IPL, ELV's and the Public

I am browsing through a book named "Touchlines and Deadlines. A Compendium of South African Sports Writing." IN it, there is an essay written by JM Coetzee, the Nobel writer. Not one who you would imagine would spend time writing about sport. What he does is write about the art of writing for sport. It's a great little read that was published in August if 1988 in "Die Suid-Afrikaan". You can follow that link, but Wikipedia doesn't have much on it.

My point is that back in 1988 Coetzee ended his essay with the following words.

I have no complaints about the standard of rugby being played in this country. What does disturb me however - if I am to judge from the people in whose company I watched the Western province-Northern Transvaal game in the stand at Newlands - is how little of this good rugby is actually seen. Similar comments might be made about the cricket public, and we all know what happened to cricket as a result: a simplified version of the game - one-day-cricket - tailored to the limitations of uneducated spectators, was created, whose poor relation real-cricket has now become.

When rugby in South Africa goes professional, and links with the International Rugby board are broken, it is inevitable that there will be pressure for the rules to be rationalised.

Prophetic words written in 1988. Okay, the IRB went professional and there was no need for a break-away but the changing of the laws for a stupid public is spot-on. Then think about what T20 cricket is...