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Steve Smith had a golden opportunity to boost the shares in Test cricket and he blew it.
Americans visiting for our New Year’s Eve celebrations cannot comprehend how we can play a game for five days and not get a result. They think we are crazy so there was little point in discussing their four-hour NFL games.
But what about the kids, the next generation? How many dads sat down with their children to watch what was supposed to be an exciting final day in the Boxing Day Test?
Whatever that figure was, I doubt that many would still be glued to the TV set after an hour when Shaun Marsh chased all the kids out of the lounge room and back to their more stimulating computer games.
Where is Adam Gilchrist when you need him?
Gilly would start to twitch if he blocked a dot ball, but Marsh managed 167 of them in his second innings and 57 from 74 deliveries on the last day while little Johnny ran off to play Plants versus Zombies on his Xbox.
The Big Bash League has been a revelation in exciting young children about cricket and the ideal pathway to Test matches. My son had no interest in cricket until I took him to watch the Sixers play the Thunder at the SCG. He loved it, and as we walked home I thought now that he is hooked, let’s try for a Test.
Jackson was particularly taken with Brett Lee, especially as he waved to him when he called out his name, but his biggest thrill was the aggressive batting and brilliant fielding by a baby-faced Steve Smith.
The amazing progress that Smith has made since that first night of the Big Bash to transform into a world class Test batsman and leader is astonishing, but as skipper, surely he has a responsibility to nurture the game.
He had plenty of wickets in hand that were capable of scoring a Big Bash-type 50 in the first 40 minutes and then putting India in on Day 5. Did he panic, or was he influenced by others?
After all, it was only his third Test as captain and a shocking defeat would not look so good on the resume, but Steve Smith made it to the top by being aggressive, it is in his make-up to have a go, it is un-Australian not to.
We will probably never know the real answer, but what we do know is that dad will struggle to get little Johnny to sit with him for the Sydney Test.
And the Americans, well, they think we are crazy.
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