Blame Twenty20 for the demise of Australian cricket

It brings people through the gates, revenue and attention to the game like no other format does, but Twenty20 is doing more damage to the traditional game than good.

Given Australia is about to start the Ashes tour against Somerset, I again watched the famous footage of Allan Border yelling something along the lines of “If you ever do that again you’ll be on the next plane home!” to Craig McDermott when the pace bowler refused to come over to his captain for a chat.

Could you imagine Michael Clarke pulling one of his stray troops into line with such dominance? No. Because he wouldn’t.

What hits me as the most obvious problem with the Australian cricket team at the moment is that it is totally bereft of any influential, dominant or unequivocal leadership.

In bygone eras there would have been at least one player in the team with a take-no-rubbish attitude. Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, the aforementioned Allan Border, Greg Chappell (to an extent) and many before them had near perfect captain’s attitudes.

But it doesn’t always need to be the man at the helm with the spine to affect a no-nonsense attitude within the team; Simon Katich, Matthew Hayden and Rod Marsh fit the bill as dressing room enforcers – a position which is desperately needed in the current national team.

It should merely be as simple as picking a player with the qualities that are needed at the moment, but in my opinion there are no players in the domestic scene that care that much about Test cricket. This has had a direct effect on Australian Test cricket.

Promising domestic players with the potential to become the next Allan Border dream of playing Test cricket, but it only takes so many setbacks and omissions from Test squads for said players to turn their backs on the traditional form of the game. The hit-and-giggle format provides a much more secure career and income.

David Warner is a player I believe has the qualities needed to keep the troops in line if ever put in a position of power. I also believe that he, and indeed Cricket Australia, will waste the perfect opportunity of putting him in such a position through disciplinary suspensions and the lure of T20 cricket.

It’s only a matter of time before David asks himself the question: “Why should I put up with this Test cricket nonsense when I could make a living off T20?”

I know Twenty20 is an irreversible evolution of the game but if Cricket Australia is serious about once again being a dominant force in world cricket, a line needs to be drawn in the sand between the different formats.

Players need to pledge their allegiance to one of the formats. Cricketers who want to reach the pinnacle of the game can only play Shield cricket and four day matches for Australia A. Players that want to perfect their ramp shots and slog sweeps can only play BBL, IPL and T20Is.

Such a drastic overhaul of the domestic scene would never happen but I’m sick of players not having the temperament or attention span to nut out a Test innings, let alone a Test career.