Under the hammer, over the top

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period. Cricket, as one columnist has written recently, is the biggest leveler of our times. In sheer stature, openness and magnitude, it has created a position in the minds of emerging India what Bollywood had done to the denied middle-class of the 60s and 70s. Whoever you are, whatever is your origin, if you have talent you can really make it big here. Glory and wealth from cricket is the most believable dream. All young Indians know that and their parents believe it too.

One can hazard a guess how the shape of cricket retail will unfold. Cricket talent factories will mushroom in next few years, offering independent careers for various requirements of the cricket retail industry, a pan India business chain in sports gear, technology, and entertainment. India will showcase new talent shows in the arena of the stadium. Match analysis will be less. Those serious discussions will probably be reserved for the bigger format of the game.

As spectators we are no longer living in real time, nor do we enjoy our cricket with our own eyes. Our camera vision is tampered with slow motion shutter speed where everything looks frictionless and nimble.The diving body of the catcher cradling a nicked delivery moving at 100 miles per hour from the leading edge of the bat makes everything look staged and scripted. We will need more of the close ups of furrowed frowns on the perspiring foreheads of players to lend reality to the spectacle. We need to get used to action foreplay along with action replay to comprehend the cricketing reality. Most probably the peripheral drama around cricket will get prominence.