This story does not begin on the 19th of June, 2018 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Rather, I would say that the highest score in ODI cricket history that the English recorded in the third ODI against a battered and bruised Australian side, was the climax point of a 3 year old story in English cricket - the climax of the same story which began on the 9th of March, 2015, at the Adelaide Oval. So, let's see what actually happened on this specific date, 3 years ago. England- The Mighty English, got knocked out of the 2015 cricket world cup, in the group stages, by none other than the perennial minnows of World Cricket, Bangladesh. That Rubel Hossain yorker, which uprooted James Anderson's off stump, on that fateful night, was the moment, English cricket woke up from a nightmare.
Pre-2015 Cricket World Cup
If you look at the phase, English Cricket was going through prior to the 2015 cricket world cup, they were living in a self induced bubble of pride and ego, regarding the standard of cricket they were playing. England was always one of the best red ball teams, but shrouded in the ego of their success in red ball cricket, they started completely ignoring white ball cricket, from early 2010. This ego and self obsession of England regarding red ball cricket, with time, swelled into a self restricting bubble, which hindered them from making any meaningful progress in ODI or T20 cricket. Hence, the ECB (England Cricket Board) was blissfully unaware of the developments, that were occurring in limited overs cricket, around the world. They continued to prepare seaming and swinging pitches, and continued to unleash Broad & Anderson on hapless oppositions, when they came for English tours. As a result of the 'juicy' pitches prepared, the English batsmen, got into this groove that 250 was a good ODI total, oblivious of the fact, that around the world, teams were comfortably chasing 300-350 runs, with absolute ease, on flat batting decks. Not being able to keep up with the trend, and only trying to live off the reputation & fame, has resulted in the fall of the biggest business ventures in the world- Nokia & Kodak being the most prominent names, in the list. England cricket was sucked into a similar blackhole, and the wake up call struck them hard in the 2015 CWC, as they found on fast flat Australian batting beauties, even the Bangladesh batsmen, consistently outscored the English, with relative ease.
Post-2015 Cricket World Cup
And then that 2015 CWC debacle happened for England, where they could not even qualify for the quarterfinals, as the Bangla Tigers edged past them into the top 8, in a nail biting encounter, at the Adelaide Oval. That is regarded as the water shed moment, in England Limited overs cricket history. Suddenly ECB woke up from its self indulgent slumber, to find out, that England need to change the way, they had been playing limited overs cricket, till date. With immediate effect, test specialists, like Ian Bell, Broad & Anderson, were sacked from the ODI team and young limited over specialists, in the form of Stokes, Roy, Butler & Bairstow made their way into the ODI team. Consequences were immediate, as England zoomed past the 2015 WC Runners up, New Zealand with relative ease, in the bilateral ODI series, played a few months after the ICC World Cup 2015. Since then, there has been absolutely no looking back for the oldest members of World Cricket, as they rampaged oppositions after oppositions with their new band of dominating & attacking cricket. If as a spectator, you have followed the performances of the English ODI team for the last couple of years, it should come as no surprise that the likes of Jason Roy, Alex Hales & Eoin Morgan exploited a hapless demotivated inexperienced Australian bowling attack on a batting beauty at Trent Bridge to record the highest ever ODI score in cricket history. Roy (82), Bairstow (139) & Hales (147) initiated the onslaught and Morgan (67) applied the finishing touches against a bowling attack, who looked absolutely clueless and did not seem to know, what struck them.
Is 500 the way forward?
NO. I repeat NO. 500 is NOT the way forward and if an authentic cricket fan is listening, he/she would definitely agree with me. Cricket is a battle between the bat & the ball and it has to stay that way. Cricket cannot go on to be a game of bat vs bat. There is a reason that the cricket ball in its path towards the batsman is affected by the moisture in the air, the wind velocity, the moisture in the pitch and the soil composition of the pitch- the reason being all of these factors combine to impart variation to the delivery originally bowled by the bowler. This is what makes cricket interesting.. and a game of uncertainties. If you are preparing pitches, where batting teams are launching up 500 plus totals, you are slowly causing one discipline in the game to die- the art of bowling. To be noted here is this fact, that it is the discipline of bowling that makes cricket different from baseball. It is because Don Bradman successfully faced the bowling of the quality of Larwood & Gilbert, that, we regard him to be the greatest batsman to have graced the game. That is exactly where Sir Donald Bradman is different from Mr. Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson. As a humble cricket fan, hence it is my earnest request to the concerned authorities, to preserve and acknowledge the discipline of bowling in international cricket. Of course, sixes & fours, make the match entertaining- but an incoming delivery swinging away from the right hander, taking the edge of the bat on its way to first slip equally entertains the cricketing audience. Cricket pitches have to swing & seam or grip & turn- for God's sake if they are doing neither of the above, then why are cricket pitches even existing? Let's make it a concrete surface and let bowling machines throw the ball at the batsmen and let them smash it for boundaries & over boundaries. Dear ICC, try to understand this, that just like a pitch that is turning square from ball 1, is a poor pitch, similarly a pitch, where teams are scoring 480 runs in 50 overs, is a poor pitch as well. Both of them are spoiling the spirit of the game and we as cricket fans would hope that ICC will be unbiased in their judgement, in this regard.
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