India win the First ODI

The wicket is on the slower side. The ball is turning square? Are we playing in India? Largely yes… after all India is being hosted by Western Indians. Guess the hosts are being too kind. If this is what it is going to be, India can be pretty much assured of a series win.

So, here goes a crisp match report. Raina effectively rotated his slow bowlers to fold WI under 215 runs. Thanks to Sarwan and Samuels for the respectable total. The likes of Dhawan, Rohit and Raina find the chase a meager formality after providing some anxious moments. Despite playing at home like conditions, the bench boys deserve the credit for winning in style. That makes it short and sweet report isn’t it? 

Never mind, I’ve something else to bug you.

Sometimes, I’m forced to believe there is nothing actually in favor of the hosts. The wickets are slow in nature. The host’s best batsman is dumped. Even the local public doesn’t get to watch the game at their regular times. If a T20 match could start as early as 10 am, there is hardly any surprise on why an ODI would start as early as 9 am local time?

Once again forced to ask the question, if the broadcaster or the BCCI could actually influence match timings during the England or Australia Tour?

Again the situation with Australia may actually benefit Indian public as Australia prefers the ODI games played D/N. This way games usually start around 9.00 am IST (except Perth which starts few more hours later). The Test matches in Australia starts around 5.30 am IST (except Perth) which actually benefits even the morning office goers to catch up the first session live.

With respect to England the situation is slightly different. Infact the schedule is already out. The Test matches start at 11.00 am local time (3.30 pm IST) much as usual. This is the best ever schedule that could work in favor of Indian public to catch good portion of the Test action live. The broadcasters should actually find more demand for this Test series.

The schedule of the T20 and ODI is what makes this subject little interesting.

Only T20 played on Wed Aug 31 is starting at 6 pm local time (10.30 pm IST). Completely undesirable time for the Indian public considering it’s a weekday as well.

Out of the 5 ODI’s, 3 are D/N played on Tue Sep 6, Fri Sep 9 and Fri Sep 16 starting 2 pm local time (6.30 pm IST).

Surprised why this schedule is not altered to suit the Indian public? Or is it only a marginal percentage of action the broadcasters could do away? After all two of these D/N games are played during the start of a weekend while one match on weekday could potentially lose Indian public viewership for the second innings only. Overall, a very good plan isn’t it? After all there are 3 games scheduled D/N to pacify the local public and 2 games scheduled Day are to be played on Saturday and Sunday.

Isn’t it pretty smart scheduling? Wonder if Australia ever manipulated the ODI itinerary when they toured India to benefit the public back home? (I do vaguely remember Australia during the captaincy of Steve Waugh played the entire ODI series in whites during the day. Those were also the times India did not have many floodlit grounds). Curious to see if Australia tour India in today’s era to play good chunk of ODI’s as Day games?

Bottom line: If you are an Indian public extremely satisfied for getting so much of action in your favor, then please don’t be. After all you will be watching cricket between ads.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover