Cricket Australia and the ICC have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to allow day/night Test cricket. What a sell-out! No, I don’t mean a sell-out of a game, but a sell-out of the game.
Just because some TV marketing guru with a ponytail and a cute way of spelling his name (my guess would be Siimon or Mykale or some such rot) thinks it is a good idea doesn’t make it so.
Wasn’t Channel Nine just bailed out by those who hold their debt? Wasn’t that because the Siimons and Mykales have no idea about programming and what might be good TV? Why on earth would anyone trust their judgement?
Why is everything in this world being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator? If you have the intelligence of a gnat and the attention span of a goldfish, the game has already been dumbed down and over-simplified for you. Go and watch tip and run, errr, Twenty 20.
What about those of us who have been loyal followers of the game since we were kids, in the days B.C. (before computers)?
What about those of us who love to follow the intrigue and machinations as the five days unfold?
What about those of us who have sat and watched on crappy little analogue TVs and put up with the ads and inane ramblings of commentators who we have always held in high regard, even if they had no idea what they were talking about?
What about those of us who have baked in the sun, and huddled under umbrellas while paying extortionate prices for food and drink, and will gladly continue to do so?
Where is our game? Where is my game?
Why should the grand old game be bastardised and suffer change for change’s sake, just because ‘the young folk’ can’t concentrate for more than three seconds? What about those of us, even in our declining years, who still can?
Enough is enough. Day/night Tests be damned.
Let those who can’t muster the will or patience to be captivated by the steady, inexorable flow of Test cricket go and watch the pantomime and concocted shrillness of Twenty 20.
Leave my Test cricket alone.
Johnno
Guest
Sambo why spend big on investing in shield cricket if it can't pay it;s won way, or if no one watches it. Pro sport is a business it is about 1 thing only making money, and cricket has to get with the times it is no different to any other sport. Love or hate the bean counters but they are trying to pay there way. It is all very well to have shield cricket invested heavily , but it is another thing paying for all this.
Sambo
Guest
I am in total agreement Rabbitz.From a lad crouched over the radio all hours of the morning to attending test matches and now watching on t.v,i hate to think what other torture will be thrust upon us by the bean counters. Hit and Giggle cricket will be the downfall of Australia in the coming series against the Saffers.Our batsmen no longer (as a whole) seem to have the concentration to play for five days. The long form TEST Cricket should be left alone and more emphasis placed on Shield teams to promote the next generation of Aussie stars.
Johnno
Guest
Jason I do agree with Sheek, test cricket is in trouble and may become extinct. The times in 2010-12 so to speak are far different to the 1970's when world series cricket came on the scene. World has changes massively since then. Globalisation, kids have far more sport choices now. Test cricket is just one of many pro sport choices not a few. EG- the rise of NBL basketball, and A-league soccer, and expansion of AFL, rugby league teams, plus dare is say rugby, has meant cricket is competing for a market share in other words juniors in a far more aggressive more options availably sports market for juniors. Yes Australia's population has increased but still more opportunities have bobbed up overriding this. Decline of tennis is one example of this i would say. But test cricket is as well in modern times, and expensive sport to play and get good at. You need a round oval, a pitch and it is so time consuming. I remember growing up i gave up playing cricket at 15, too boring and time consuming. We would have ot play for about 3 hours on saturday. They were 2 day games and you would have to back up the next week,. And i never had played any formal cricket only played for 2 years so, basically i never got any oppurtunities much and found myself fielding most of the time over 2 weeks. So i quit and took up basketball, got a good run on saturday, like a pet dog, and done all over in 1 hour. And this was in the 1990's. Now i look back at the time , and i felt so bored bordering frustrated and that was why i quit. Fielding a lot was boring, if you got out early that was it your turn was up etc. In later high school i would occasionally see the 1st 11 at my school play the point it that would go all day like 5-6 hours sometimes. more. They even still played 60 over ODI matches, too long and tiring. Where as T20 offers kids of all abilities to get involved, a bit like indoor cricket does everyone gets a go. And in 2012 yes times have changed I just don't think society as a whole has the patience to wait 5 days for a win/loss result, or heavens above a 5-500 draw. 8 teams only play test cricket now. And I am almost at the point where I will say 7. West Indies test cricket team is on life support, and i don't see any evidence of any billionaires coming to there rescue to fix up there domestic scene. And remember Alan Stanford, he was there all about helping west indies T20 scene not test cricket. So out of the 7 test playing nations, i cant see any new tsp cricket markets emerging, maybe Irleand that is about it. Canada and USA a little bit of interest in cricket ex all the ex pat Indian/Pakistan populations, but only for T20 not test cricket. Test cricket I really worry about come say 2020 or 2025. The fact STH Africa on boxing day is applying a T20 match not a test should send a warning out to test cricket. Heck I think NZ have been playing T20 matches on boxing day instead of test laity who knows. But outside of maybe England/Australia test cricket is in trouble everywhere amongst all the other remaining test cricket nations left, and for mien there is only 7 , west indies are just about done in test cricket and forever too, i see no roads back for wets indues test cricket.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
There was a time people thronged to the WAFL and the QRL too. Those days are gone. With ready access to top flight viewing, the second tier of every sport suffers to some extent or other. People watch the 100metres at the Olympics. How many will go and watch the athletics meets across the nation this summer? It is true that the pure format struggles to gain the viewing numbers of the new game. That won't change with night Tests. It may be worth a little more for TV, or even that may prove to be the case only for one TV deal if viewing numbers are static (or even in decline, as night time compeition from other programs tends to be greater - even in non-ratings season).
Jason
Guest
The flaw there is that it isn't multiplied exponentially around the world. For every Maddinson that effectively wins the lottery there are a hundred other first class level cricketers who aren't anywhere near that level. (At the moment, it all reminds me a bit of the Superleague era). All these claims about the demise in Tests were made when ODI cricket was at its peak in popularity. ODI cricket is all but forgotten these days. T20 is still relatively new and has yet to reach maturity. When it does, I think you will find that there will be such a little need for batsmen whereas there will be a need for specialist fielders and athletes meaning that real cricketers will be looking for something else to do. Also, like most fads, interest in T20 will wane when people realise that there is little substance and elegance behind it. All those Indian mutlti-millionaires laundering their money through IPL franchises and using the publicity to help their own careers will eventually move on to other things. The bubble will burst, franchises will go bankrupt, players will be out of pocket, players associations will be up in arms at the betrayal and so on. All the while, Test cricket will still be going.
sheek
Roar Guru
Just in todays Weekend Australian, there is this rather prescient piece from Gideon Haigh. "In the meantime, ponder this: 20-year-old Nick Maddinson of the Sixers, a capable young cricketer who might go further but who has so far struggled to meet exalted early expectations, has just enjoyed comfortably the biggest payday of his young life after a tournament in which he made 59 runs from 49 balls in five hits. What life lessons might he have learned from that, do you reckon?" Some of you blithely rabbit on (not a pun) that test cricket is just fine as it is and there is no need for change. Yeah well, I reckon you're right - there's no need to change something that is going to be extinct anyway in the near future. In the example given above by Haigh and multiplied exponentially all over the cricket world, young cricket players with moderate skills are becoming overnight millionaires playing the truncated form of T20 cricket. Why should they care for test cricket?
Neuen
Guest
White ball white clothing should be fun trying to pick up the ball...
Lukeling
Guest
Is it really feasible that people will pay whatever exorbitant price it is to go to the final session in a day/night test? By the time you get your kids after getting home from work, drive/public transport in to the game & then head home ?? Ain't gonna happen. Having the last session on prime time TV definitely won't bring in more viewers all it will do will cause domestic upheaval ! Crazy talk.
Johnno
Guest
Why not just use a white ball , and change ball after 40 overs. Big deal if it changes the style of the game. And wear coloured clothing too.
formeropenside
Guest
Actually - the WSC Supertests were played at night. I was too young to watch them at the time, but what colour ball did they use there, and how did it last?
Jay
Guest
I wonder how much channel 9 is responsible for a decline in cricket viewers? From my point of view I cannot stand channel 9s telecast given the awful commentary and even worse cross promotion. Thank god for ABC radio and/or the telecast with no sound and digital radio on ABC to sync the commentary. Additionally, Fox Sports coverage of cricket is great. Watch any other test series Australia might be playing in O/S and the Fox commentary team is brilliant.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
Despite the accusations leveled at me about "missing the point" I think that the point or points is/are being missed by many of the respondents. I do not subscribe to the doom and gloom theory about long form cricket. I grant that it is struggling here in Oz but that has almost zero to do with the time of day or the accessibility of the game. It has everything to do with the pitiful efforts of the Australian team and the even more pitiful efforts of the selectors (Mitchell Johnson is still in the figuring, really?) and the almost criminal treatment of the game by the Nine Network. The pathetic results will nullify any possible and fleeting change to audience numbers that dumping the traditions of Test cricket may bring. More troubling is the willingness of CA and the ICC to bastardise the game to suit television. Television viewership is in sharp decline and is becoming more and more irrelevant in today's market place - this is particularly true for Free to Air television. Why would CA want to change its traditional format to suit a declining media type? Twenty 20, which is eminently suited to Television doesn't seem to be breaking ratings records, so what chance has Prime Time Test Cricket got of being a saviour of Television executives? How would the last session, Day 3, where it is often a case of graft and grit to survive go in the ratings against real prime time shows? I would suggest that most TV's would be on any channel but the cricket as the Cricket Widows and Cricket Orphans try to reclaim the crystal bucket. I believe that changing the timing of the game will alter the structure and fundamental flow of the game and reduce the hardships and battles. If CA believes it needs to find new markets and new viewers it needs to avoid hitching itself to outdated media and find new ways to expose the product, at the same time it needs to take care to not lose the stalwarts and long term supporters who provide the base load of audience numbers. Changing the game just to suit Channel Nine will seriously threaten that base load. Cricket may have changed and evolved, but this evolution will not bring the desired results.
Neuen
Guest
A majority of the world wants fast action? Two questions. Do you have any numbers for us where the majority voted on it? And no the Indian Political elections do not count. Other question is how will playing cricket at night make test cricket faster? Do they suddenly turn into hard hitting werewolves and start smashing it around at 6 a over? It will still be test cricket with the same attitude white clothing but just more extreme conditions at times where batsman who had no over limit will get into their shell and do a Sunil Gaviskar who made 36 not out in a one day game of 60 overs chasing a score over 300. That is what its going to look like.
Jiggles
Roar Guru
Test cricket in australia has been very healthy over my entire life time. Why the sudden urge to change it?
formeropenside
Guest
Actually, the segregated Members stand - and dresses for the ladies - isnt such a bad idea.
Chris Hardiman
Roar Rookie
Yeah Will and Rabbitz. I like the longer version of the game as well but not necessarily test cricket. Think about the absurd situation a state team faces when all their best players are on test duties to play sub standard opposition. And how many Test series are a close contest compared to not - not many in my lifetime. If Sheffield Shield was the best it could be I wouldn't even be on the Roar, I'd be listening to the radio. Check out this article about the IPL tweeted by cricket guru Jim Maxwell roarers: http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricket-articles/Why-the-Indian-Premier-League-is-a-bubble-waiting-to-burst/19143
Matt F
Roar Guru
Did you post your comment in the wrong spot? I never said anything about test cricket dying.
Jason
Guest
Administrators want change because otherwise they would have nothing to do and wouldn't exist. They are a bit like HR departments.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Seems to me a lot of people demand change on the internet just so they have something to talk about. Administrators want change to make more money, even though they tell us that is what 20/20 is for. Thankfully the ball may scupper their hopes in the short term.
Jay
Guest
I agree with all you say. I think it makes for an interesting discussion. Another thing I'm curious about may be maintaining the condition of the ball for 80 overs. In a regular test, during the first session there may be dew on the ground affecting the ball for maybe 10 overs. In a day/night I wonder what the effect would be for a dewy evening subjecting the ball to this moisture for 40 overs. Would a ball last 80 overs? It's all speculative. I'm not trying to be difficult. I just think there are factors that will change the game and hope they are properly thought through. But this doesn't mean the game will be any less exciting. Mixing up traditional day test matches with day/night tests could make a series have even more twists and turns. Good for cricket.