Time to save test cricket

Test cricket has to be prepared to embrace change in order to appeal to a broader audience and with a little more flexibility it can ensure that the traditional battles continue to flourish for many more decades to come.

CJ: Sportz Journo Pawan Atri

Tue, Jul 28, 2009 10:01:10 IST

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Cricket today :

TEST CRICKET is dying. Purists who love the game will always remain, but cricket can't survive with such a small number of fanatic fans. Already we can see that many cricketers simply don't have the mindset or even the skill or the temperament to play test cricket. For instance, Bangladeshi players have all the talent in the world required for the cricket field, however, they don't bat or bowl for very long before throwing their wicket away or trying something silly. Moreover, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has recently warned that if a World Test Championship (WTC) is not introduced very soon, it will be difficult to save the oldest format of the game. This view has been supported by many distinguished former and current players like Steve Waugh, Martin Crowe and Rahul Dravid.

Therefore, test cricket has to be prepared to embrace change in order to appeal to a broader audience and with a little more flexibility, it can ensure that traditional battles like the 2009 Ashes continues to flourish for many more decades to come. So, what can be done to save test cricket?

1) Cheaper tickets and better conditions
In England, the ticket rates are around 60 pounds a ticket; such a steep price means only few fans can afford more than one day's test cricket a summer. The situation on the subcontinent is even graver. Test matches in India are routinely played out in front of vacant stands, mocking the cliché that cricket is a religion in India. Fans are treated to abysmal conditions, and are forced to buy five-day tickets, barred from taking food and drinks into the ground, and generally taken for granted. These short-sighted policies must be stopped.

2) Penalise poor over rates with runs
It is almost unheard of for international teams to hit the 15-overs-per-hour yardstick, even when the spinners are bowling. The current system of warnings, fines and suspensions is pathetically ineffective. However, the answer is simple. At the end of each hour, the umpire should award 10 runs to the batting team for each unbowled over. So if a bowling side only get through 13 overs, the batting side are awarded 20 runs, which would go in the extras column. The problem will be solved forever.

3) Create an Indian Premier League window and end Indian Cricket League suspensions
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should realise that there’s no point fighting it anymore. Player power is what it is. International cricket must provide a window every April to allow the IPL to be staged properly. Players flying in and out of the tournament, has made a mockery of Tests and the IPL. The IPL must also play its part by ending the madness of banning ICL players. Any sport which suspends a player has a serious problem with its priorities.

4) Ensure test cricket returns to terrestrial TV
Test cricket in England loses fans with every series that is broadcast exclusively on Sky Sports, and the world over when tests are televised on pay channels. For example, in India when the matches are shown on the national channel Doordarshan, the increase in the number of viewers shoots up considerably. To fall in love with Test cricket, its plot, its history, its quirks and its complexities, takes time. It needs summer holidays on the sofa. If school kids cannot watch cricket, they will not grow up to care about cricket. It is as simple as that.

5) Abolish 50-over cricket
50-over internationals were never enshrined in cricket's constitution. They were an innovation, just like Twenty20. Now Twenty20 has overtaken ODIs as the most popular limited-overs format, so there is no point having both. Fifty-over cricket bloats the calendar and boasts neither the intricacy of test cricket nor the thrills of Twenty20. Ditching ODIs would allow rest periods and tour matches between tests, ensuring higher standards of play.

6) Scrap the future tours programme and remember that less is more
Teams should play a maximum of two test series a year, one home series in the summer, and one winter tour. All series should be five tests long. The aim must be to have elite players fit, rested and motivated for each and every series. At the moment, they are jaded and indifferent.

7) Ban back-to-back tests
Without genuine fast bowlers, cricket has nothing to accelerate the pulse, no instinctive thrill. But fast bowlers need to be protected. Giving them a mere three days break between matches is absurd, dangerous and self-defeating.

8) Introduce day-night tests
Floodlit tests are a necessity. Twenty20 has shown that spectators will attend matches when they don't have to take days off work. Most international grounds already have the necessary equipment. It cannot be impossible to manufacture a ball that can last for 80 overs and be seen under lights.

9) The ICC should take a lead in preparing international pitches
Generally putting the ICC in charge of anything only guarantees delay. But desperate action is needed to ensure that pitches produce an even contest between bat and ball. The ICC should create an international panel of groundsmen whose job it would be to certify that bore draws – perhaps the biggest strain on test cricket – are kept to an absolute minimum.

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