The Real Reason Indian Cricket Has So Many High-Scoring Games
Every wicket, every boundary, every award is an advertising slot. Once you follow the sponsor money, the flat pitches of Indian cricket start making sense.
Why are Indian home games — both in the IPL and on the international scene — mostly high-scoring affairs these days?
The trend is not subtle. The 2023 ODI World Cup hosted in India was the highest-scoring edition of the tournament ever played — South Africa's 428/5 against Sri Lanka in Delhi remains the highest total in World Cup history. In the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad's 287/3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2024 was the highest total the league had ever seen, and that season also produced a string of 250-plus totals — scores that used to appear once in several years. On the international scene, India hammered 297/6 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad in October 2024, one of the highest T20I totals ever recorded. None of this happened because batters suddenly became twice as good overnight.
We all know that BCCI home matches are sponsored by companies. These sponsors pay money to be visible during and after the matches, in various forms like the Man of the Match award, the Most 4s award, and the Most 6s award. We have also seen that whenever a wicket falls, the feature presentation is zoomed out and part of our screen is taken over by the sponsor or advertiser. The same thing happens when a boundary or a six is hit. Now, the more boundaries that are scored, the more opportunities there are to show the sponsors' advertisements.
This is why I think the BCCI keeps the probability of high-scoring venues and games high — so that it can reliably take in money from sponsors.
All of this is making cricket boring, repetitive, and mainstream. If most venues are flat pitches, then it makes no sense to tune into each game every day. There is hardly any entertainment these days.