Same stupidity which we saw in Hockey. Those people who are not interested in 5 day test match will also not watch 4 day Test match. Those people who do not follow Hockey with two halves of 35 minutes will also not watch 4 quarters of 15 minutes. HIL got wiped out. But you end up destroying the loyal following, puritans and traditional setup of the game. Cant get new viewers but end up losing old-timers too. The unpredictability, weather, pitch conditions, whether it favours Fast Bowlers, Spin or Batsman used to be the beauty of Test Cricket. Now just short boundaries, every effort of bowlers is termed no-ball, Floodlights and T20 style.
TV executives are behind this move of downgrading Test Cricket, they dont want to book up ad slots for 5th day if Test Match finish early. Losses are there.
I find T20 boring let alone fucking test cricket.i like to play cricket but watching it is boring.switching from fast paced football to watching slow as fuck cricket is hard.
I actually like Test cricket the most.The true test of a player is actually in test cricket.
Test Cricket Ensures that likes of Rahul Dravid, Vvs Laxman,Justin Langer etc are treated as cricketing legends instead of players like Shahid Afridi,Hardik Pandya,Kieron Pollard etc.
HIL is dead and buried.already the break has grown to almost 3 years. From Jan Feb 2017 to tentatively December 2019. 1) FIH has stopped the 3 or 4 weeks international break window which made participation by international players possible. Call it deterioration of relation between India and fih or they are moving on. They are trying for November December 2019 but even at that time international Olympic qualifiers are there.
2) The league was jinxed right from start with personal financial problem for owners. Wave group, jaypee, Sahara and other owners have their issues. Only certain owner is government psu from orrissa. That defeats the very purpose that private is better. Where will they get new owners? Many businessman were interested in Pune Franchise but no one wants to repair the torn astro turf there. I have lost the count of floodlight failures for Mumbai hockey stadium.
3) I liked previous leagues like PHL, WSH because they had pan India presence. Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai are absent from this HIL.
4) No Pakistan Malaysia Korea, south Africa or Argentina player in HIL. Only few countries were represented in HIL which was wrong if you are taking international window and then discriminate. PHL WSH franchise had players from many countries.
5) Teams Clubs should have more choice in hiring players. Not just one draft and players with no local connection forced on them.
6) People come to see the players. Put Punjab players in the Punjab team. Put Coorg players in Bengaluru franchise. Even Pakistani players like sohail Abbas or rehan butt were very popular in India. I remember crowd up to 20 thousand in Chandigarh for PHL matches. World Series Hockey was selling 8 thousand tickets in Bhopal. You don't need fake owner film star or cricketer to promote hockey. Fans will come to see hockey if they are local and quality is there. Barring Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, HIL was a failure on all other venues.
7) In a crowded masala league TV market of India and a monopoly of star sports, not many leagues can survive. They will decide on the future based on ratings.
PHL was really the best Hockey league we had. It even had a 2nd Division. Used to watch its matches in its inaugural season. Cant recall who won it but the marketing was good with several cricketers promoting the league. Maybe the only good thing that KPS Gill did for Indian Hockey.
Comments
The unpredictability, weather, pitch conditions, whether it favours Fast Bowlers, Spin or Batsman used to be the beauty of Test Cricket. Now just short boundaries, every effort of bowlers is termed no-ball, Floodlights and T20 style.
HIL is permanently stopped? I for one like the new hockey format though.
I think it will return in 2019 bigger and better.
Test Cricket Ensures that likes of Rahul Dravid, Vvs Laxman,Justin Langer etc are treated as cricketing legends instead of players like Shahid Afridi,Hardik Pandya,Kieron Pollard etc.
1) FIH has stopped the 3 or 4 weeks international break window which made participation by international players possible. Call it deterioration of relation between India and fih or they are moving on. They are trying for November December 2019 but even at that time international Olympic qualifiers are there.
2) The league was jinxed right from start with personal financial problem for owners. Wave group, jaypee, Sahara and other owners have their issues. Only certain owner is government psu from orrissa. That defeats the very purpose that private is better. Where will they get new owners? Many businessman were interested in Pune Franchise but no one wants to repair the torn astro turf there. I have lost the count of floodlight failures for Mumbai hockey stadium.
3) I liked previous leagues like PHL, WSH because they had pan India presence. Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai are absent from this HIL.
4) No Pakistan Malaysia Korea, south Africa or Argentina player in HIL. Only few countries were represented in HIL which was wrong if you are taking international window and then discriminate. PHL WSH franchise had players from many countries.
5) Teams Clubs should have more choice in hiring players. Not just one draft and players with no local connection forced on them.
6) People come to see the players. Put Punjab players in the Punjab team. Put Coorg players in Bengaluru franchise. Even Pakistani players like sohail Abbas or rehan butt were very popular in India. I remember crowd up to 20 thousand in Chandigarh for PHL matches. World Series Hockey was selling 8 thousand tickets in Bhopal. You don't need fake owner film star or cricketer to promote hockey. Fans will come to see hockey if they are local and quality is there. Barring Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, HIL was a failure on all other venues.
7) In a crowded masala league TV market of India and a monopoly of star sports, not many leagues can survive. They will decide on the future based on ratings.
Maybe the only good thing that KPS Gill did for Indian Hockey.
Season by season review of PHL. 2005 to 2008.
http://indianhockey.com/tournaments/premierhockeyleague/phl2005/tabid/88/language/en-us/default.aspx
http://indianhockey.com/tournaments/premierhockeyleague/phl2006/tabid/87/language/en-us/default.aspx
http://indianhockey.com/tournaments/premierhockeyleague/phl2007/tabid/86/language/en-us/default.aspx
http://indianhockey.com/tournaments/premierhockeyleague/phl200708/tabid/85/language/en-us/default.aspx
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