The Home Away Conundrum
Sports is always a competition between 2 teams, or 2 individuals and the skillset, mindset and determination determine the victorious out of the two. Apart from skill and strategy, one factor that is often shouted out to be unfair is home and away advantage. This is more significant where the home team can have conditions according to them. Cricket is a sport where a lot is made from home and away advantage owing to one key variable factor that influences the result of the match. The cricket pitch (22 yards) determines which team comes out with flying colors on top of their team strategy and players. This is what the perception is and lot is made out of this in test cricket where cricket is played on the same pitch for 5 days.
The ongoing Border Gavaskar trophy was expected to raise similar concerns for pitches to favor Indian cricket team and raise hue and cry across the cricketing fraternity. However, the results from the first two test matches have not called for any scrutiny on the pitch and has raised another important question in the home away conundrum of sports. Firstly, lack of scrutiny on the pitches in India does not indicate that Australia has turned the tables on India. In fact, India is comfortably leading the series 2–0, but there have been questions raised on their skillset and the decline in significance of home and away advantage in cricket.
The present cricket series has underlined that pitches do not matter if the skillset of the team and its players is up to the mark. In the both the test matches, Australian batting has fallen like king pins owing to lack of clarity in their mind on addressing the spinning ball. The same Australian team was able to win in Pakistan and Sri Lanka but has fallen prey to high quality bowling and batting of India. At the same time, England is dominating in Pakistan and New Zealand and India has proven itself as worthy traveler by emerging victorious in Australia twice in the last 4 years. This clearly indicates that the home away advantage is vanishing, and teams are becoming more equipped all round. The shift away from home away advantage can be attributed to multiple factors which will give us something to ponder about across other sports.
1. Technology: The advent of technology and dedicated cricket analysts has helped players identify the shortcomings and strengths in their game and their opponent’s game to mitigate the variability produced by pitches. Teams are already aware of what to expect from each player based on detailed analysis that is carried out by cricket teams.
2. Focus on domestic structure: Domestic structure of successful teams like England and India have undergone an overhaul with pitches produced to cater to all scenarios instead of focusing on the strength of spin in India and swing in England. Teams are compelled to play in alien conditions in their home country as well. This has ensured that the players develop to tackle overseas conditions and are much better prepared to face the stern test of international cricket.
3. Fitness revolution: A decade ago, players would break down in away conditions owing to ordinary fitness standards. The upgraded fitness standards owing to ongoing fitness revolution has enabled players to perform at their optimum level for longer period when they are away on tours, and this has allowed the teams to put pressure on each other.
4. The T20 Revolution: The T20 revolution has resulted in multiple leagues being played across the world. This has given the players firsthand exposure of the conditions they can encounter when they travel for international matches. This allows teams to apply their experience to counter the home advantage.
While home away advantage remains, but the line between the two is reducing and soon every match will be a neutral match dependent on skillset and mindset of the teams. This is not limited to cricket as the impact of technology, fitness and training scenarios is playing an influential role across sports ranging from football to rugby to tennis to wash away the conundrum between home and away.
