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Ranatunga
shows concerns for cricket after T20
MUMBAI: Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lankan Board
chairman is worried about the well-being of the game
in the era of Twenty20 razzmatazz.
“It needs only eleven mucks to win Twenty20 games.
Even in ODI cricket you need seven to eight intelligent
players and a captain while in T20 you need only power-hitters.
You don’t even need a good captain,” he said.
Although the Twenty20 revolution has brought in unimaginable
amount of money into the game, especially to the players
with the introduction of the billion-dollar Indian Premier
League, Ranatunga said he was concerned about the game.
“I agree players were underpaid and deserved to
get more. But tell me, is T20 good for the game? My
concern is more for the game. I’m afraid that in
future everyone would like to become only batsmen and
there won’t be many willing to take up bowling,”
said the left-hander who represented his country in
93 Tests and 269 ODIs between 1992 and 2000.
“Sachin Tendulkar is a great player, the finest
batsman I have seen. But it was sad to see him try to
change his game to suit the needs of Twenty20 cricket
(during his stint as captain of Mumbai Indians in IPL).
So was the case with Rahul Dravid, another great player,”
said the scorer of over 12,500 run in international
cricket.
Ranatunga also expressed concerns that Twenty20 cricket
would affect the longevity of players in the international
game. – [PTI]
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