Rainman talks Cricket

There is little doubt that Virat Kohli is special. And comparisons of Virat with Sachin Tendulkar are pointless. But there is something that I want to compare today between the two – their fandom. And in trying to do that, I want to trace the change in the way cricket is consumed and how that has impacted its relationship with its fans, especially in Sachin and Virat’s country. To do that I will step back a bit and talk a bit about something that made Sachin ‘The God’ that he went on to become in the 90s. A cricket fan in the Sachin era (the ’90s) was characterized by an itch. This itch kept him distracted. This itch kept him motivated to get past his day. This itch also got him in trouble. This itch was to watch the game somehow. And if not able to watch, this itch came out in the form of those three beautiful words – score kya hua ? The relief of getting to watch cricket in the Sachin era was unmatchable. It was a festival of sorts to watch India play then, a fes...

While there remains little doubt that the tournament has gone a long way in making cricket popular in the country again, Big Bash League's impact on the state of Australian cricket's health definitely deserves a discussion. If a tournament is to be judged for its look and feel quotient, the Australian packaging of the slam-bang version of cricket, aptly called the Big Bash, would win hands down over the other franchise-based global T20 leagues in the world. Everything about it looks like the culmination of the dream Kerry Packer saw when he put together the World Series Cricket in the 70’s to revolutionise the face of cricket. Not only does the cricket look fantastic in drop dead gorgeous looking stadiums, the matches are well attended despite them clashing with the Australian cricket season which is often cited as one of the major successes of the league. The quality of cricket on display has gone up a notch higher every year since its inception in 2011 and it has turn...