What Now For Test Cricket

[nairbe]

The future of Test cricket seems yet again to be on shaky ground. Of the Test playing nations you would have to say that only Australia and England seem to have crowd support and probably South Africa and New Zealand are the only other countries that take it seriously.

As a sign of just how little the BCCI thinks of Test cricket, they have decided to take six months off Tests to lick their wounds after being flogged in their last 8 Test matches. What was only a couple of years ago looking like the Test team that would dominate world cricket for a few years, India has fizzled out to be not much more than a minnow competitor in the game they financially and politically dominate.

The only positive sign I see internationally at the moment is the possible re-emergence of Pakistan as a genuine test contender. If anything has the potential to rouse the inept Indians from their gambling revenue filled love affair with the cheap and nasty T20 game, it would be a strong Pakistan. The way the Pakistan team have taken England apart in the first two tests of the current series has been a total pleasure to behold. Gritty batting combined with some excellent spin bowling. Let us hope that the dirty days of match fixing have now been put behind them as the Pakistan team can be pure excitement and have the ability to rouse the rest of the test world to attention.

We do need the crowds back though, and when a great team like South Africa cannot get much more than a Saturday Park crowd to a Test, it is a worry. All the talk of day/night Tests makes me shudder. I cannot imagine anything more degrading. Perhaps we should ask Football teams to use a rugby ball because it would be more interesting. There are no simple answers, but without question we have had good crowds in Australia this summer. I remember back in the late 80’s and 90’s our crowds were poor but they improved when we started playing exciting cricket. The pitches were all alive for the matches this summer and had India put up a fight we may have had even more exciting days to have been watched. The dead pitches and dull games that are going on around the world must stop. Test cricket should be lively and exciting, a test between bat and ball not a test of our patients

 

[Crickethead1997]

Totally agree Test cricket is heading in the wrong direction. yeah your right Pakistan have become world cricket power houses with them beating England last night. Ajmal and Rehman took 15 wickets between them for the test. Ever since the IPL India have just concentrated on T 20.

 

[TamlyGoodrich]

I am looking at the issues facing test match cricket for my dissertation and through alot of research it seems to be the time space compression of the world that we live in. Arguably there is a new generation coming through that have less time and patience in the world, examples of this are, facebook, twitter, bbm. If this trend continues there is no way that Test Match cricket will continue to survive however much it would be awful for the fans. If people could also fill this survey in for me it would be truely helpful!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6Z3KVWW

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I am looking at the issues facing test match cricket for my dissertation and through alot of research it seems to be the time space compression of the world that we live in. Arguably there is a new generation coming through that have less time and patience in the world, examples of this are, facebook, twitter, bbm. If this trend continues there is no way that Test Match cricket will continue to survive however much it would be awful for the fans. If people could also fill this survey in for me it would be truely helpful!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6Z3KVWW[/quote]

I filled it in mate, good luck with that, it'll be interesting to have a summary of your conclusions.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Yeah it's a difficult scenario. Both my kids play cricket (10 & 13) but they struggle to engage with a game that is played for such a long period of time. We've been to see test matches (Single days) and they've been okay with them, but it's probably helped that in the matches we've seen England did well (We bowled and took shed loads of wickets) and the Aussies beat Pakistan and we'd gone to support the Aussies. If the outcomes of the game had been different I'm not sure whether they'd have enjoyed it so much. I'd do it more often as well, but I simply can't afford it, so that must have some impact on tests potential? Plus some of the matches are played on weekdays and people are at work -what used to happen back in the day during the week days - did shed loads of people turn up in the week?

Overall though, I think test cricket is in trouble in part due to a number of reasons here in the UK.

No.1 hardly anyone gets to see it because it's not on terrestrial TV and it's exclusive to SKY TV customers and that's expensive.
No. 2 Cricket is rarely played in schools these days/
No. 3 Kids expect things to be quick and immediate - all the things they do these days are accessed fast and are exciting. You read Peter Philpotts books A Spinners Yarn or accounts of Don Bradmans life, cricket was their life because there weren't a great deal going on when they were kids. These days kids have got a gazillion different options of things to do - most of which are done sitting on there butts looking at a digital screen and they perceive them to be exciting and accessible. Cricket takes time and committment to play well and it's primarily I'd imagine the people that play cricket that turn up to test macthes.

 

[nairbe]

Did the survey, so you think even less of one day cricket, it does not even get a mention. I actually think T20 will fade in a few years and one day cricket will be the preferred short form once again.
Dave, i am not so worried, yes kids get the world hard and fast these days, i have three in the early teen set and no way would they have the patients never mind the time for test cricket. This will change as they age and understand that Test cricket is the form that great players want to play. It will survive and again prosper, the ICC needs to get some balls would help but the current resurgence of Pakistan will do more than anything to improve the game. Can you see the BCCI accepting a flogging off Pakistan? India will work harder. Also unless Pakistan players are accepted into the IPL it will eventually face player boycott as better series develop in better conditions.