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Is there a future for test cricket?

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    Is there a future for test cricket?

    Countries falling over themselves to organise the richest domestic 20/20 competition. Players pulling out of tests to play in them. Countries pulling out of tests so their players can play in them. Other countries arranging international 20/20 competitions. Nobody wanting to play in Pakistan any more. The West Indies a joke. Is the end nigh for test match cricket?

    Honestly, I am starting to fear the worst. In the end I think it's the only form of the international game that really "matters", but I suspect I am fast seeing myself hold a minority viewpoint. Do people think test match cricket will still exist in 25 years time? (And if it does will it be some kind of rare thing where countries play around 5 tests a year just to pretend they still care?)

    Or is this 20/20 madness just a blip, an equivalent of the Kerry Packer years - quickly forgotten as normal service is resumed?

    #2
    Is there a future for test cricket?

    Packer wasn't completely forgotten. The players did much better out of "official" cricket afterwards, otherwise they wouldn't have come back.

    I'm as pessimistic as you.

    Comment


      #3
      Is there a future for test cricket?

      I'm becoming more pessimistic, despite not being averse to a bit of Twenty20, yet only earlier in this decade we were talking about a new golden age of Test cricket - on the back of the various enthralling Aus-WI series of the Nineties, India's win over Australia in 2001 and the way Steve Waugh's own team had raised style and standards in Test cricket to new levels.

      The things that powered such developments haven't gone away, but the sheer financial disparity created by Twenty20 has certainly blown it off course.

      The IPL and T20 World Cups I can take, but this Stanford thing really is a pointless pile of bollocks isn't it? I won't be watching it.

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        #4
        Is there a future for test cricket?

        I'll watch it if I can, because I'm a gannet for all things England, but I'm watching as an indicator of how the team are doign in pressure situations, I don't care who wins the money, if they're sensible then they should all be set for life these days by making it to internatinoal level and top club level.

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          #5
          Is there a future for test cricket?

          I might watch it. It's on at the right time, rather like Crossroads used to be.

          Let's not dignify it with its own thread though.

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            #6
            Is there a future for test cricket?

            The problem for test cricket in the modern day is that, unlike a set-piece one-day tournament, it never "leads" anywhere. There isn't a "World Champion". Sponsors of team sports demand a world champion, it's in their nature.

            They need to come up with a way of making the various series lead somehwere so that, once every four years or so, the top four have to meet in sets of (5-match) series to lift a "World Cup" in semi-finals and finals.

            Or, possibly, some kind of squash-ladder style league set up, where in each round of matches it's

            1v2 (loser becomes 3)
            3v4 (winner 2, loser 5)
            5v6 (winner 4, loser 7)
            7v8 (winner 6, loser 9)

            and then you play the next round of matches from the new positions.

            Might result in a huge run of Australia v SA, then India, then SA, but so be it. At least each time it would be for the crown of "World Champions".

            The immense popularity of the two test series that really do matter - England v Australia and India v Pakistan - proves that test match cricket isn't dead, but it's the need to inject a bit more of a "point" into series like England v South Africa that needs looking into.

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              #7
              Is there a future for test cricket?

              Test cricket will never attract the low attention span sports fan, whether it's a world championship or not. As was observed at the time, the ECB dropped a huge ricket in letting tests go off terrestrial TV, thereby losing all the momentum of the Ashes 2005 series, but those of us who can't watch them still follow them.

              I still think 2020 is more of a threat to the one-day game. I suspect that players still love playing Tests and see them as the supreme challenge. But 2020 is a bit like one-day with the dull overs taken out, and I think it could really have an impact there..

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                #8
                Is there a future for test cricket?

                Test cricket will survive because commercial TV loves it. It has a very high viewer profile which means you can charge more for adverts than other TV programs with similar or slightly better viewer figures.

                Also the production-costs-per-hour for test cricket are spectacularly low, you set up your O.B. unit and your cameras and you've got 40 to 50 hours of TV.

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                  #9
                  Is there a future for test cricket?

                  despite not being averse to a bit of Twenty20
                  I've been to a couple of 20/20 matches (in the very early days) and there's no doubt they are fun in their way - certainly as a live spectator anyway - but even as one watches one knows that they don't matter in any real sense, and that they will be almost instantly forgotten.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Is there a future for test cricket?

                    I don't know about that, Jimski, I don't think T20 games are any more forgettable than the plethora of dull 50-over ODIs we've sat through in recent times. The domestic Twenty20 competition feels as important in stature as, say, the old Sunday afternoon John Player League - ie not the championship but still a reasonable-sized deal.

                    Which is cool. It's the way it's intruding into the Test schedule that's an issue - and where there is a desparate need for some joined-up thinking and planning.

                    And let's not forget that Test attendances now, in England at least, are higher than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

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                      #11
                      Is there a future for test cricket?

                      Oh yeah, I'm no big fan of ODIs either. But I guess at least there was a feeling that an innings could still (just about) be constructed when there was 50 overs of batting each.

                      And there seems to be a self-congratulatory air to the 20/20 business. A kind of "now we really have found something to hook the people who have no real interest in 4 or 5 day cricket" about it. Perhaps the same was true in the early days of limited over cricket?

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                        #12
                        Is there a future for test cricket?

                        Morning all.

                        I'm less pessimistic than some. Partly for the same reasons as Purple and E10- it's still popular with both broadcasters and punters, in England (and where the Barmy Army travels*) at least.

                        In test cricket's past golden eras, there were fewer teams playing. We might return to a similar situation- New Zealand, for example, play far less than England, and it may be that the other 'smaller' countries may have little choice other than to grab whatever T20 action they can.

                        And don't forget the games between second division countries. Ireland v Scotland in Sharjah anyone? Or maybe in that enormous greenhouse down Purple's weg, more realistically.

                        I wouldn't write off four-innings cricket just yet.

                        * not including Antigua, it seems- only three TBA regulars have made the trip, they claim.

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                          #13
                          Is there a future for test cricket?

                          The game last night was poor, even for a warm up. My greatest gripe with 50/55/60 over cricket has always been the excess of overs bowled by part-timers who "take the pace off the ball". On last night's shirtfront, that description applied to just about everyone who's ever played except Jeff Thompson. So we had a game format which is all about hitting on a pitch that didn't allow much of it. Had the lights not made catching skiers very hard, it would have been even more dull that it was.

                          Jimski, I don't know about early one day cricket. I've always got the feeling there were quite a few Brian Close types around who thought the whole thing was silly.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Is there a future for test cricket?

                            I just spoke to Matt P on the phone and told him I was watching cricket, and explained a bit about the Stanford 20-20:

                            "There are four team:. England, Middlesex-"
                            "Eh?"
                            "Um, yeah, I know it's silly. Then there's Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies"
                            "Eh?"
                            "Yeah, I know it's silly. And the West Indies are called the Stanford Superstars"
                            "The what?"
                            "And they all play each other. But four of the games don't matter at all, and two of them have about a million quid on them"

                            He gave up at this point. But he good news is his return to OTF is imminent.

                            The dropped catches continue. Much more of this and they'll be getting Stuart Hall in to commentate. At least he wouldn't keep saying "Imagine if that happened in a million pound game!"

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                              #15
                              Is there a future for test cricket?

                              One of the games has $10 000 000 on it. Which is increasingly more pounds by the day than when it was announced.

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                                #16
                                Is there a future for test cricket?

                                Test cricket will be alright - actually the Sri Lankans had already agreed to play in the IPl by the time the tour to England was announced, which puts a different spin on that. I didn't get to the end of Rogin's post - or even past the first line - but there is a world champion of Test cricket and at the moment it is Australia. It is run by the ICC:

                                1 Australia 138
                                2 South Africa 116
                                3 India 109
                                4 Sri Lanka 108
                                5 England 104
                                6 Pakistan 100
                                7 New Zealand 83
                                8 West Indies 81
                                9 Bangladesh 0

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                                  #17
                                  Is there a future for test cricket?

                                  One possibility that strikes me is that four-innings and limited-overs cricket might diverge further and essentially become two separate sports. They're already doing this in terms of aesthetics and the fan demographic they're reaching out to: it seems quite likely to me that increasingly players will specialise in one form of the game or the other.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Is there a future for test cricket?

                                    But he good news is his return to OTF is imminent.
                                    YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    That's properly cheered me up.

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                                      #19
                                      Is there a future for test cricket?

                                      Yeah Matt has been sorely missed. As has SSS by the way, not that he'd ever post about cricket.

                                      Anyway, I see these games aren't exactly playing to bulging full houses so far. Also, I think the Twenty20 and Test audiences are far too similar for the sports to completely diverge.

                                      Interestingly, among the people most sniffy about Twenty20 (and, to a lesser extent, 50-over ODIs) are the Barmy Army. They really don't travel to these games at all.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Is there a future for test cricket?

                                        Claude Henderson's missed slog was one of the worst shots I've ever seen. Made even worse by Sky having talked him up as Middlesex's best player. Confusingly, Dawid Malan was also their best player, we were told. Neil Carter certainly wasn't, despite being brought in specially for the tournament.

                                        As it turned out, Neil Dexter (relatively unheralded by Sky standards) played very well and has given Middlesex a chance. When Middlesex weren't doing well, it was something to do with bad luck- apparently if you hit the ball in the air near a fielder, it's bad luck because it could have gone for four if you'd hit it somewhere else.

                                        Middlesex strangely omitted Stephen Finn from their team, despite him bowling well yesterday. Good enough to trouble England would have been good enough to trouble Trinidad, you'd have thought. Perhaps some "old sweats" fraternity kept him out (Finn is only 19); that and the absurd signing of Carter.

                                        Stanford has just been shown from last night sitting among the England WAGs sugar daddying, possibly the most vulgar man in the world. He makes Joe Kinnear look like Kenneth Clark.

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                                          #21
                                          Is there a future for test cricket?

                                          Is this ground at the end of an airport runway? There was some mental plane noise just now.

                                          Not a very high standard, this, is it?

                                          Interestingly, Middlesex are to appoint Gus Fraser - not a noted T20 fan - as their new team manager. In fact, you sometimes get the impression that a hell of a lot of people in cricket are doing all this under duress. Apparently, even Bumble - despite his contractually obligatory enthusiasm - thinks it's all bollocks.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Is there a future for test cricket?

                                            I meant Tyron Henderson, not Claude on reflection. Heimi Henderson might have played that shot better.

                                            It's Stanford's own ground, so I expect he didn't want to go far from the airport.

                                            It's shocking stuff indeed. Bumble is a pretty good actor if you're right. Atherton doesn't look too impressed and I see they didn't bother with Holding. Although he might be one of those "legends" who've no doubt been bunged a few quid to watch because they've all got the same shirts on. Everton Weekes is there- Stanford would have thought he was a boring player, I expect.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Is there a future for test cricket?

                                              And Shaun Udal did a hamstring in the warm-up. Admirable cricketer though he is, the fact he played really shows the money nonsense up. In fact, Bumble said a while ago that Trinidad might feel they "had one hand on the money".

                                              Stephen Finn won't be impressed with Udal. Nor with Neil Carter who just conceded a six off a no-ball.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Is there a future for test cricket?

                                                It's fear, not floodlights, that are causing the dropped catches.

                                                I think the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cricketers needs to look at the Stanford set-up. Neil Carter looked absolutely terrified when he bowled that catastrophic over.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Is there a future for test cricket?



                                                  Matt Prior and Alistair Cooks partners showing they in no way are drawn to rich people. (Matt Priors pregnant girlfriend is the one on Stanfords lap).

                                                  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=11xMyxU8e9E

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