Cricket, Pink Balls and Abu Dhabi

by Rick

Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 06:54 AM EDT

The traditions of sport are often a double-edged sword. They can be the foundation that carries a sport through times both good and bad, or they can be an albatross, dragging a sport down and preventing it from keeping up with the times. To paraphrase retail titan John Wanamaker, “Sport should keep half of its traditions, I just don’t know which half.”

Here’s a great case in point: This week marked the beginning of the English cricket season, which traditionally features a match between the previous season’s champion and the Marylebone Cricket Club played at Lord’s. This year, in an effort to re-invigorate the game the match was moved to Abu Dhabi. Better weather was cited as one of the key reasons for the change in venues. That alone is enough to ruffle the feathers of the English cricket traditionalist, but on top of that a new, pink ball was introduced for the match, as it was partly played at night under lights. At a time when cricket, with the exception of Twenty20, is seeing a decline in attendance these measures are being introduced to “keep up with the times.” Great story here from Abu Dhabi’s The National on the match and the controversy.

Now, while a pink ball may trouble the delicate sensibilities of some purists, it doesn’t fundamentally change the game (and I don’t want to get in an argument here about red v. white v. pink balls and the effects of play on the balls). But moving a official English match to a foreign country is a different matter. Let me give you two examples from U.S. sport to compare and contrast.

For just about as long as anyone could remember, the Cincinnati Reds played the first game of the Major League Baseball season. From Wikipedia:

In Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the sport’s first professional team, an annual parade marks an unofficial “city holiday” with young and old alike taking the day off to cheer on the Reds. For decades, the first pitch of every major league season officially took place in Cincinnati. Cincinnati remains the only team who always opens the season with a home game. The past decade has brought the introduction of a Sunday night opening game televised by ESPN, as well as the staging of season-opening series in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Japan (with the current World Series champion as the “home” team against an opponent in the same league). The ensuing Monday brings Opening Day to numerous major league ballparks and the game that day in Cincinnati (the only team that always opens the season at home) is still observed throughout baseball as the “traditional opener.”

I think you can see the similarities here. It used to be easy. Season starts? Must be in Cincinnati on the first Monday. Now it’s on Sunday night, or in another country played by just about anybody. And nobody remembers or cares. Major League Baseball had a great tradition, one that meant something not just to the people of Cincinnati, but to any baseball fan. They threw that away for some quick bucks from ESPN. In a sport with a long season like baseball (April to October), you only have a couple of marquee moments: Opening Day, the All Star Game and the Playoffs and World Series. MLB has ceded one of those opportunities.

On the other end of the spectrum, the National Football League has also looked to play games in foreign markets, most recently they have established an annual game at Wembley Stadium. But rather than make this the season opener, they simply make it an early season game. So, rather than diminish an anchor event – the season opener – they have established a new anchor event. English cricket and Major League Baseball take note.

I think Twenty20 is a great addition to the sport of cricket, but it certainly shouldn’t replace proper test matches. I think playing real matches, not just exhibitions, on foreign soil is a great way to expand your fanbase, but it must be done strategically. It’s easy to mistake tradition for ‘being against progress,’ but tradition, especially in sport, has a very special place. Parents pass traditions down to their children who become the new generation of fans. Get rid of those traditions and soon sport just becomes another option alongside going to the movies or playing video games.