Daniel Etchells: Bowling may be viewed as boring but the world governing body is eager to get it soaring

When asked by insidethegames about bowling's level of appeal to new audiences, Kevin Dornberger, President of the sport's world governing body, likened it to taking a friend to watch their first professional golf tournament...but arriving two days early to see the players prepare on the driving range.

Although it may have been a round about way of saying it, the point behind Dornberger's analogy was clear; individual competitions at bowling tournaments take too long to reach the moments that matter and therefore, don't lend themselves to generating interest in the sport.

At major international competitions, where a significant number of bowlers are playing at the same time and the winners are often determined by cumulative scores, not finals, it's hard for spectators to get emotionally involved because nobody knows the winners until the whole day's competition is over.

Having bowled since the age of eight, had a 40-year-plus competitive career and rolled 16 perfect 300 games, Dornberger said it took him a long time to admit that bowling, in his eyes, had become boring.

"It took 15 years of travelling and watching international championships, World Championships and getting over the boxes that we all contain ourselves in, because of our backgrounds, and listening to other people's point of views who weren't in the same box," he told insidethegames during the 2014 World Bowling Men's Championships (WBMC) in Abu Dhabi, which concluded on Sunday (December 14).

"It finally occurred to me that we'd done what we'd done for a very long time. Our rules go back to 1895, virtually without change. We're taking a hard look at the scoring rules, as well as the scoring systems and certainly the format."

The press room at the Khalifa International Bowling Centre in Zayed Sports City provided a great view of the 2014 World Bowling Men's Championships action ©ITG

Dornberger went on to say it's "time to take a serious look at what we can do differently", and there's no doubt World Bowling is doing just that as it aims to secure Olympic inclusion for its tenpin format.

The announcement on Monday (December 15) that World Bowling will be relocating its headquarters early next year from Arlington, Texas, in the United States to Lausanne, the Olympic capital in Switzerland, came hot on the heels of other recent developments.

This included the rebranding of the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA), the trial of a simplified scoring system and an increase in bowling's social media presence.

The establishment of World Bowling - an amalgamation of the WTBA, the two ninepin federations, and the umbrella organisation, the International Federation of Bowlers - encompassed the launch of a new logo inspired by the Olympic colours, and although Dornberger insisted this was the idea of a professional designer, he agrees that it made sense in line with the sport's ambition.

Further evidence of this ambition was seen at the World Bowling Tour men's and women's finals in Las Vegas last month, when a new match-play style scoring system was trialled with an emphasis on winning frames and reducing the length of time and complexity of scoring required to complete a two-player match.

In keeping with Dornberger's golf analogy, the system mirrors that of the Ryder Cup in a best-of-12-frames format with the intention of making the sport more attractive and easier to understand for casual bowling fans, the news media and the competitors.

Bowling is undergoing a radical makeover as the sport tries to make itself more attractive internationally and to younger audiences ©World Bowling

The 2014 WBMC at the Khalifa International Bowling Centre in Zayed Sports City, can certainly be counted as a great success in terms of its organisation and execution but having been there to witness the concluding weekend, I came to understand the issues facing the sport more clearly.

While the final of the team competition between eventual winners South Korea and the US generated a commendable atmosphere and sense of occasion on Saturday night (December 13), the fact that the tournament started at 9am the previous day spoke volumes about the time-related concerns.

It also seemed rather odd that the masters competition, which to my surprise is considered much less prestigious than the team competition despite its glamorous title, was held on the final day of the Championships.

A sense of climax was lacking after South Korea's Kang Hee Won beat the US' Mike Fagan in the final, which begged the question why the competition was scheduled to bring down the curtain on the Championships and also whether it was even necessary in the first place.

With singles, doubles and trios competitions also featuring at the Championships, it's evident why World Bowling is keen to look at the format of events and presumably trim them down to get rid of any dead wood.

This is just a small part of the ongoing process of assessing the positive and negative aspects of the sport and condensing it into an attractive package that will appeal to the masses.

Kevin Dornberger, the President of World Bowling, at the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 World Bowling Men's Championships ©World Bowling

When speaking to Dornberger, it didn't strike me that he's infatuated by the idea of achieving Olympic inclusion for tenpin bowling, but he's unquestionably set on making the sport as attractive and entertaining as it can be in the hope that that will prove to be enough to put it on the biggest stage of them all.

Joining the 50-plus international sports organisations based in Lausanne can surely do nothing but good for World Bowling and providing the organisations sticks to its philosophy of being open to change, regardless of the impact on tradition.

There's no reason why bowling can't make the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) shortlist of sports for the 2024 Olympic Games, which is expected to be drawn up in the latter half of next year.

The outcome of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reform process has further boosted the likelihood of success as proposals to consider a more flexible sports programme were passed unanimously by the IOC at its Session in Monte Carlo last week.

The opportunity is there for all sports with Olympic aspirations and we'll have to wait and see if bowling can seize the initiative and take one of the most coveted steps that the world of sport has to offer.

If it manages to do so, Dornberger may well have to devise a new analogy.

Daniel Etchells is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.