Rules are sacrosanct in sports. You have to play by them. Every transgression is watched,weighed and penalised. But then every sport reinvents itself. At that transformational juncture,rules are changed and laws amended. The International Association of Athletics Federations recently tried to become more television-friendly with a stringent false-start rule for disqualification. Tennis has occasionally done it,like bringing in tie-breaks to end the monotony of a prolonged set and allowing players to challenge the line. Has that time indeed come for 50-over cricket,the popularity of which has been leached by the T20 blitz? Sachin Tendulkar,in a letter to ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat,has suggested a few changes in the ODI format,the most radical being the replacement of two 50-over innings with four alternate blocks of 25 overs. Tendulkar suggested that this could balance the advantages gained by the team that wins the toss. It could also add an edge to the game,if one goes by an experiment in domestic cricket in Australia. The ICC chief has shot down the suggestions,saying that the success of the recent World Cup is ample proof that the format is sound in health. The Tendulkar formula,though,could be the precursor to a conversation that cricket needs and could take up in many different ways over the next few years. The sanctity of a law in cricket it is laws,rules are for football,tennis and the rest is dependent on the popularity a sport seeks in these changing times. Its a point Lorgat too concedes in his statement. The ODI,which itself was born by happenstance when rains washed out an England-Australia Test match in Melbourne in 1971,shouldnt find it too difficult to adapt,to play to the gallery,to bring back the distracted spectator.
