This is the last in the informal series that has been: the Future of Test Cricket, but first of all, there was some great feedback on yesterday’s post from Russ at Idle Summers in the comments and from @paperstargirl on Twitter. Cheers.

Please know that these recent posts are not well researched and are not meant to be taken as gospel (not that anyone thought that, just hedging my bets here). I am more free associating than anything; just kind of seeing where the words take me, to see if I can come up with a conclusion to an incredibly complex problem.

That problem being: Test cricket.

To sum up: it’s dead, it’s alive, it’s different.

Now, finally: it’s local.

The one flaw in my “dream of the 1890s” post was that people who consider themselves part of that culture of chicken coops and home cured meats, also prefer locally owned business, and frown at global corporations. They want their cities to be walkable, and their sport to be regional at best.

They would be disgusted at 18 cricketers plus coaches and staff and fans flying thousands and thousands of miles in a carbon producing, energy wasting, all around filthy jumbo jet – all for a sporting event.

And while, again, Test cricket’s time may have come, Test cricket again is not ready.

In order for it to be ready, it needs to do what other businesses the world over have done: become hyper-local, as best as it can.

And this reason alone is why I feel that while Test cricket and first class cricket are here to stay and can reap the benefits of the cultural movement that wants to slow everything down, it cannot do so in its current incarnation. It needs to be broken apart like Ma Bell in the 50s in America. It needs to be regionalized. It needs to be franchised.

And it is already happening.

For example, Minneapolis has a thriving one day league that exists solely at the grass roots level. And while the league is mostly made up of ex-pats, I think that will change as more and more people become interested in the slow burn that is first class cricket.

And so now the future of first class cricket looks to me like the bastard love child of the County Championship, the Indian Premiere League, and the Minnesota Cricket Association.

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In fact, in a lot of ways, that looks like the future of sport overall.

And by “future” I don’t mean tomorrow, next week, or next year. I mean a generation from now.

People are longing for community and for local connectivity, despite our global village. And I think sport is going to respond to that desire – and cricket will be along for the ride.

Because I still believe Test cricket’s time has come.

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There are currently three domestic leagues receiving online coverage in the United States: The Big Bash League, the Ranji Trophy, and the Caribbean T/20.

Two of the three are T20 leagues, and the third is first class, four day cricket league.

As the Cricket Geek pointed out on All Out Cricket, 2012 taught us that domestic leagues such as the BBL and the IPL are growing and very well could be here to stay. And that point is driven home by the fact that three domestic leagues are available to watch online here in the USA – two of which are pop-up leagues taking advantage of the T20 format’s popularity.

Most will say that too much cricket is a problem. And I agree. I have said it before on countless occasions and I will keep saying it because I firmly believe that too much cricket dilutes the game and creates meaningless matches – and meaningless matches are ripe for match-fixing or at the very least accusations of match-fixing.

That said, I think the franchises are here to stay.

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A few days ago I said that Test cricket’s time has come.

I still believe that.

But I also believe that that future lies in strong, domestic leagues.

I don’t think a T20 league in every country featuring a handful of mercenaries is the long term future, but I think it is the short term future. However, the cream I think will rise to the top and in 15-20 years we will be left with a handful of very strong and very competitive leagues. And these leagues will not only be a part of the long term success of the sport overall, they will be integral.

A short term sacrifice for a long term solution.

And I think they will become so successful that meaningless and lopsided two Test series between a number one ranked team and a number seven ranked team will go away forever, and be replaced with First Class leagues.

I am picturing a bastard love child of the County Championship and the Indian Premiere League: that’s the future of first class cricket.

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In a discussion about the future of Tests on Twitter, @Chrisps01 of Declaration Game mentioned that of all the sports he follows, International Football is the most out of step with the times. And I wholeheartedly agree. The days of lines in the sand being the end all, be all of politics are over. Fervent nationalism, though still a massive player in most geo-political circles, is going away, slowly but surely.

I have written about this before.

Club football is vastly more popular and more entertaining than international football.

And because of this, slowly but surely, football’s World Cup will go away, and be replaced by global versions of the Champions League (the World Club Cup is a blue print, but I am picturing something that is more than just a cash grab). And I feel that this same trend will happen in international cricket, too.

The Ashes will always exist, as will other long term and hotly contest rivalries such as India v Pakistan, but long, tedious tours in empty stadiums will go away, and be replaced by franchise cricket leagues in ALL formats.

This will not happen overnight, and it might not even happen in our lifetimes, but it is the future of the game.

The world might be ready for Test cricket, but in it’s current incarnation, Test cricket is not ready for the world. The T20 format has some ideas on how to go about getting it ready, however, and hopefully Test cricket is paying attention.

Yesterday, I eulogized Test cricket.

Today I do the opposite.

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In Minneapolis yesterday morning, it was around eight degrees Fahrenheit (minus thirteen Celsius) with a light wind out of the southwest. I woke up at 6:30am, walked the dog, fed the dog, dressed in layer after layer of wool, left my car in the driveway, and rode my fixed gear bicycle the six and a half miles to the office – just as I do every other day.

It was a perfect morning for a ride. The cold temperatures kept away the slush, and the sun made it feel warm, even though it wasn’t.

The ride took me about 35 minutes, but I don’t go very fast.

If I drive, it takes me about 10 minutes.

15 if I stop for coffee.

When I worked at my old job, I would ride about three times a week, despite the fact that it was a 40 mile round trip, and would eat up about three hours of my day – while driving would eat up only about 45 minutes. It was, however, utterly and completely worth it.

And the thing is: I am not alone. Not in the slightest. In my city, and it cities across the globe, people are choosing their bikes over their cars, despite the fact that is a vastly slower form of transportation.

Even Lebron James is getting in on the act.

And the bicycle is just one small facet of a growing trend: People are interested in slowing everything down a bit.

This video, while an attempt at humor, sums it up perfectly:

Everywhere I look, not just in Portland, people are forgoing modern conventions and seeking out, well, the 1890s. A time and place where the 20th century with all of its disease and war and soot never happened.

And this makes think: maybe Test cricket’s day has finally come.

The game has been fighting against time and progress since its birth. But now with muttonchops and slow food and yoga and backyard chicken coops and homebrewing…maybe the world is finally ready to accept this anachronistic, five day long, slow moving, slow turning, slow building, bat and ball sport.

Wright Thompson talked about this in his long form piece for ESPN. And I agreed in my rebuttal post.

But my post was almost a year ago, and the trend has only increased over the last 12 months.

Every one I know makes beer at home and seeks out local shops and products. They are rejecting the modern conventions of NOW NOW NOW and FAST FAST FAST. And while this has yet to translate to entertainment or sport, it would follow that sooner or later, if the trend continues, people are going to seek a sport that exists, as Mr. Thompson put it, “outside the tyranny of money and time.”

Of course, the people who are involved in the trend are a small minority – mostly Generation Xers who aren’t sure if they belong in the massive generation that came before them (the boomers) or the even more massive generation that came after them (the millenials) – and the corporate machine that drives popular culture is probably going to win this war in the long run, but that does not change the fact that people want to grow their own food, brew their own beer, make their own bread, and ride their bicycles to the store. And these same people, I feel, would truly embrace the gift that is Test cricket.

Again, to quote Wright Thompson (ignoramus that he is, he gets it): “When (Mike) Marqusee describes the pleasure of attending a Test match, he lingers on the way he’s able to think. In the white spaces. I think about the silence at Lord’s, and I understand. Test cricket is different from the rest of the world because it was designed to be.”

Of all the sports in the world today, none of them fit into this mold, this trend, more so than Test cricket. They are all so frenetic, so corporate, so LOUD, so fast. And by “they” I mean the other formats in cricket, as well.

Test cricket however, and first class county cricket, deliver what the world is aching for: no pop music, no floodlights, no pumped in crowd noise; just 22 men in white, on a field of green, absent from time itself. A sport to contemplate and enjoy without constant bombardment on your senses.

It is an anachronism surely; but so are bicycles.

Plus you get to bring your own beer into the ground.

And the players wear sweaters.

All due respect to Portland, the dream of the 1890s is alive and well on cricket grounds the world over.

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“A long long time ago
I can still remember how (the cricket) used to make me smile”

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Yesterday, South Africa shellacked New Zealand by an innings and 27 runs inside three days.

Sometime tonight, or maybe tomorrow, Australia is going to complete their three match whitewash of Sri Lanka.

What it comes down to is there are a couple decent Test sides right now (England, maybe Australia, maybe Pakistan), one really magnificent Test side (South Africa) and a whole lot of really mediocre to terrible test sides (India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, The West Indies, Bangladesh).

What is going on?

Over on Twitter, Addie Kumar suggested that “weak test sides” is doublespeak for countries that don’t perform in alien conditions; while I have argued in the past that there is a direct correlation between Test success and number of Tests played (duh-doy). Meanwhile Devanshu of Deep Backward Point thinks more Tests is not the answer, but rather teams should only play teams of their same skill level, in order to improve. Throwing New Zealand to the South African lions, so to speak, does no one any good. Have them play Sri Lanka or Bangladesh or even Ireland instead. (See his comment on my post linked to above.)

No matter what the answer is, it is killing the format.

Twenty/20 is not killing Test cricket; Test cricket is committing slow ritual suicide.

The Test cricket future could be what we have now in the La Liga, the English Premiere League, and until recently, the Scottish Premiere League: a two horse race, year in and year out.

That, to me, is troubling.

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Just how bad are some Test sides?

A simple look at their 2012 form tells the story:

Team	Tests	Win	Lose	Draw	Win %	W/L
Australia	11	7	1	3	0.636	7
Pakistan	6	3	1	2	0.500	3
West Indies	10	4	4	2	0.400	1
England	15	5	7	3	0.333	0.71
India	9	3	5	1	0.333	0.6
Sri Lanka	10	3	5	2	0.300	0.6
New Zealand	10	2	6	2	0.200	0.33
Bangladesh	2	0	2	0	0.000	0
Zimbabwe	1	0	1	0	0.000	0
South Africa	10	5	0	5	0.500	n/a

(Note: “Win Percentage” is an American convention. It is simply the number of wins divided by the number of total games and usually expressed as a three digit decimal, not a percentage. If you look up any table in America, you will see it. It is what I am comfortable with, and so that is what I use. If it offends your math sensibilities, then I apologize. W/L is a Cricinfo stat. Number of wins divided by number of losses.)

– Only one team finished undefeated (South Africa).

– Only four teams won more games than they lost (Australia, Pakistan, The West Indies, and South Africa)

– Only three teams finished “above .500” (Australia, Pakistan, and South Africa)

– Despite England’s recent resurgence in India, I do not see them mentioned in any of the three bullet points above.

Now, the above is a very small sample size, I will admit that, and using the American convention of “winning percentage” is problematic as it does not account for draws (in American sports, there is no such as a draw), but the numbers do not lie: 2012 was a terrible year for most Test nations, and it could be the death knell for the format overall, unless teams begin to improve their form – which is far more expensive for most national boards, especially when the format is no longer financially viable outside of England.

In 40 years I think we will look back at 2012 and agree that’s there where Test cricket started truly dying.

Let’s hope I am wrong.

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I am pleased to present the first annual Limited Overs World Cricket Awards:

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Match of the Year:

This is going to come as a surprise to my regular readers, but the match of the year, in my opinion, was not a Test, or even an ODI, it was a Twenty20. And the winner is:

India vs Pakistan, 1st T20I, at Bangalore.

The match really did have everything: two old enemies engaging in a bilateral series for the first time in over four years. It had, in the words of the Cricinfo ball by ball commenter: “Collapses, fightbacks, flare-ups, tension.”

It was India v Pakistan in a T20 under the floodlights in front of 70,000 fans plus millions more worldwide watching on satellite TV, on legal streams, on illegal streams…in the USA, in Australia, in England. The whole of world cricket sat down for three hours to watch. And we were not disappointed.

India v Pakistan, in a T20, under the floodlights. It looked like cricket’s future and its past and its present all at the same time.

The future of cricket depends on this rivalry and on this format. And for that reason alone it deserves this award.

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Honorable mention: see next award.

Test of the Year:

I added this category at the last minute because a test match did not win the Match of the Year award.

And the winner is:

England v South Africa, 3rd Test, at Lord’s.

The match went the distance, and it included a spirited final day fight back from the English, though it was in vain in the end.

It was Lord’s in August, number one vs number two, and it ended England’s short and disastrous reign as the number one Test side.

It included a lovely 95 from Jonny Bairstow, a match winning century from Hashim Amla (who was enjoying the summer of his life), and a hard earned and spirited 73 from England’s wicketkeeper, Matt Prior.

The match launched South Africa into the difficult role as the number one Test side, a status which they defended and cemented a few months later in Australia.

Most importantly, the match was final Test of a three Test series, and one could not wonder what these two teams could have done with five or even four tests.

It was a prime example of how three Test series are disappointing and terrible for the Test format overall; and a reminder that three Test series are becoming the norm.

I realize the irony of the above paragraphs considering my Match of the Year was of the format that is supposedly killing Test cricket.

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Honorable mention: Australia v South Africa, 2nd Test, at Adelaide Oval

Series of the Year

And the winner is:

The 2012 ICC World Twenty20

This tournament, while not really a series per se, won not because of the cricket itself, but because of its winner: The West Indies. Their first World Cup win since 1979.

Cricket needs a strong West Indies, and here’s hoping this victory inspires another generation of young Caribbean cricketers to pick up the leather and the willow.

And not only did they win it, they won it with style.

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Honorable mention: Pakistan v England, Three Test Series

Knock of the Year

Despite picking KP’s knock at Leeds as my second favorite moment on the pitch this year, the winner is:

Hashim Amla’s 311 not out against England at the Oval

I wrote it about it here:

“This 29 year old, quiet, devout young man walked out onto a ground 10,000 miles from his home, that was built 148 years before he was born, and on a perfect July weekend on the far edge of the world’s greatest city, simply batted for 790 minutes, a hair over 13 hours, scoring 311 runs along the way.”

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Honorable mention: KP’s 149 against South Africa at Leeds

Team of the Year

This is an easy one:

South Africa

They went to England as number two, and they left as number one. They then went to Australia and cemented that status.

They did all of the above with grit, courage, style, and spirit – and they did it despite losing their wicketkeeper in a freak accident one day before the first Test in England – and they did it without losing a single Test.

And for a short period over the summer, they were also the number one ODI team.

They played 38 total matches, winning 21, losing 10, drawing five, with two no results.

And they show no signs of slowing down.

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Honorable mention: The West Indies

Cricketer of the Year

This is the only controversial pick:

Kevin Pietersen

He didn’t score the most runs this year, not by a long shot, that honor went to Michael Clarke’s outstanding 2,251 in all formats, but he did score a lot: the fourth most Test runs (1,051), and the 14th most runs in all formats (1,446).

And his teams did not have the greatest of seasons: England’s struggles in 2012 are well documented, the Delhi Daredevils were knocked out in a preliminary final despite a fine regular season, and his County side, Surrey, finished the campaign trophy-less.

However.

His retirement from one-day cricket, followed by the ECB dropping him from the Test squad, followed by his reinstatement to all formats, goes to show that the power of the national boards is slipping away, while the power of the individual players continues to grow.

KP’s retirement in the future will be looked as the beginning of a player-led revolution.

It was a game changer.

He said to the ECB: I am bigger than you. I am more important than you. You don’t own me. And I don’t need you.

He didn’t score the most runs, his teams didn’t win anything, but his year was by far the most important to the future of the game, and therefore well deserving of this award.

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Honorable mention (tie): Michael Clarke, Hashim Amla, and Sachin Tendulkar.

There were two deaths over the last couple of days that I would like to make note of.

First of all, there was former England captain and announcer, Tony Greig.

I did not know Tony as a player. But I wholeheartedly enjoyed his commentary, and his Twitter feed. His death on Friday was sudden and heartbreaking. I have a hard time reading back over his recent tweets. They sound so hopeful and in that hope lies the tragedy and the sadness. He was going to watch the Boxing Day Test with his son. It didn’t go the full five days, which most of us bemoaned; but at least Tony got to see one final result.

His tweets remind me of some e-mails I received from my Uncle Mike in his last days. Guarded hope and every day annoyances.

Singer Fiona Apple, in a letter to fans cancelling a tour, discussed how we should learn to treasure, not fear, our last few days. I guess I do and do not believe that. I like the fact that Tony Greig, and my Uncle Mike, got to spend their last few days just doing the things they have always done…watching cricket, designing pens…instead of spending all of their time treasuring something as vast and wide and complicated as life in the shadow of its own ending.

At the same time, for my family, and for Tony Greig’s, it would have been nice to have had a chance to say goodbye.

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I did not know Tony, as a player, as a teammate, as a captain, as a friend, or as a father. But I did know him. As I posted when Tom Maynard was killed earlier this year:

“Some people will cast spurious glances at those of us who grieve when celebrities die – but I think it is perfectly okay to mourn those in the spotlight, even if they were not close friends or family. Their lives touch ours in very unique ways, and so it follows that their deaths would do so, as well.”

I stand by that statement. And I will add that when celebrities die, it reminds us of who we have lost; which is something worth being reminded of.

Rest in peace, Mr. Greig.

Rest in peace, Uncle Mike.

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The second death was, of course, the death of Damini in Singapore.

I read the news as I was posting my year end review the other day. I felt churlish and silly. I cannot comprehend her pain; my dark moments are sunshine and roses compared to her positively hellish final weeks on this planet.

And I am not going to comment on the cultural aspects involved here. I am not qualified to. And speaking as an American, and considering our cultural “problems” that were laid bare in Sandy Hook earlier this month, I really do not have a right to speak: to denounce, to demean. And, as evidenced in our election season, Americans have their own issues with regard to how women are treated.

I will say this, however, because it concerns cricket, and that’s what this blog is about, even if it seems flippant at this moment to do so: if India wants a seat at the table, if it wants to be taken seriously, then this needs to stop.

And by table, all mean all tables: politics, economics…and sport.

I get asked a lot if cricket will ever take off in America. And the answer is now a maybe but also now includes a final qualifier:

Stop treating women like you do.

Stop it.

Stop it now.

And even if you don’t want a seat at the table, even if you don’t want cricket to work in in America:

Stop treaking women like you do.

Stop it.

Stop it now.

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A lot happened this year.

A lot.

Sachin Tendulkar retired from one day cricket. Ricky Ponting retired. Rahul Dravid retired. Mark Boucher retired. And that list goes on for a bit, but no longer includes, strangely enough, Kevin Pietersen.

Meanwhile, a crop of cricketers spent the year entering the most brilliant periods of their young careers: Michael Clarke, Alastair Cook.

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The West Indies won a one-day World Cup.

India collapsed. In Australia,  and in India.

England collapsed. In the UAE, and in England.

South Africa cemented their status as world number one.

And Pakistan started a bilateral series against India for the first time since 2008.

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Sachin Tendulkar, after what was surely the most agonizing and frustrated period of his career, hit his 100th international century.

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My favorite blog post of the year was “All Ten” from the Old Batsman.

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My favorite blog post that I wrote was probably this one.

My most read blog post was this one.

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I have doubled my monthly page views since January.

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I posted 161 times. A little less than one post every other day. Not the rate I was hoping for at the beginning of the year, but pretty good by my own standards and considering that, up until October, I was going to school and working full time.

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My wife released her second album.

To rave reviews.

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We got a new dog. I got a new job.

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This post contains my 2012 blog related resolutions. Except for number six, I accomplished none of them.

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The best decision I made all year, blog related, was to stop it with the confusing blog titles already.

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I was asked to write a book review by Graywolf Press.

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I started the World Cricket Internet Schedule for U.S. Viewers.

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My favorite moment, cricket wise, and not related to this blog, of 2012, was the very first ball of the Australian summer this past November.

Second was Kevin Pietersen’s century against South Africa at Leeds.

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This was also the year I learned that Kevin Pietersen’s middle name is Peter.

Kevin Peter Pietersen.

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In 2012, there were two Test triple centuries and eight Test double centuries.

There were three Test seven-fers, from the most unlikely sources: Ajmal, Broad, and Southee.

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And that, in so many words, was the year. In cricket, and here on the blog. I am sure I missed the five biggest cricket stories, if not the 10 biggest, and I am also quite that this will be the lamest, and most self serving, year end review you will read all week.

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What I did not mention was that this year, as I have alluded to on several occasions, was a very, very difficult year for me, personally. I am not going to go into detail, because it is really not that exciting, but the worst part of all it is that it is all self induced.

I am in a dark place because of my own mistakes.

And that can be a tough pill to swallow.

The good news is that things are getting better, and better, and despite everything I was able to be an active part of this amazing cricket blogging community. The fact that I was able to write over 150 posts this year despite school, despite everything, goes to show that this place is my refuge, my sanctuary. And while I may write about Hashim Amla, I have found it is just as cathartic as writing about anything else.

The good days are the days I post.

And that is why I am not going to write a list of my 2013 blog related resolutions. Because there is only one:

Keep writing about cricket.

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This weekend I will post my 2012 Awards. Cricketer of the year, match of the year…etc. Keep an eye out. And thanks for reading.

Michael Clarke, captain of Australia: 11 matches, 18 innings, 1,595 runs – Most Test runs in 2012, calendar year. Average: 106.33. Hundreds: Five.

Alastair Cook, captain of England: 15 matches, 29 innings, 1,249 runs – 2nd Most Test runs in 2012, calendar year. Average: 48.03. Hundreds: Six.

If that does not whet your appetite for the 2013 Ashes, then nothing will. Two captains at the absolute height of their powers.

Though, of course, truthfully, Cook was not captain for the bulk of the year. However, in just four matches as captain, he scored 562 of his 1,249 runs and averaged a whopping 80.28 with three centuries. The armband suits him.

He suits England.

The first Test of the five Test series starts on 10 July at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

And that is just one amazing series to look forward to next year.

There is also South Africa v Pakistan, India v Australia, and the second incarnation of the Ashes, this time in Australia, in November.

There will be 94 Test matches next year. The four series mentioned above account for 17 of them.

Other highlights:

Well, India will go to South Africa in the fall of next year for a few, Pakistan will “host” South Africa for a few more, and the resurgent West Indies will host Pakistan over the summer for a couple.

The rest of the matches feature non-Test-hardened sides like Sri Lanka, and New Zealand (sorry to all my Kiwi friends), and Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh – and after watching Australia toy with Sri Lanka, I really cannot say I am dying to watch the Lankans or the rest play Test cricket again any time soon.

So the bulk of the fun, for Test fanatics, will be the four series mentioned above: The Ashes in England, the Ashes in Australia, South Africa v Pakistan, in South Africa*, and Australia in India.

17 matches to savor.

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My 2012 round up and 2013 resolution posts should go up this weekend.

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*Matches in the UAE are not available here in the States, so I did not include these reverse fixtures

It’s Christmas morning.

I am up early with the dog and the coffee to watch India play Pakistan in a Twenty20.

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I get asked a lot of if cricket – specifically Twenty20 cricket – will ever take hold here in the states.

Nevermind the fact that the question is mildly, albeit unintentionally, insulting – as in, Americans could never like something as nuanced as Test cricket because they are boisterous and loud and lacking in attention spans – my answer has always been a qualified “maybe.”

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The question, and my answer, invariably revolve around a US-based, T20 league.

A league featuring a smattering of US players and a bunch of international one day mercenaries in cities where there are large ex-pat communities like San Francisco.

But I am watching India vs Pakistan this morning, and it is loud and swashbuckling and entertaining without being annoying (like the IPL; no dancers, no pop music), and I cannot help but retract what I said earlier about insulting and think to myself: Americans would watch this.

If this match was on ESPN, in HD, Americans would watch it.

It would be a novelty at first, like how we all watched Australian rules football in the 80s, but after 10, maybe 15, overs, a good majority of them would be hooked, and would tune in again.

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The key here is the rivalry, and the crowd, and the general atmosphere, and the entertaining cricket.

They would not watch the sub-par mercenary club cricket that a US league would produce, they would not watch England v New Zealand in a half empty Oval, but they would watch India v Pakistan, and other entertaining sides with a well defined rivalry, play Twenty20 cricket.

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And so now I have two answers to the question above: a US league? Maybe. But they would definitely watch big-time T20 internationals.

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Merry Christmas to all my readers.

And, so, Sachin Tendulkar has retired…

…from one day cricket.

It is as if we were all expecting a massive earthquake, a seismic event that would rattle the very core of this sport we all love; but instead there was just a small rumble, enough to shake the dishes in the cupboard but little else.

Cricket writers, both the paid and unpaid versions, were ready the world over to hit “publish” on their Sachin retirement posts – most of which had been written sometime between the Test against England at the Oval last summer and the Test against England at Nagpur last week.

But like a flurry of wickets at the end of a day’s play, the script had been rewritten, and so with it all the sportswriters’ copy.

He was retiring, but only from one day cricket; stop the presses.

This is not to say that Sachin retiring from ODIs is not a big deal. It is a very big deal. He redefined the genre. He did for cricket what Nirvana did to rock music. It’s just that, well, his announcement felt a little…disappointing. It missed the mark, expectation wise.

We were expecting New York Strip, instead we got meat loaf.*

Now, I was not hoping for him to retire from all formats, but the kind of a send off he would have gotten, like the one Dravid received, would have been the kind of send off he deserved. Now all the posts I am reading feel half hearted, like they really aren’t as sad as they had hoped they would be. His ODI stats are remarkable, of course, but it is when they are combined with his Test stats that he becomes God-like. And can you really go on for 1,000 words, lyrically eulogizing him with platitudes and whispers and tears and metaphors when he is only retiring from one format?

It’s almost as if, for the first time in his career, he did not do the thing we all expected from him – he went against tradition, against the system, and decided to do it differently than Dravid, than VVS. And in doing so, he disappointed us.

Or maybe his hand was forced by the BCCI, which means that retiring solely from ODIs was definitely Sachin staying true to form: doing what it is required, and not asking questions.

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All of the above said, he is no longer an active participant in the format he changed forever, and that is a story. Maybe not the story we were hoping to write, but a story nonetheless.

One day cricket is here to stay, and one can argue that Sachin is the  reason why it is here to stay. I am not quite sure if that is the right legacy for him, or one that he deserves, but it is still a powerful legacy to behold. In a game beloved by two billion people from the village cricket fields of southern England to the Mumbai backstreets, one man changed one facet of it forever. And that is something worth noting.

When Presidents in America leave office, historians always ask: what will their legacy be?

With Lincoln it was the Civil War; with Wilson the depression; with FDR the new deal and World War II; with Carter inflation and hostages; with Bush Jr. Iraq.

For Sachin, I feel it will be the ODI format.

Right or wrong, that is my opinion.

And the fact that he is retiring from the format he reinvented means there is room for another to possibly step up, and change it forever again, positively or negatively.

Which I think is an exciting prospect.

Cricket in general, and one day cricket specifically, and Indian cricket even more specifically, are going through a rebuilding phase, which is something all fans enjoy**, despite the depths we have to endure before the rebuilding begins in earnest. Change brings light into darkness.

India’s ODI squad in the 2015 World Cup will look vastly different than it did in 2011, and so could the sport in general. I am looking forward to seeing the changes that both bring to this wonderful, old, but still evolving, game that I love.

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*I am a vegetarian.

**Jarrod Kimber wrote a post about this that I cannot seem to find, otherwise I would have properly cited with a link.