Please keep test cricket alive – for the sake of quality entertainment, for the sake of developing important skills in our children and for the sake of cricket itself. This plea follows a growing wave of concern about the future of test matches because of the current popularity of Twenty20 cricket.
Please keep test cricket alive – for the sake of quality entertainment, for the sake of developing important skills in our children and for the sake of cricket itself. This plea follows a growing wave of concern about the future of test matches because of the current popularity of Twenty20 cricket.
In the 70s, some pundits grimly predicted that 50-over cricket would soon relegate the longer version of the game to oblivion. This prophecy has not come to pass and it is now the 50-over version that is more directly threatened by the Twenty20 slogfests.
Test cricket should be promoted because it is inherently worth it as a sophisticated, intriguing sport, not because of some misguided nostalgic penchant for preserving quaint, pseudo- English traditions.
In order to help laymen follow the arguments below let us try to answer the question: what is the difference, if any, between the various versions of the game?
Superficially, at international level we could say that the 20 and 50-over games are the same except in the number of overs each side is allowed to bowl.
Test cricket on the other hand is limited primarily by the length of time available for the match – currently five days.
The critical question is: if the game is essentially the same, why not play and finish a match in three or four hours instead of dragging it on for five days?
The answer is quite simply that in spite of the rules being very similar, the strategy and skills required are substantially different.
Comparing test cricket to Twenty20 is like comparing golf to putt-putt. In both forms the objective of the game is to hit a ball into a hole using as few strokes as possible.
If Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington and other top golfers could be convinced that traditional tournaments consisting of four rounds of 18 holes each was a waste of time, they could get the whole US Masters tournament over in an afternoon instead of dragging it on for four days. For that matter, we could relook at the way soccer tournaments are managed.
Why play dull 90-minute games when a ten minute express version could be much more exciting? After all, players would not have to pace themselves so they could play flat-out for ten minutes, providing spectators with a much more entertaining spectacle.
It would be possible to play the entire Worl Cup soccer tournament in three or four days and not over a month, and as the tournament would be logistically so much more manageable, we could have a World Cup tournament every year and not have to wait four years between each edition of the greatest show on earth.
These comparisons are of course quite silly – just as silly as comparing Twenty20 to Test cricket. Bludgeoning a ball as hard as you can, as often as you can requires far less skill than a Test batsman who vigilantly carves out a purposeful innings with courage and finesse:
carefully seeing off the new ball in the hands of the strike bowlers in the opening session, taking note of the bounce of the pitch as it flattens out towards lunchtime, monitoring the swing of the ball as it gets older and then taking advantage of the conditions before the new ball becomes due in the late afternoon.
A bowler in a Twenty20 match is nothing more than a sacrificial lamb whose only job is to make sure he puts the ball where the batsmen are able to slam it into the stands.
The batsmen have great stats with strike rates well over 100,while the bowlers are generally made to look incompetent because the masses want to see batsmen whacking sixes as often as possible. Test cricket sets up a true contest of refined skills between bat and ball.
Bowlers today have detailed knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the batsmen they are facing – they, know whether he is vulnerable to the short ball or if he is often dismissed getting a thick edge off an attempted slogsweep.
As the paceman comes charging down to bowl he is working to a plan – he has already sent down three deliveries that jagged across the left-hander, will this be the one that goes straight on, or will it induce doubt in the corridor of uncertainty?
These and infinitely more subtleties of Test cricket make it a fascinating spectacle that needs to be savoured to be truly appreciated.
Yes, it can sometimes be difficult to understand, but it is so much more interesting than any other sporting activity. Our culture would suffer a serious loss if TV scheduling bosses ever decided to put an end to the finest sport on this planet.
