Test cricket struggling, but Fifty50 thriving in India

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By Kersi Meher-Homji, 4 Nov 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: Cricket, ODIs, Peter Siddle, Shocking

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Australian captain Ricky Ponting looks on after India beat Australia in their final cricket test in Nagpur, India, Monday, Nov. 10, 2008. India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy beating Australia 2-0 in the four match series. AP Photo/Gautam Singh

The seven ODI series between Australia and India was considered as a test not only of who the top ODI nation is, but also of the health of Fifty50 cricket in general.

The series is currently locked at 2-all, Australia is three points ahead of challengers India in ODIs, and the spectator interest at a new high.

Twenty20 matches may have put Indian spectators off Test cricket, but Fifty50 cricket is alive and well in the land of Ranji, Sunil, Bedi, Prasanna, Sachin and Dhoni.

Going by crowd figures in the current series, the 50-over game is not only thriving in India, it is throbbing and pulsating as well.

The theory that spectators turn up in droves in India only when their team is doing well is proved incorrect. The crowds were sparse during Test matches at practically the same venues last year when India was on top.

And what a series it has been so far: Australia going one-up in Vadodra by a thrilling margin of four runs, then India under the dynamic Mahendra Singh Dhoni, coming back to lead 2-1.

And on Monday, Ricky Ponting inspired his men to level the series – with three more matches still to go.

Australia has been buoyed by the consistency of Michael Hussey and Ponting with the bat and Peter Siddles with the ball.

The heroes of India have been skipper Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir (badly missed in the fourth ODI in Mohali), Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

Dhoni has scored most runs in the series so far – 255 at 85.00, Strike Rate (SR) 86.73, and is the only centurion. Hussey is only slightly behind with 247 runs at 82.33, but his SR is higher at 104.21.

Ponting is the third so far with 197 runs at 49.25 and a SR 78.17.

Harbhajan Singh, who embodies the spirit of modern India that is “we shall not be intimidated and reply aggression with aggression,” has been performing with real passion.

Only moderately successful by his lofty standards, Sachin Tendulkar needs just seven runs to become the first player to reach 17,000 runs in ODI. The next best is Sri Lankan veteran Sanath Jayasuriya, 3616 runs behind.

Here are the records of the top three batsmen in ODIs:

Tendulkar: 16,993 runs at an average of 44.25 in 434 matches, hitting 44 centuries.
Jayasuriya: 13,377 runs at 32.54 in 441 matches, with 28 centuries.
Ponting: 12,241 runs at 43.25 in only 328 matches, also with 28 centuries.

The reason why the seven-match series in England in September was disappointing was that it came after the Ashes climax. Also, when Australia led 4-0, it became meaningless.

Australia has done very well to keep this series level on foreign soil, despite losing stars Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee, Brad Haddin, Callum Ferguson, James Hopes, and Tim Paine through injuries.

But when Lee broke down, the obvious reinforcement was Stuart Clark. Why has he become a forgotten man? Is there a story we do not know about?

All these and now Peter Siddle, too? I’ve just heard that he is flying home.

SHOCKING!

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The Crowd Says (52) | Page 1 of Comments

vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 6:29am | Report comment

KMH..The Indian spectators,at the ground and in front of TV’s, are more discerning than we give them credit for. Speaking with a cross section of people in India, I get the impression that cricket lovers are becoming jaded with the Twenty20. There is a sameness about them. Matches are often decided in the first four overs. It is difficult to recover if you lose quick wickets or if the batting side is 50 after 4 overs.

The ODI’s at least give you a chance to recover and rebuild..the cut and thrust of meaningful competition. Kapil Dev,very early in his career,always had a fondness for the 50 over game. ” I can bat,bowl and field all in one day” He did not like sitting around in dressing rooms and always wanted to be in the middle. He said many times ” I dont do crossword puzzles”

Test Cricket is taking a back seat in India only because of the greed of the BCCI,and by extension Cricket Australia. In June or July this year the ICC mandarins met in England and you may recall this was about the time the MCC was calling for a Test Championship. Prior to the meeting CA for two years had also been pushing for a Test Championship.It is now common knowledge that the idea was shelved. What is not so well known is the reason behind this volte face.

A Test Championship would have entailed a sharing of the TV Revenue pool. India convinced Australia and South Africa that it would be beneficial to have bilateral tours whereby the TV revenue would be shared two ways instead of eight or ten ways. Now if this is not putting parochial interests above that of the general good then what is?

There was not much resistance from CA and SAF because at the moment these are the top ranked teams alongwith Sri Lanka..and Sri Lanka is going to play a three Test seies in India next month. This way of thinking is saying to NZ.WIndies and pakistan that they can go and suck lollipops.
Test Cricket will suffer if this attitude is allowed to go uncensored. Cricket lovers should be outraged.

Reply
- marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 12:51am | Report comment
  
  I still think, that we should not take the popularity of ODI in India for granted. In stadium attendance will always be high because of the sheer no of odi venues in India and BCCIs rotation policy (OZ playing in Guwahati)? But the TV viewership is very poor. I just couldn’t bear to watch the delhi match on TV. It was an attritional scrappy bore. Following it on Radio/Internet is a different story as we can multi-task on that
  
  We should not get complacent and we must pursue initiatives to make the game interesting like split ODIs so that the TV audience doesn’t switch off. bring in extreme unpredictability like a assymetrically split ODIs (say 20-50-30 or 20-43-30-7) or time-outs/declarations(strategy breaks?). Only disadvantage is not sure when the spectators on ground can go for lunch….
  
  Also a word on bowling and batting power plays they should be taken strictly between 20 to 43 overs (or any other pre-defined window) Also why have we stopped using 2 balls from different ends?
  
  Reply
  - Dave1 said | November 5th 2009 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
    
    Looks like the the advertisers are making money out of it
    
    http://www.thesportscampus.com/200911042616/the-business-of-sports/off-the-roof-trp-for-india-australia-series
    
    “……The India – Australia One Day International Series is not just pulling crowds in the stands, it is also getting bigger and better for the advertisers and NEO Cricket with record breaking TRP ratings. The thrilling cricketing action between the two countries has generated unprecedented interest among Indian cricket fans which has raised the TRP ratings to an all time high, beating the Champions League T20 TRPs by 70% and IPL season 2 by 16%. NEO Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd. claims their channel is targeting Rs. 150 Crores in Revenue.
    
    They claim that the average rating for CS 4+ audience is close to 5 TVRs as per latest data from TAM. Mr. Abhishek Verma Head – Marketing & Communications, NEO, said, “We are excited about the high TRP ratings achieved, and this has proved once again that ODI cricket is here to stay.”…..”
    
    “………with top quality cricketing action ensuring fans stayed glued to their television sets right through the near 9 hour broadcast, a huge bonus for advertisers in comparison with the 4 hour window that T20 cricket provides………”
    
    Reply
    - marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 8:18pm | Report comment
      
      what I meant was TV audience will not watch the entire 100 overs. That is why I gave the example of delhi match. Anyone who watched all 95 overs on TV must be a glutton for punishment. I would like the administrators to keep innovating to maintain high level of interest throughout the match.
      
      Reply
sheek said | November 4th 2009 @ 6:30am | Report comment

Who would’ve believed that in the land of the imagery of the languid, patient sub-continenter, test cricket would become so passe.

Shocking indeed!

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Brett McKay said | November 4th 2009 @ 8:14am | Report comment

Kersi, I’m glad this series has been well supported locally, and certainly the cricket looks to be of the highest quality. I think your reasoning for the post-Ashes series being so dull is spot on.

And so while ODI is still so popular in India that’s great, becuase it almost certainly guarantees the future of the 50 over format. However, the ICC cannot ever allow the situation to reoccur where India played only 4 Tests in a calendar year as happened a few years ago. If India want to make all their money from the shorter forms, then they still have to play and host in the appropriate number of Test Matches, regardless of what sort of crowds they get..

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- vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 8:21am | Report comment
  
  Brett..the ICC is powerless..It is afterall only as powerful as the Members choose to make it. It is blindfolded and armlocked.
  The question you have to ask is why is CA so ready to acede to India’s dictates?
  Why when it pushed and lobbied for the Test Championship for so long that it now stands neutered? It behoves you as a columnist to ask these questions.
  
  Reply
  - Freud of Football said | November 4th 2009 @ 8:28am | Report comment
    
    I think your question answers itself Vinay. We all know that cricket doesn’t have “world” appeal, it’s not football, you can’t just go and show the natives how to play and they’ll catch on, it’s an elitist sport from old England and as such it won’t spread much further than the countries that play it already.
    
    Of those countries by far the most populace with the highest interest is India, that is where the money is and CA, like every other sports body in the world is just a bunch of men with their hands out.
    
    Reply
    - vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
      
      Freud..my contention is that there is out and out criticism of the BCCI,and justified too,but very little from Australia and SAF,who as you point out “have their hand out” But this does not mean Test Cricket can be sold down the drain.
      These are not the pinings of a pensioner on a rocking chair…I see the interest and the passion of cricket lovers in Australia and England and am dismayed that the next generation will be shortchanged because of short term avarice. I have seen and enjoyed and still do the best that cricket has to offer and if this was denied to future generations they would be the poorer for it.
      
      Reply
    - Dave1 said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:21am | Report comment
      
      Cricket is not an elitist sport and it does have “world” appeal and is spreading around the world.
      
      Reply
      - Freud of Football said | November 4th 2009 @ 4:05pm | Report comment
        
        Oh its not an elitist sport? Do you not know the history of the gave? Of course it is an elitist sport. I fail to see it’s world appeal also. Bangladesh doesn’t seem that interested, Zimbabwe are in the same boat.
        
        Where do we expand the game next? The Netherlands, that football mad country, or Scotland – exactly the same?
        
        Reply
        
        Dave1 said | November 6th 2009 @ 11:43am | Report comment
        
        Yes its not an elitist sport.
        
        I do know the history of the game. First class cricket was invented so people could gamble.
        
        Bangladesh are interested.
        
        Pick a country any country where its expanding. On the roar you can go to heaps of posts where someone will be banging about how rugby, league, AFL and expanding around the world. The cricket posts don’t need to do that.
        
        Ill pick a country…….. say Indonesia
        
        http://blogs.cricinfo.com/btw/archives/2009/02/indonesia_aimin.php
        “Indonesia aiming to be the next Afghanistan
        
        While all attention is on Afghanistan and their seemingly relentless progress towards the 2011 World Cup, their success story has served to inspire others around globe.
        Twenty years ago cricket was almost unknown in Indonesia, but then a few expats started to play and the game has taken off beyond their wildest dreams.
        “Because the expatriates needed more people to make their teams of 11 players, they started to ask locals to join. And it turned out that some of the locals were excellent players,” Cricket Indonesia chairman Sachin Gopalan told AFP. “It used to be only social games played by expatriates. But it has changed.”
        Local associations were formed to administer the clubs, and eight years ago a national board came into being. It is now estimated that as many as 30,000 people play the game, a three-fold increase in two years.
        “Cricket is growing exponentially here and there is a lot of hidden natural talent,” Gopalan said…………”
        
        Brett McKay said | November 6th 2009 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
        
        Dave1, any chance of exanding on “First class cricket was invented so people could gamble”??
      - prowling panther said | November 5th 2009 @ 7:04pm | Report comment
        
        have they tried to get into China? potential to shore up 40% of the world population and seriously challenge the world game. Just a fantasy….
        
        Reply
  - Brett McKay said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:12am | Report comment
    
    Vinay, that’s quite true that the ICC is only as good as it’s members, and I guess what I really mean is that the other Test nations can’t allow India to only play 4 Tests a year. But can we really see the Asian bloc + Zimbabwe and to an extent the Windies voting against India??
    
    The current push seems to be for Eng, Aus, Ind and SA to play each other more often, and I can see this will create a quasi-teir setup within Test cricket. This in itself is a column waiting to be written…
    
    Reply
    - vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:34am | Report comment
      
      Brett..forget the impoverished Boards like SL,Bangla and Mugabe voting against India..my point is that CA,ECB and SAF have to bring this to a head…but they are reluctant to “antagonise” the BCCI…so they have made a cosy self serving MOU to play each other more often…and share the spoils. It stinks.
      
      Reply
    - Brett McKay said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:39am | Report comment
      
      “if you can’t beat them…” Vinay??
      
      Reply
      - vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:42am | Report comment
        
        Brett…that is a cop out. I know you care about the longer form and the inherent traditions..if guys like you give up then there is not much hope for Test Cricket. Forget about being politically correct. Speak with passion and let it hang out and damm the critics.
        
        Reply
      - Brett McKay said | November 4th 2009 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
        
        Vinay, I honestly don’t know what better answer I can give, because that certainly appears to be the position now of CA, CSA, and the ECB. If we can’t tell India what to do, we might as well get the most out of them we can, is what they’re essentially saying.
        
        I’m completely against any move that creates definite tiers among the Test nations, but what’s the alternative?? Leave things as they are?? Set up an alternate Test competition?? Look what happened to the last group that set up in competition to the BCCI?? The ICL will be lucky if it sees a third year, never mind a tenth.
        
        The BCCI has become so high, mighty, and all powerful that it’s now more untouchable than Al Capone could ever have imagined. I’d like nothing more to take them on head-on, but it would be an exercise in futility of the highest order.
        
        I’ve been going to the Sydney Test with a couple of mates for years – the next Ashes series will be our tenth SCG pilgramage – and we’ve seen some brilliant and bloody ordinary Test cricket on display. But that’s the beauty of the game. We’re looking forward to seeing Pakisatn in January, because it’s been a good while since their last appearance. I couldn’t think of anything less intreseting than watching England, South Africa, and India three years out of every four. As it is, in ten years, we’ve still not seen New Zealand or Sri Lanka.
        
        Familiarity breeds contempt, but perhaps CA needs to learn that lesson to work it out…
        
        Reply
        
        vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
        
        Brett…I wont be invited to High tea with the BCCI any time soon.If you want to read an indepth review there is a piece I wrote for the November Inside Sport on Total Control. We cant stop fighting the good fight.
        Al Capone was in the end bought to justice. The BCCI has the power to do good…but will it excercise good governance or do the “gangsta” rap.
Freud of Football said | November 4th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment

Dhoni has been sensational. You touched on it Kersi but really, imagine if they had Dhoni leading the side a couple of years back when Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly were at the height of their powers.

Yes their bowling is better now (they certainly have more depth in that department now) but Dhoni it seems can unite the players and gives them purpose, I can’t say what’s going on in the background but the players look like they want to play for Dhoni, he’s a bit like Border in that he’d lay it all on the line for you but he’d expect no less in return.

There was an article on Cricinfo which noted how Sachin has become less aggressive to “fit” in, I must say I think he should have went on all-guns-blazing. Tendulkar and Sehwag in full-flight opening the batting is a very scary proposition for any bowling attack, that he has gone in his shell to prolong his career, for mine it has been to improve his stats and I think it’s a bit selfish. Yes, he’d getting on and can tame his batting a bit but when he needed 17 to reach 17000 he was poking and prodding, it seemed his mind was only on the record and when he got out he didn’t seem to care about the team situation, just that he didn’t reach his milestone.

Also on their fielding. I think they only dropped one catch off the Aussie batsman which Yuvraj whipped in for a runout. Vinay mentioned that two of them the batsmen could do nothing about but take nothing away from the bowlers, to have the presence of mind to turn and take down the stumps while in your follow-through is extremely difficult and all this without a fielding coach! (or did they sign one without telling me?)

Reply
Kersi Meher-Homji said | November 4th 2009 @ 9:42am | Report comment

I am typing this from the SCG press box. More players and journos here than spectators. This tells something, doesn’t it?

Reply
vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment

Kersi..this is very poor scheduling. Also the next SCG match starts on the 17th which is a Tuesday. Dont these administrators realise most of us actually work for a living and the weekend is the only time to go to the cricket? Or Day/Night Cricket? They have to start considering the spectator before it is too late.

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- Brett McKay said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:14am | Report comment
  
  Vinay, D/N Shield matches were played several years ago with a yellow ball. Made no difference whatsoever to crowd numbers, notwithstanding the extra moths and insects attending…
  
  Reply
  - vinay verma said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment
    
    Brett,obviously the moths and insects got notification the game was on. There has not been much media coverage of the Shield. Apart from cricket tragics how many cricket goers actually knew there was a Shield game on today. It is just not marketed properly..in fact it is not marketed at all.
    
    Reply
Midfielder said | November 4th 2009 @ 11:33am | Report comment

Don’t know quite when but was during the time Steve Waugh was the boss. My interest in cricket started to go.

I think this is the reason… when we played only a few test matches each year then you could get worked up for the series.. Today it is almost non stop … how the players do it is difficult to work out… Compare to the Football codes… RU may play 12 games lasting for say 80 mins each… RL maybe 5 matches for 80 mins each… Football maybe 10 matches of 90 mins…

How the players can lift each match / by day / by the hour / by the ball , must be hard.. for me as a watcher it is way to much.. the ODI do have a place as it shortens the game …

IMO test cricket as we know it will struggle to last another 100 years and still be considered the most important part of cricket.

Reply
- marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 1:05am | Report comment
  
  If test cricket has any interest left today, it is because of the AUS strategy during Steve Waugh of not going for a draw even at the risk of loss. they took it session by session and planned to bat no more than 135 overs in the first innings scoring at a healthy runrate to reach around 450+. Great strategy (in spite of his team losing the Kolkata match)
  
  Reply
  - marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 1:09am | Report comment
    
    In fact if test cricket is to survive, I predict at some point we are going to have overs restriction during the first innings of each team.
    
    Reply
    - marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 1:15am | Report comment
      
      if the 3rd and 4th innings complete early, we can have 5th and 6th innings to make up for the wickets remaining at the end of the 1st and 2nd innings!
      
      Reply
Kersi Meher-Homji said | November 4th 2009 @ 3:36pm | Report comment

I can’t understand why the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG between NSW and WA did not start till after 2.30 pm today. It was only drizzling lightly off and on and not raining. I moved around everywhere and did not open my umbrella once.

No wonder 44 of the 48 spectators present (my guess) went home disappointed. Nice way to reward the faithful few!

Reply
- ren said | November 5th 2009 @ 1:46am | Report comment
  
  because we got off too a flyer and NSW just cant handle a loss to the mighty WAACA
  
  Reply
vinay verma said | November 5th 2009 @ 5:20am | Report comment

Kersi..the word from India is that the TV ratings for the current ODI’s have gone through the roof…outrating the Champion’s Trophy and the Champions League. Read the DNA for details…this is why Australia and India will play each other more often…there will be another seven match series before England visit next year.

This is milking the game and not helping the players in the long run. The list of injuries is a worry…for both teams..Yuvraj is just back from injury and I am sure Dhoni is playing with niggling injuries. He is a hard man but it will take its toll. Zaheer Khan has not played for six months and RP Singh is still trying to recover from a hamstring two years ago. The rush to get back into the team further hampers the recovery.
Ultimately it is the spectator who is short changed when the stars cannot play.Many advertisers and spectators in India would have paid thinking they were going to see Brett Lee bowling..they will be disappointed.

Reply
- marees said | November 5th 2009 @ 10:27pm | Report comment
  
  Vinay, the ratings also depends on India’s performance. People dont expect India to lose 6-1 or 7-0 like the English. You can check this link for the analysis of the ratings.
  http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/fullstory.asp?section_id=6&news_id=36351&tag=32360&pict=0
  
  Reply
Kersi Meher-Homji said | November 5th 2009 @ 7:37am | Report comment

Vinay,

The spectators in Hyderabad today won’t mind one bit if one more Aussie is injured. As long as India wins and Sachin gets his seven runs to touch 17,000 ODI runs.

One can almost form a quirky Injured Aussie XI: Batsmen Clarke and Ferguson; bowlers Lee, Bracken and Siddle; all-rounders Hopes and Henriques; wicket-keepers Haddin and Paine.

That’s only nine, I hear you roarers say. Wait till Sunday and you’ll find the missing two!

Sorry to sound cynical but this torture to cricketers by making them play non-stop cricket must end. Sooner rather than later.

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- Freud of Football said | November 5th 2009 @ 4:12pm | Report comment
  
  I agree. It’s ridiculous, cricket isn’t a squad game where you rotate the team. Yes you might give a few of the travelling party a run but teams very very rarely make more than 2-3 changes to a team but when you lose that many players, well it borders on the laughable that they expect them to continue playing on as “Australia” when it’s “Australia A”+ a few.
  
  Reply