India dramatically defeated England on the final day of the fifth Test, drawing the hard-fought series 2-2. This series is proof of the resurrection of the classical form of the game
This column was written after the fourth Test that ended in a draw
There was a time, not too long ago, when cricket started to resemble a badly dubbed action film. Overloaded with explosions, starved of script. The game got faster, louder, and somehow emptier. In trying to make cricket more ‘watchable’, we quietly removed the cricket from cricket.
T20 was the gateway drug. IPL was the overdose. What remained was a sport that dressed like cricket but talked like TikTok. Bollywood’s mascara on baseball’s pace. Everything became a number. Strike rates, economy rates, impact scores. If you couldn’t clear the ropes every five balls, you were baggage. Bowlers were reduced to radar guns. And fielding? That became LinkedIn with turf burns. Dives done more for the CV than the scoreboard.
There was a time, not too long ago, when cricket started to resemble a badly dubbed action film. Overloaded with explosions, starved of script. The game got faster, louder, and somehow emptier. In trying to make cricket more ‘watchable’, we quietly removed the cricket from cricket.
T20 was the gateway drug. IPL was the overdose. What remained was a sport that dressed like cricket but talked like TikTok. Bollywood’s mascara on baseball’s pace. Everything became a number. Strike rates, economy rates, impact scores. If you couldn’t clear the ropes every five balls, you were baggage. Bowlers were reduced to radar guns. And fielding? That became LinkedIn with turf burns. Dives done more for the CV than the scoreboard.