5 Experiments in cricket that proved to be absolute duds

1. Super-Max

Have you come across a video on Youtube from India’s tour of New Zealand in 2002 where Sachin Tendulkar is smashing the bowlers to all corners of the ground? Well! You’d say what’s unusual about it? There are millions of videos of Tendulkar smashing the daylights out of the bowlers on Youtube. And, why wouldn’t they? “The guy has scored more than 30,000 runs and a hundred 100s. He played for more than decades,” you’d say!

But there is something different about that video. On the first impression, it looks like a One-Day game, purely because of the coloured clothing that the teams are wearing and also because Twenty20 was still a year away from its birth. But, one look at the scorecard and your mind goes in a tizzy. And you’re like, “How is a team trailing by ‘x’ number of runs in a One-day match?” Another closer look and you realize that Tendulkar is not only hitting 4s and 6s as he usually does, he is also scoring the 8s and 12s.

This is where Google comes to your rescue and you dig deep to unravel the mystery. Okay! For once let me be your Google. The concept we are talking about here was a brainchild of the Late Great former Kiwi captain, Martin Crowe. Conceived and conceptualized by Crowe in 1996, the Super Max cricket is one of the most innovative concepts this beautiful game has ever seen.

The format of the game involved two teams playing two innings of ten-overs each. It was played on traditional grounds but with one subtle difference. Both sides of the ground had a special ‘Super-Max’ carved out covering the region between long-off and long-on. Basically, every shot that the batsman would hit in the Max-zone, he was rewarded with double-returns. If he’s hit a four in the Max zone, it was considered as ‘eight’ or if he’d stroked a six, it was considered as ‘twelve’.

Other rules of Super-Max cricket-

1. Each side could feature 13 players in their side.

2. The duration of an over was eight balls.

3. There were 4 stumps and 3 bails.

4. Wides were credited as two runs to the batsman on strike.

5. There was no LBW and the next ball after no-ball was considered to be a free-hit.

The format that had perennially appealed to the local New Zealand fans and with an aim to capitalize on their interest, the Super-Max International was staged between New Zealand and India during the latter 2002 tour. And, that aforementioned innings was from that game. Tendulkar cut, pulled, drove and lofted his way to an imperious 72 off 27 balls. However, India went on to lose the game by 21 runs after they failed to chase down 108 in the fourth innings, despite having taken a 10-run lead after the first innings.

But the format, despite the backing and genius planning from Martin Crowe failed to take-off at the International level and was scrapped thereafter.