Twenty20 rejuvenates cricket in the West Indies

So when does Masterchef start?

No doubt that West Indies and West Indian players are a revelation in T20 cricket, but is Cricket dying rapidly in West Indies, at a much faster rate than previously thought of? Just couple of months back when they toured Australia, Calypso kings looked completely out of sorts, no one except Darren Bravo showed any intent to survive at the Test level. The big question that remains to be answered is that what will inspire these men coming from Island nations to step up and take other formats of the game seriously as well, especially Test Cricket. When will the conflict between the board and it's players end and there would peace back in WI cricket, Cricket needs WI playing at it's full potential in all the formats, just as WI needs Cricket. They might win this World T20 and there would be rejuvenation about their victory back home, but can this victory actually revive the fortunes of WI cricket? or it would be forgotten as the time passes by and it's players begin their normal routine of playing in different T20 leagues all around the world. Wi cricket desperately needs a new Lloyd but the problem is that he can't be seen anywhere at least as of now.

Test cricket is horrible. No-one likes it except for old, conservative white males. It's nothing to do with marketing. It's marketing which keeps test cricket on life support. The idea that TEST CRICKET is REAL CRICKET. T20 is all that matters now and in the future.

West Indies is already out of next year Champions Trophy. They may have to face the igonominy of having to try and qualify for the 2019 ODI Cricket world cup. The present lot are also mostly ageing superstars and i dont see many youngsters coming up. Yes, they may win the current T20 World Cup but will that attract youngsters to the game, as they are mostly interested in basketball and going off to USA. I hope the performance here does rejuvenate cricket in the west Indies but it is a bit early to conclude. Lets hope so. Good article, could have had slightly more details .please write regularly

That is the worst idea I've ever heard on the roar. I actually thought you were being sarcastic.

It hasn't been an easy two decades for West Indies cricket champs and this will give cricket lovers in the region something to cheer about. There is still obviously so much talent in that part of the world it's just a shame it all seems to be channelled into T20.

Conservative middle-aged stuck in the mud Aussie males? Nice comment. So I'm conservative because I enjoy test cricket? Maybe I should be more exciting like you and forget about what I enjoy and instead be a disciple of the mass produced marketing machine? So anon, when does Masterchef start?

I have watched cricket all my life. T20 has been around now since 2005 and it's only getting more popular, the skills keep on improving (the top batsmen in the game are incredible), tactically it's become much more interesting. There will be a place for test cricket just like there's still a place for Shield cricket. If you want to starkly see the difference between the popularity of first class and T20 cricket just compare domestic T20 attendances to those of a first class game. 50k people compared to 50. I think the people have spoken. At the moment we've got the Australia summer all wrong. Last summer we had 6 tests, so potentially 30 days of plodders beating up on test minnows like New Zealand and the West Indies, and just three T20 matches. So 120 overs of T20 cricket versus a potential 2,700 overs of test cricket. What's more the three T20 games were squashed into the back end of summer just days before the team went to South Africa and everyone was kind of over cricket and ready for the football season. It's completely warped. Test cricket won't be forgotten. The records will stand. The great players will be still recognised as great players 50 years on, but consign this format to one (at most 2) novelty test(s) per summer and put emphasis on building rounded T20 players. Look, maybe there's a market still for test cricket in Australia because there's a lot of conservative, middle-aged, stick-in-the-mud Aussie males out there. Places like India look to the future, we hang onto the past. But certainly in 20 years, test cricket will be a one test per summer affair played by guys that couldn't make it at T20 so dedicated themselves to becoming good at semi-professional test cricket.

The West Indies T20 success is as I a see it, ' a poisoned chalice'. Kids will flock to the game in preference to the longer forms of cricket. So I see West Indian red ball cricket going further into the doldrums.

Anon, I see your post time stamped on the second at 3.15am, or was it before midnight in your part of the world?

anon, so all the people that enjoy Test cricket should be forgotten and we should put all our eggs in one basket with T20? The problem being that the ones that are pro T20/anti Test have no respect for the fundamentals of the game, they are not loyalists. It is like a tree without a root system. What happens when the next big shiny thing comes along? As for the WI, they can excell in this format as they have players that only focus on T20. They are not chopping and changing techniques for other formats, and therefore perfect their T20 game. Russel, Bravo, Sammy, Simmons, Pollard, Badree do not play FC cricket and who can remember the last time Gayle wore whites? Other nations have players playing in all formats at domestic level.

Hopefully the exciting cricket we have been treated to in the last couple weeks at the T20 World Cup has completely turned off the next generation of players and fans from taking an interest in test or first class cricket. Hopefully it has turned off the current generation from test cricket as well! 5 day matches were fine when you traveled on a ship for 6 weeks to get to England. You might as well make a summer of it by the time you get there. And frankly, in the 19th and most of the 20th century there wasn't much competition during an Australian summer for your time and entertainment dollar. It was follow cricket, play backyard cricket or run under the sprinkler. You know how once a year with tennis we have to suffer through the low quality grass court tennis at Wimbledon because of tradition, and everyone dresses in white and Federer walks onto Centre Court wearing one of those "classy" blazers, well that's what test cricket needs to be consigned to. Just make test cricket a once or twice a year thing each summer where we can reminisce, view the format through rose coloured glasses, give old plodders like the Ed Cowan's and Peter Siddle's of the world a chance to play for Australia, and by the end of the 5 days it will mercifully come to a conclusion and we can all get down to the serious business of maybe a T20 tri-series between Australia, India and the West Indies. The time has come to euthanise test cricket. Test cricket is so sick that you have some fringe player like Adam Voges with an average rivaling Bradman's on the back of playing uncompetitive teams such as the West Indies and New Zealand.