with the advent of 20-20, 50 over match looks like tests and 20-20 like 50s. test matches are getting outdated; change of rules might help, but gone are the days when people had the time to watch matches for long.
I am big cricket fan, whether it is tests, ODIs or T20. But no matter how much we deny, test matches and even 50 over ODIs are in danger of being extinct becoz of the popularity of T20. ICC needs to do a make over of test cricket. Introducing championship for test matches can be one way. Another thing that can be done is to make sure that sporting pitches are made, not the deathbeds for bowlers mostly seen on the subcontinent.
Re: Test Cricket
by msgblogger on Jul 15, 2009 10:05 PM
I agree with you Rajesh.I doubt any T20 wud have given you the thrill the last moments of the drawn ashes Test gave.Test cricket started dying once Dalmiya rose to the top and eveything started more business oriented.With crooks like Pawar and Modi at the top of things at BCCI,the game is set for doom.
Re: Test Cricket
by DarthVader on Jul 15, 2009 09:52 PM
Maybe they can play test cricket on these deathbeds with "bowling machines" instead of human bowlers? May even make it more interesting and sporting.
I believe and feel that Test cricket is absolutely nuts game. You play for 5 days in humid and hot weather and the result is not guaranteed. It is neither entertaining nor sensible.
If Test cricket is in the verge of death, it is not a bad news for cricket. Cricket will be more famous and will be adopted in the other parts of the world if it is to be played in shorter form like 20 or 50 overs.
No sport is more that 4 or 5 hours. This test cricket is 5 days. This is the one reason cricket is untouched in most part of the world. if you are from a noncricket playing nation, you will definitely think that 5 day cricket, where result is not guaranteed, is absolutely senseless act.
if Cricket exists today it is because of the shorter format of the game. if not, Cricket would have lost its charm. anyway, IPL is not cricket.
Re: abolish Test cricket
by DarthVader on Jul 15, 2009 09:50 PM
Forget cricket, any "sporting event" that takes five days (not hours) to produce a result (that too is not guaranteed) will not be popular in this day and age. It is a miracle, that some people even show up to watch these Test cricket matches.
The sooner people realize this and give it a honorable burial, we will be over with this non sense.
Do we still use horse drawn carriages? Do we still use punched cards for computer programming? Do we still cross the oceans in steamers and ships? Should we still play "Test Cricket"? Surely not...
Re: Re: abolish Test cricket
by Maximus Meridius on Jul 16, 2009 05:31 AM
Do we still eat on plates? Do we still drink out of a glass? Do we still transport most of our goods on railways and ships? Do we still wear cotton clothes in warm weather? Do we still eat grains like wheat and rice? Should we still play "Test cricket"? The answers to all of the above: Yes?
See? It all depends on your logic :) If enough people enjoy it (look at the turnout of an Ind-Aus or an ashes game), it will survive. Just stop playing crappy teams and prepare bowler friendly wickets instead of flat tracks.
Re: abolish Test cricket
by Maximus Meridius on Jul 16, 2009 05:25 AM
"No sport is more that 4 or 5 hours": Not true. Golf is, and is immensely popular. Chess is. Olympic triathlons are.
Test cricket has subtleties that are lost in ODI cricket under the pressure to hit every ball. Eg: It's a skill to leave the ball correctly, in many ways more difficult than playing a shot (try it yourself with a rubber ball. Then imagine the ball swinging; or tape one side of a tennis ball to get it to swing and try to leave). There's much more skill required to negotiate a swinging or seaming ball than slogging the ball Dhoni or Yuvraj style. Yuvraj and Ganguly have gotten this far because of the one bouncer per over rule in ODIs. Their technique is exposed in test cricket on helpful wickets. (In the case of yuvraj, his weakness against spin bowling as well. In other words, he comes across as a useless batsman; lots of style, no substance).
The question is whether there's a market for it. You clearly don't like it, but folks like me are willing to pay for it. And, there are a good number of people who are willing to pay to watch a good scrap like India vs Australia or SAF. Obviously, nobody wants to watch Ind vs Bangladesh. Package it well, and people will come.
The problem is that most people do not appreciate bowling. And you cannot appreciate test cricket if you do not appreciate good bowling. Leave test cricket for people who enjoy watching bowling. ODIs killed that ages ago.
Re: Re: abolish Test cricket
by Sudip Datta on Jul 16, 2009 05:58 AM
Absolutely agreed. The problem is the typical "soccer crowd" (I love soccer, btw) is now invading cricket. To me, the 1983 WC final was far more entertaining than IPL (though 183 runs were scored in thrice as many overs). The sight of Mohinder Amarnath's middle stump cart wheeled by Holding was way more exciting than Yuvraj hitting six sixes of Stuart Broad
Re: abolish Test cricket
by icc on Jul 16, 2009 05:42 AM
just because u dont like the game, it doesnt men we should all abolish test cricket. if you dont like it, dont watch it.
Re: Re: abolish Test cricket
by Kurt on Jul 16, 2009 12:58 PM
Very sensible argument posted by max. i totally agree with him. A proper 5 course meal is till relished in the times of fast food
It is apparent that the powers that be (old school white countries that play cricket - England and to a lesser extent Australia and NZ) are not happy with the recent trends that have shifted the center of gravity of cricket away from London. I am sure if the IPL was the EPL - this kind of "whining" would not be taking place.
Everything changes with time and cricket is no exception. Test cricket is an archaic, boring product, which even the English people don't like as much as the other forms. I predict that Test Cricket will die a natural death, if it continues its current format unchanged.
And, why should the IPL not be a choice for the cricketers - it offers them the most secure future. Face it, the cricket boards of the various countries are in this for the money also, then why do they begrudge the cricketers from the "lower ranked" countries??
England will just have to face up to the fact that its cricketing base will not allow it to wield the power it had so far. It will have to cede space to stronger and financially better bankrolled cricketing leagues around the world.
Re: MCC and England - envious of the success of IPL!!!
by Maximus Meridius on Jul 16, 2009 05:43 AM
Ok, here's some logic then: Similar whining happened when Kerry Packer started his world series cricket with coloured clothes and white balls and big paychecks to players. Most of the aussie side defected, and many others from around the world. Everyone thought it would kill test cricket. We all know what happened.
IPL is 2 yrs old. We don't know how it will pan out yet. At the moment, the people owning the teams have pumped too much money into it to allow it to fail this quickly. We'll know for sure in 2-3 yrs. (Look at India's airline business. In 2006, it was the next big thing. In 2009, AI, Jet and Kingfisher are all losing money, bigtime). Everything changes with time, and test cricket is no exception. The game is not what it was in 1970, when Geoff Boycott would bat 2 days to make 100 runs. For most part, the change came from the players themselves: aggressive batting and captaincy, resulting in more results. It's presumptuous to claim that just because you don't appreciate it, it will die out due to lack of support.
T20 as a global concept is pretty new (England has had it for a while, but it never really took off). However, if SRK, Malya and their ilk keep losing money, we might have the IPL collapse like a black hole.
Re: MCC and England - envious of the success of IPL!!!
by vasu anisetti on Jul 15, 2009 08:52 PM
Exactly. This is the English manipulative genius at work.
Re: MCC and England - envious of the success of IPL!!!
by Nayak on Jul 15, 2009 09:22 PM
this guy seems to have anglophobia. come on man, ask yourself what you want and dont rather than coming out of illogical conclusion.
Re: Re: MCC and England - envious of the success of IPL!!!
by DarthVader on Jul 15, 2009 09:46 PM
Could you please point out what is illogical about this conclusion, rather than painting me with "anglophobia"?
Make sure there are important test series on a regular basis... i.e., Eng v Aus, Ind v Pak, SA v Aus, Pak v Ban, etc. Each of these series should happen at least once every year or two.
Remove the tea break... there will be only lunch break half way through the day.
Allow substitutions to make it more interesting at least in 3 and 4th innings so teams can adapt mid-way. Imagine defending a 120 run target with 7 bowlers.
Pre 1960: 6 days test cricket (5-6 matches per series) 1960-1995: 5 days test cricket (4-5 matches per series -exception Ashes) 1995-2012: 5 days test cricket (2-3 matches per series - exception Ashes) 1973-1990: 60 overs ODI 1990- 2008: 50 overs ODI 2008-2012: 20 overs (Twenty20) 2012-2016: 10 overs (Ten10) 2016-2018: 5 overs (Five5) Post 2018: 0 overs (cricket is extinct from the world)
