Posted by As well as being from a different generation, Tendulkar, Dravid and them are also significantly older than the likes of Virat Kohli. What we mean by this is that people change over time. They grow up.
We say this not because we’re competing in a hotly-contested online state-the-obvious competition, but because people seem to think that India will basically just abandon Test cricket when these old duffers finally retire. It may well be that Kohli, Raina and Sharma aren’t Test-loving elder statesmen of the game right now, but nor were the big names once upon a time.
Early days for Virat Kohli
Kohli’s been around for years and he’s judged as such, but he’s actually only 23. Rahul Dravid didn’t make his Test debut until he was that age. Pretty much everything we know about Dravid took place when he was older than Kohli is now. That’s how we judge him.
If you want to compare attitudes more fairly, you’ll have to speak to Kohli in 16 years’ time.
Twenty20 generation
There are definite signs that many younger players feel they can get more from cricket. Just as a seasoned cricket watcher might enjoy a Twenty20 match or two but tire of the format over time, so those on the pitch seem to follow a similar path.
When Kohli made his first Test hundred against Australia in Adelaide, he was, to put it mildly, emotional. His adrenal gland frequently goes into overdrive, but even by his standards he was fist-pumpingly screamy when he reached three figures. He’d earned it.
It was tough for him to get into the Test team, it was tough for him to stay there and, in Australia, he’s been up against it on and off the field. It wasn’t a celebration borne of just this one innings. Virat Kohli had a point to prove. In Test cricket.
When in middle-school, we used to get about an hour off some days to play. We used to form teams of eight and play two eight over games. Our logic as twelve year olds was more games = more cricket. Then, in high school, we used to play after classes for longer periods of time. Surprisingly we never played five eight over games – we played one 25 over game. It was equally enjoyable, and way more satisfying. I would like to believe something of that sort is happening to Virat Kohli at the moment. He’ll be a better man for it.
Virat Kohli is good enough to be wasted in the shorter formats. He needs a broader canvas now.
I don’t disagree that it was/is essential for him to play LOIs. I only hope that this hundred gives him more of a sense of accomplishment than the other hundreds did, thereby making him love the longer format a little more.
8 on a team?
8 overs per side?
8 balls per over?
8 runs for clearing the rope?
8 bats carried by each batsmen at all times?
I can feel the beginnings of something big here, something that will revolutionise the way that cricketainment can become part of the AB demographic’s enhanced lifestyle portfolio, just like smoking.
8-Eighty-Eight-Eight-88-ty Crick8!
If only we could find an appropriate online gambling site with a cricketing celebrity endourcement for sponsorship, it could just work.
thesmudge – The bottom right-hand side panel here gives me a link to cricket betting. This proves KC has no qualms about us making a little money on the side. Now to find the celebrity……..
Bert would, of course, be the marketing manager.
DC, I don’t think the one linked to on the site maintains the gag as well as the one I was, perhaps too obscurely, alluding to.
Bet365?
Thanks for letting me be marketing manager, DC. My first job is to choose a celebrity to use in the marketing campaign. I have in mind the late Phil Drabble, erstwhile presenter of One Man and His Dog. As Midlander Of The Year 1993, he directly targets the sort of person that this form of cricket needs – young, upcoming, sassy, interested in sheep.
Now I know what you’re going to say, but I’ve seen celebrities on TV before, and there seems to be no clear reason why being dead would get in the way of doing the job they do.
As Phil Drabble says – “It’s a bit boring watching dogs chase stroppy sheep round a field, so why not come to the cricket instead. It’s great to watch, and you can buy pies. Don’t forget to bring some of your children – they’ll almost certainly have a grEIGHT time. Half price entry if you’re dead.”
Marketing is immoral. King Cricket (of King Cricket coffee stein mug fame) says so.
grEIGHT – that, really, says it all. I’ve made the marketing manager choice wisely. Maybe its time we form the official “BOwden’s Ogdoad – Betting In Eights Syndicate”. As marketing manager, we rely on Bert to take BOOBIES mainstream. We invite applications for the following posts: Executive Chairman of the Board, Treasurer, Secretary, Another Treasurer, A Third Treasurer, and someone we can rely on to stash away the millions.
I am required by law to inform you that KC would, of course, go to prison if one of us fucks up.
They’d take us alive!
We did have a ‘never’ in there, but thought better of it. We can see the statement loses something following the omission, if we’re honest.
“KING CRICKET IS INNOCENT!”
says 8888888888888 Cricket’s Phil Drabble, who continues
“All that money went to The Stanford Home for Destitute Dancing Girls in Antigua, a worthy cause and no mistake. However, if you’ll turn up to the Inaugural World 8×10^8 Cricket World Premier Champions Cup, to be held in Salford between March and February, we can still have him flogged for you. If you want.”
Kohli has 8 hundreds and nearly 3000 runs in ODIs at an average pushing 50 (From No. 3, not many notouts to boost that average), who knows how many T20 runs where he is one of the biggest stars of IPL yet his reaction today tells a story.. Test cricket is what counts even for the biggest stars of limited overs cricket..
How many hundreds?
100/12.5
It has been quite refreshing to see both Kohli and Warner celebrate their test match hundreds. It was almost like they gave a shit about test cricket.
Kohli has been around for years – the word here in India is that is because he’s actually 27. He’s a good player, had a fantastic year in limited overs cricket, and maybe he’ll be a success at Test cricket. But it’s pointless giving Indian players credit for being young. Age is determined by the year you finish high school. Loads of families send there kids a year late – for simple economic reasons. And in youth cricket talented players are routinely held back in age groups to give them the best chance of standing out for representative selection
Pfft. Imran Tahir, now there’s a man who gives a shit about Test cricket.