The Ashes aside, Day 2 of the Melbourne Test can have a low-key feel about it.
Certainly for all but the most avid watchers, it’s usually best spent recuperating after a week of festivities culminating with Boxing Day, with most left short of a gallop after an arduous campaign.
For those that can endure the twin tortures of a raging hangover and Ian Healy’s commentary, it does offer a chance to genuinely take in the cricket in a way not possible among the beer-soaked fogginess of the day previous. And from a competitive perspective, what was on show wasn’t pretty.
Cricket is a complex game seldom fully explained by the scores at stumps, but this was one of the rare occasions where the simple set of numbers summed things up pretty bloody well – Australia 3/551 declared, on another Test pitch that may as well be made of concrete.
In reply, the West Indies on life support at 6/91.
Same pitch, same conditions for both teams. The scores tell you all you really need to know.
West Indies cricket has been in various stages of decay since the mid-90s, but it’s hard to remember a sorrier bunch wearing the formally fearsome maroon cap.
Their major ability lies in making this Australian side look like a World XI. Only the most dedicated Australian supporter could believe in the true worth of the performances of the home side.
The day ended with the duo from Dandenong ripping through the Windies’ top order. James Pattinson, who (doubtless talent aside) is only second-up after missing 20 months of Test cricket through injury, and Peter Siddle, now a fringe player having managed only four Tests this calendar year.
Likewise with the bat. Without wanting to take too much away from the century-making efforts of Usman Khawaja and Adam Voges, one does have to compare it with their results against capable opposition and wonder just how much can be put down to their own natural improvement.
So the Windies are stinking it up. But most galling is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be like this, for the issues are not just natural, but political as well. The West Indies have enough trouble fielding a competitive side without themselves ruling out many of their best due to baffling selection practices and infighting with the Caribbean cricket brass.
The issue is that when Test cricket is this uncompetitive, no Test cricket at all is actually preferable. The longer form of the game has enough of a battle staying relevant without garbage contests like this, which set the format back further by suffering in comparison to the excitement and growth of the Twenty20 format. At stumps you can just simply flick the channel and take in all the lights and action of the Big Bash League – where not incidentally, more than a few supremely talented West Indian cricketers are strutting their stuff.
Test scheduling needs to be careful to ensure competitive, compelling contests that the best matches can provide. It’s with regard to this that the ICC should be seriously considering a question that would have been ridiculous not too long ago: should the West Indies be permitted to play Test cricket at all?
Test status for a cricketing nation isn’t a birthright. Stripping it from the West Indies would be effectively unprecedented, but more care needs to be taken of the sport’s traditional format. If the Windies were struggling purely on talent it’d make empathising much easier, but it’s hard to escape that personal, political and administrative issues have strongly contributed to the malaise. If a nation won’t even field its best team in what is supposed to be the elite level, is it worthy of inclusion?
There’s of course the argument that such a move would damage the future of Test cricket in the Caribbean even further, however the international state of the game has to be the over-riding concern. And it’s hard to think that any inspiration at all is currently being provided in the Caribbean by Test cricket.
Possibly Test cricket’s sole indisputable claim is its status as the traditional pinnacle of the sport. If a competing nation shows an unwillingness and inability to treat it as such, then there may be something to be said for booting them until they get their act together.
The game just can’t afford showings like this.
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