The transformation of Cricket to Entertainment, a letter to ICC

This is the top article of the Cricket Tracker Talent Hunt Contest 2014. Our topic for the contest was “The transformation of Cricket to Entertainment, a letter to ICC”. The competition was held over a period of 10 days during which we received fantastic response from our cricket fans. Out of a total of 300 articles we received, it was difficult to select the winner and there was just a difference of 2 points between the winner and runner-up. Fardin Kibria of Bangladesh is the winner of the competition with a total of 738 points out of 1000. As promised, we are printing the piece.

Honourable Alan Isaac,

Cricket is a gentleman’s game. A game played by deserving individuals who has showcased their skills in different levels to make it to the ultimate top – International Cricket. Sadly, cricket isn’t the same anymore. Politics have highly got the better of the game and people like N Srinivasan are going to have an everlasting impact. This is sad, but true. As off now, it seems like cricket is just entertainment and not the same thing it used to be before. A game the legends have showcased so nicely is now filled with cheerleaders and bookies.

Cheerleaders have overtaken the actual game of cricket on the field.

Cricketers seem to be more focused on these lucrative entertainment leagues such as IPL, BBL more than their national teams. It is also because of the high amount of money that is being offered to an individual. Where were all these leagues when the legends build up these huge records? Cricket was initially a much better sport without these so called “entertainment”.

Over the last decade or so, entertainment has clearly taken over cricket. ICL was first formed also known as Rebel league. This discarded the players from their national team. There have been more fixing issues in this game than ever over the last few years. Money seems to be the only thing floating around for a player to grab on. How many cricketers did commercial advertisements back in the day? NONE! What is the situation now? Everyone! This sudden downfall of performance for all teams are because of the rather outside involvement they are busy with.

This is a great concern for die-hard cricket fans as we aren’t ready to accept this! Definitely the BIG 3, will cause a great separation in the cricketing environment and the employees of the ICC will surely part ways sooner or later. You are all involved in this corruption together and there is no way out. It is sad to know, that the fans don’t matter anymore and it’s all you and the money that is out there. Probably in the future just like geographically India is trying to take over Bangladesh and Pakistan, it will tell their leaders to not beat India in order to improve India’s everlasting record. When will you realize that they are taking advantage of you?

BIG 3 is a total bullshit concept and for a cricket fan that gets 90% average in school and plays club cricket it seems like the end of cricketing career to me. All these big nations are going to enjoy the funds and for development of cricket in Canada, only our tax payers could help. It would be nice if you would act before it’s all done and dusted by BCCI, CA and ECB.