nairbe
Active Member
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
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