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The future of Test cricket is Indian decks

Roar Rookie
11th July, 2014
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Mitchell Johnson has called time on his Test career. (AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE)
Roar Rookie
11th July, 2014
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1026 Reads

It’s a hard trick selling Test cricket in the modern era. Shouldn’t we all just be watching T20 instead?

I’m sure that’s actually what the spin masters at Cricket Australia would sometimes prefer, and T20 seems to match Channel Nine’s frat house commentary team’s style (I wonder what Richie Benaud thinks of James Brayshaw and Michael Slater racing each other to the bottom).

But I love Test cricket and believe pitches should be tailored for an equal contest between bat and ball. There should be enough pace and bounce for the bowlers to challenge the batsmen’s techniques, and if they can’t then Test cricket loses its draw card.

There is nothing in cricket more ignoble than watching a great bowler toil and a mediocre batsman filling his boots, and I don’t believe watching endless sixes is a memorable spectacle at all.

Memorable is watching Adam Gilchrist scoring the second-fastest 100 of all time on a true wicket with long boundaries a few moons ago in an Ashes clincher.

But herein lies the old conundrum: Test cricket doesn’t make enough money.

So you occasionally get pitches that are tailored for a five day contest to maximise bums on seats. Gates receipts aside, the team in world cricket who stands to benefit the most from wickets tailored for a Test to last the five days is India.

Indian batsmen are traditionally most tested by lateral movement and bounce. A flat, low pitch that is designed to go the five days is exactly what will enable their wristy batsmen to profit. India is also, as we all know, the modern financial paymaster.

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Cricket Australia is definitely not the dominant tenement in their relationship with the BCCI. Nor is the ECB, which has just rolled out a very low, slow deck in Nottingham for the touring Indians.

Conspiracy? Please. I’m not about to go there.

But we all know our five-day game is in trouble. Test cricket, so we keep hearing, is an anachronism. But surely the game’s administrators would not stoop so low as to prepare favourable wickets for a touring side regardless of who their paymaster is.

Surely they would be seeking to preserve the longevity and dignity of Test cricket at all costs. Surely a local board recognises that a decent contest is worth more in the long run for a fan-base and game growth than good gate receipts over five days.

But we do also know that, for the modern administrators, money talks and this is why there will likely be a day-night Test within the year, even though the players have come out loudly against the idea.

So here’s hoping for a summer of fast decks for the touring Indians. We already know that there is to be no Test at the WACA this summer.

Will the whole summer be slowed down to neutralise Mitchell Johnson? Or will cricket’s dignity and the true contest of bat and ball prevail over the greed of our modern administrators?

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