On Foxtel and Kayo, live audiences for IPL games – most of them in unfriendly overnight time slots – oscillate somewhere between 30-50,000 viewers. But the “Minis” highlights packages do far better the following morning, averaging audiences of around 100,000. So more sixes do mean more views.
But for players, particularly those who will be engaged in the Twenty20 World Cup later this year, the impact player rule is a growing source of consternation. As one coach remarked, the rule effectively removes the advantages of team balance and skilful selection from the equation, since teams nominate their impact player after the toss.
Indian cricketers, commonly reticent to criticise rule and regulations under the umbrella of the powerful BCCI, are starting to raise their voices over the past 48 hours. The national captain, Rohit Sharma, had this to say.
“I generally feel that it is going to hold back [development of all-rounders] because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players,” Rohit said on the Club Prairie podcast. “I’m not a big fan of impact player. You are taking out so much from the game just to make it little entertainment for the people around.”
Overnight, India’s spearhead Jasprit Bumrah also raised his concerns about the impact player. “A bowler becomes half of what he actually is because of this rule.”
As a consequence, hell-for-leather sluggers like Head and his Sunrisers opening partner Abhishek Sharma are so far proving more valuable than more classical players like the legendary Virat Kohli, whose place in India’s World Cup plans has begun to come into question amid Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s struggles.
While Kohli is atop the scoring charts, his scoring rate of 147.34 has been made to look pedestrian by Head (199.15), Sharma (197.19) and Heinrich Klaasen (199.21).
Australia’s Twenty20 program is at the centre of the scoring spike. Not only is Sunrisers Hyderabad captained by Pat Cummins, it is coached by Australia’s assistant coach Dan Vettori. Their approaches will have to be tempered at the upcoming World Cup because of the lack of an impact player rule, but that is also a stage where the all-round strength of the side will be a significant advantage.
Loading
In captain-to-be Mitch Marsh, Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell, the Australians have a trio of top line all-rounders. In Cummins and Mitchell Starc, there are also a pair of bowlers who have the ability to turn games with the bat if required.
Perhaps baseball’s greatest of all, Babe Ruth, was the equivalent of an all-rounder – a pitcher who could hit with power. In the era of the designated hitter, spectators might never have known exactly how good he could be.
India’s talent stocks, meanwhile, have never looked deeper. The emergence of the phenomenally fast Mayank Yadav turned plenty of heads when he won the match award in each of his first two games for Lucknow, even if a side complaint has since kept him out of several fixtures.
Top quality speed and spin is, in effect, becoming more valuable. In a league where cricket now has a DH equivalent, it will be high pace like Yadav’s, or the canny wrist spin of Yuzvendra Chahal, that has the ability to buck the trend of big hits and high scores.