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The quality of test wickets throughout the world is threatening the survival of the game. An overreaction? Maybe, but only because there are other more immediate forces conspiring to eradicate the ultimate test of cricketing skill.
Lifeless, homogenised wickets have removed integral facets of the game’s nuance and appeal – possibly forever.
This dawned on me most recently watching Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger toil against a poor Pakistan in close to the most seam-bowler friendly conditions in the world. The reality is that both left arm quicks have become so used to bland drop-in pitches that offer little in the way of swing or seam that they have become reduced to clichéd ‘back-of-a-length’ and ‘hit-the-deck-hard’ bowlers.
As first Shane Watson and then England showed against the same opposition, pitching the ball up and allowing it to swing both ways is a devastating forgotten weapon.
England is unfortunately the exception that proves the rule.
Here, natural variations of climate, altitude and topography ensure test cricket is still being played on test quality pitches. Richie Benaud commented recently about the need for test matches to be an even balance between bat and ball.
He wrote this against the backdrop of India and Sri Lanka’s run-fest in Colombo which did as much for the advancement of 20 20 as the formation of the IPL. Following the game even The Little Master was moved to acknowledge his record 48th test hundred was achieved on an unsporting deck.
Unfortunately Tendulkar’s view was not shared byf Anurudda Polonowita, Sri Lanka’s national curator. He instead chose to blame two poor bowling attacks for the 5-day bore draw. The assumption promoted by Polonowita, and others, is that spectators are drawn to test cricket because of batsmen and because of runs.
I think this is wholly incorrect and the plummeting attendance figures worldwide for the game’s longest-format are testament to that fact. Spectators pay for a contest, to become emotionally involved in a battle between bat and ball.
Witness the importance of The Ashes or the anticipation of a trip to the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s. These are and were not on the promise of batting masterclasses.
Worryingly, Australia is not immune.
The prevalence of drop-in wickets and multifunctional sports arenas is negating the natural variety of localised conditions. The pace is being continually sapped from the WACA, Adelaide has become a bowler’s graveyard and any life left in the MCG is the result of poor preparation, not the opposite. I’m not advocating for three-day test matches or dangerous, under-prepared tracks, simply a genuine opportunity to test a variety of skills – batting and bowling – based on naturally occurring local variations.
Rumours of the death of test cricket have a habit of being greatly exaggerated.
Whether prompted by an English home series defeat, the advent of World Series, or match fixing. This current health-scare however is different. Test match cricket is this time under threat from itself.
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