If nothing else, cricket has proven to be an adaptable sport that continues to reinvent itself and to hold appeal to new fans.
The last couple of years in particular, punctuated by the acceptance of T20, have confirmed that the future of cricket will involve plenty of strategic and technical evolution.
This is indeed true of cricket in India also. With a rich history about to celebrate its 300th anniversary, the relationship between cricket and the country of India is full of interesting events, characters, and developments. Here are a few things that we can expect to see unfold as cricket in India transitions into its next phase.
Financial incentives will only increase
If you’ve spent any time on the India cricket website, you’ll appreciate how quickly speed and efficiency are changing the way that the game is played. With more dynamic and engaging resources available for fans online, it is safe to say that the number of cricket followers will continue growing and the sport will garner more and more media attention.
This means bigger sponsorship deals and more pressure on teams, players, coaches, and management to generate winning results.
A shift towards more specialization
With the likes of T20 and Test cricket gaining more traction in India, there will need to be an increasingly clear distinction between the different formats of this great sport. As fans and players alike become smart to the subtleties that make these iterations of the game so different, the separation will become more pronounced and players will have to decide what format is being suited to their skills and career ambitions.
Players will have to pick a side
This move towards specialization will also mean that some of the sport’s greatest talents will have to decide where to invest their effort as they are likely to find less success in a cross-format approach.
Whether that means mastering new skills or refining existing ones, even the likes of Ravindra Jadeja are going to have to double down on their signature abilities. This will also present opportunities for new players to emerge as stars, as the focus shifts away from all-rounders.
T20 might just be what takes cricket all the way to the Olympics
It has been over a hundred years since a game of cricket was staged at the Olympic games, but the time might soon again be right for the world’s top cricket players to battle it out at this prestigious event. With T20 offering a shorter and more Olympic-friendly version of the sport, it is not surprising to see certain powerful members of the cricket community once again campaigning for its inclusion.
More exposure for women’s cricket
If cricket does indeed make the leap to becoming an Olympic event, this could mean that the Women in Blue would be getting a whole lot more exposure. In a similar way to how rugby has enjoyed an uptick in popularity since it rejoined the Olympics in 2009, the same trajectory could be true of women’s cricket.