TWO-day cricket is dead – and it’s never coming back.
That was the view from the majority of clubs at Wednesday night’s SHDCA annual general meeting, with preference instead being given to the new 50-over, one-day version.
While still using red balls, playing with no restrictions and wearing traditional whites, it was a compromise introduced during COVID, when there was risk to matches over two weekends with the threat of outbreaks and lockdowns.
That threat passed, thankfully, so the question needed to be asked – do we return to playing the most traditional form of the game?
While some clubs were in favour of the move, the vast majority were against, citing reasons from the commitment of players, to the competitiveness of teams, right back to the second day of the match often becoming a non-event and an early finish.
As someone who has spent more than 20 years of my cricketing life playing and enjoying the longest form of the game, it was a bitter pill to sit there and swallow – but at the same time, it was also the right call.
I’m an unabashed cricket traditionalist and love two-day cricket.
Like Test matches, it’s the purest form of the game, where you have to think your opposition out, bowl and field to a plan and bat in partnerships – it’s a different mindset and takes you to the limit both physically and mentally.
But the time has come for local cricket to head in a different direction.
The high-octane, smash-and-bash T20 format has taken over, and that is where the future of the sport lies, no matter what the traditionalists like myself pine for.
Because the reality is, without a new generation playing the game, cricket as a sport is as dead as the two-day game.
It’s the version the kids want to play, not because it’s on the telly or because that’s where the big bucks are, but because it’s also the most fun – and let’s face it, who really wants to stand out in the field for 80 overs chasing a little leather ball around all day in 40-degree heat?
No, the game has moved on – and now, so do us traditionalists.
