India were in a familiar situation at the Asian Games. Victory was taken for granted, defeat would have counted as a disgrace. This is the fate of top-ranked teams: damned if you do and doubly damned if you don’t.
That an international tournament was played without DRS (and even, as it turned out, without proper pitches) is stunning. Forget the complaints about accommodation and transport, the fact that cricket had been reduced to a ritual doesn’t speak well of the International Cricket Council which should insist on minimum standards at multi-event games. One hopes the ICC (or its representative) will do better at the Olympic Games two years from now in Los Angeles where the teams and competition will be of a higher standard. Still, India may have scored more runs and claimed more wickets in the tournament than viewers actually saw live, which takes us into the realm of philosophy. Does it count as a six or a wicket when no one saw it? TV can make philosophers of us all. The Asian Games gives breath once again to the argument against having cricket in multi-event games like the Olympics. An Olympic medal will mean less to a player than winning a World Cup or World Test Championship. And if the games are in a country with little or no interest in cricket, it is unlikely to spread its message which is what the ICC hopes for. From the International Olympic Committee’s point of view, it will draw in the south Asian population, or more specifically, the television viewership (this will also call for more professional handling from TV).
What Joyce Carol Oates said about boxing applies equally to cricket (or any sport at the highest level). Speaking of the three Ali-Frazier fights, she said these were “boxing’s analogues to King Lear – ordeals of unfathomable human courage and resilience raised to the level of classical tragedy.
Perhaps an age limit like in Olympic football (under-23) can be applied to cricket too. The argument is similar: a world cup exists already and a team would prefer to win that over an Olympic medal. If the Asian Games cricket, which has asked more questions than provided answers, succeeds in raising the right questions ahead of the Olympic Games, then the telecast would be a minor crib. The ICC will have to find the balance between spreading the game and keeping the television viewership satisfied without diminishing the quality.