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Fans suffer as IPL struts easy pace

With matches starting at 8pm and stretching often beyond midnight, spectators, TV viewers inconvencied by ‘slow’ T20s

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Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma reacts after being told by umpire Bruce Oxenford to speed up the proceedings during the IPL match against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday
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Alagiri Kandasamy, a banking executive from Navi Mumbai and a cricket lover, finds commuting difficult after an 8pm IPL match. Reaching home late, getting to sleep for less hours before waking up early next morning for the daily grind makes watching IPL at the stadium a pain.

One of the ideas of starting IPL is to bring spectators to the venue, make it a delightful family evening outing and getting to see their favourite cricketers perform live. But, if the teams don't adhere to the timings and respect the spectators' time, they are going to lose out on support.

In ideal circumstances, an IPL match starting at 8pm should end at 11.10pm. This, after taking into account four minutes per over plus two strategic time out of two-and-a half minutes per innings and a maximum of 20 minutes interval between innings.

However, as has been regularly seen in this 12th edition of IPL, the matches stretch close to midnight with the odd one or two matches going into the next day.

Why so late?

There are so many factors why the matches go beyond the allotted time. Despite giving time allowances and deducting them from the total playing time, teams have been guilty of going slow. As a result, two Mumbaikars, Ajinkya Rahane of Rajasthan Royals and Rohit Sharma of Mumbai Indians have already been fined this season for slow over rate.

The time allowances range from retrieving the ball from the stands after a six is hit, batsmen changing equipment, wiping the wet ball when there is dew, changing ball, players receiving treatment for on-field injuries or any other reason that is beyond the control of the fielding side. Besides, the fielding team gets an allowance of a minute for each wicket after the fall of the sixth scalp.

As per the playing conditions, after deducting time for all the permissible allowances, the 19th over of an innings should commence by the 89th minute. Otherwise, the bowling team is penalised.

Despite all these allowances, the fact that the matches stretch beyond permissible time has to be addressed seriously by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Spectators suffer

While the franchises may not be directly affected by the matches ending late, it is the spectators who are worst hit. It is a regular sight at the Wankhede Stadium here to see spectators, after cheering loud for Mumbai Indians, rush to the nearby Churchgate station to not miss the last train to their destinations.

Spectators from the Central and Harbour lines have to abandon the last exciting moments of the match or the presentation ceremony to hurry up to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to catch their locals for far-flung suburbs.

With the matches ending late, school-going children find it difficult to get out of their bed for the next morning's school.

Kandasamy says: "Most people prefer to go by train. In the late hours, train frequency is less. I have seen people waiting for 30-40 minutes. Next morning, you have to leave home by 7.30am to reach office by 9am. People, already impacted by lack of availability of trains at night, are sleeping late. The sleep pattern is affected and you don't feel good about it."

He said a 7pm start would be ideal and could solve a lot of problems that the spectators otherwise face. Kandasamy also gave instances of his colleagues watching IPL matches on TV till about 9.30pm or 10pm and hit the bed to be fresh for next morning's routine.

Too slow

Former New Zealand pacer and now a reputed commentator, Simon Doull, feared that the "people are turning off" T20 matches.

"Unfortunately, it is dragging too long. Captains are taking far too long to set fields, bowlers having far too many strategies and taking five-six minutes an over. You don't want to be getting home at 1am in the morning," Doull told a cricket website.

Doull's captain in his playing days and now head coach of Chennai Super Kings Stephen Fleming was equally worried about the late finishes. He said on Wednesday night after the 37-run loss to Mumbai Indians here: "Yes, it is too slow. I think it has to be a collective shift from everybody, players as well as on-field monitoring. There's a little bit of broadcasting as well. There are times when you are waiting to come back. As a collective, the whole thing can be sped up. Moisture does play a part. We have had a couple of games where it has been very dewy, so wiping the ball is a consideration.

"Cricket in general is played at a pace below where it needs to be. Love to see all forms of the game increase in pace. It that puts pressure on captains and bowlers, so be it. How do you do that? You manage on field, be a little more strict, ask a little bit more of captains and bowlers to be a little bit more sure about plans. We are reaching four hours, we are defeating the purpose of a short game."

Seeking early start

There has been clamour for early start to IPL matches. Proposal for a 7pm start was shot down. Last year, the play-offs and final started at 7pm, a move welcomed by almost all. The 2016 ICC World T20 in India had a 7.30pm start in the league stages while the semifinals and final began at 7pm.

It is high time the BCCI took up this matter of late finishes seriously and gave the spectators a thought. The guardian of the Laws of Cricket, Marylebone Cricket Club in England, last month, proposed the introduction of shot clock in Tests in a bid to speed up the five-day game.

"A timer, to be shown on the scoreboard, to count down from 45 seconds from the call of 'Over'. (This would be increased to 60 seconds for a new batsman on strike and 80 seconds for a change of bowler).

"If either side is not ready to play when the clock reaches zero, they would receive a warning, with further infringements in that innings resulting in five penalty runs being awarded to the opposition."

Implementation of something similar in T20s may be a solution. Penalising the captain for slow over rate may not be an ideal solution. The franchises may not mind paying the penalty as the fine amount is only negligible.

Hitting the erring teams where it hurts so that they cared for quick finishes and, more importantly, did not waste the time of the patrons of the game, the spectators, without whom they would be nothing.

AS PER RULES

  • 4 minutes is allowed for an over, which means 80 minutes for 20 overs
  • Add the two strategic time-outs per innings and the innings should last 85 minutes
  • That makes it 170 minutes or 2 hours and 50 minutes of match playing time
  • Include a maximum of 20 minutes for interval between innings (It can be brought down to 15 minutes in case teams don’t finish in 85 minutes
  • Ideally, a match once started, should end after 3 hours and 10 minutes
  • Time taken for permissible stoppages like batsmen changing equipment, ball change, wiping wet ball in conditions of dew, on-field injuries is deducted from the actual playing time before over penalty is calculated
  • 19th over of an innings should start by the 89th minute
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