because the format has gone backwards. It’s for the emergence of T20 cricket and the rise of unorthodoxy that Test cricket is losing popularity. Desperate measures of Day & Night Test cricket seems to be the only way out.
4) Test Cricket doesn’t go hand-in-hand with fast-paced lifestyle
Fans say that Test cricket is never-ending, while today’s lifestyle rushes through at the rate of knots. Test cricket ambles at a snail’s pace while today’s standard of living gathers the speed of a cheetah right from the word go.
Test cricket is mercilessly deemed to be painstaking after a day spent with immense passion and vigour. When it’s about the game, people want their retina to be caressed by some towering hits over the boundary hoardings after they return home.
Limited overs cricket serves them with the luxury. The timing of the IPL matches for evening games is 8 pm IST in the evening- a time when people have settled in after a hectic day. Test cricket is more about patience and less about dare.
Even ODI cricket is being segregated into two parts. The power-play and slog overs are considered to be the interesting phases of a match while the middle part of the innings gets portrayed as utter dullness.
Gone are those days when stadiums get packed for Test cricket. Somewhere down the line T20 cricket has overshadowed the longest format of the game, but that doesn’t take away the sheen off Test cricket.
5) Washroom: A place where victory exists
It’s not often that a cricket fanatic likes going to the washroom when a match is on its way. It’s completely justified for the fact that the missed moments may possess something highly intriguing and worth regretting.
But when the match has gone all the way down to the wire and every result is a possibility, fans find the washroom a source of gathering peace and also a honeypot of supernatural powers for getting their teams to topple oppositions. Call it a superstition or a weird fan theory, the notion has worked for many followers if not all.
As a fan, I remember myself hurrying to the washroom after every delivery during the closing stages of the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup between India and Pakistan. It’s a surety that the day saw the technique being applied by many.
Never mind being superstitious, the tactics worked on that day for the Indian fans. It may sound vague, but somewhere down the line the beliefs showed by the fans have become a secret to a team’s success.
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