In February this year, Hillary Clinton was odds on for a clean run to the White House, Brexit was the name of a breakfast cereal and Leicester’s claim to fame remained a long-deceased monarch buried under a few rusting Ford Fiestas.
Australia, the dominant force in global cricket for the past couple of decades, had also just reclaimed the number one Test spot. Normal service hadn’t resumed – it had hardly faltered.
They say a sudden change in wind direction can cause a wildfire to rage in a manner so unexpected any future modelling becomes obsolete. For the year 2016, the transition has not so much been sudden as a persistent series of events so seemingly implausible it is now a disappointment when the unexpected does not occur. Future forecasting is indeed irrelevant. We live in an age of uncertainty. This much, Australian Test cricketers now know.
Last winter, Australia were considered such a superior red-ball outfit that the nation was lamenting the allocation of the Boxing Day Test fixture to that of an ailing West Indies side. South Africa have not featured in this showpiece event since 2008, New Zealand have been waiting for 30 years. Surely such opposition would provide a sterner test for the boys in baggy greens?
The Big Bash League, then in its fifth season and an exponential success, became a welcome distraction from the predictable series victory over the West Indies. The sigh of relief was almost audible from Cricket Australia’s offices – the BBL had salvaged cricket’s status as the nation’s number one summer pastime. Fast forward 12 months, and this tournament is being blamed for cricket’s downfall – the Diet Coke of the sport, detracting from the serious stuff.
‘Funny,’ remarked the sports broadcaster Alison Mitchell on Twitter. ‘How English cricket is striving to emulate Australia’s BBL success just as Australia pick an opener who aspires to bat like [Alastair] Cook.’
Matt Renshaw, the English-born Queensland opener, selected as one of six possible changes and three debutants for the third Test against South Africa in Adelaide, is part of the latest solution sought by Australia’s selectors. Renshaw bats in a manner that is indeed akin to Cook or, to find a more contemporaneous comparison, Haseeb Hameed, England’s new teenage Geoffrey Boycott, take out of cryogenic hibernation from the 1930s when timeless Tests were still a thing.
England’s Test team, despite their current struggles on the sub-continent, have performed reasonably well in recent years, more consistently at least than in bygone eras.
The difference between the ECB and Cricket Australia however, is that when the former’s chief executive harks on about the primacy of Test cricket, the ECB can claim demonstrable evidence to support its assertions.
First-class cricket in England is – relatively – thriving. For better or for worse, administrative power lies with the 18 counties, whose membership is largely fond of the longer format.
A healthy second-11 competition props up a County Championship which saw the season finale between Middlesex and Yorkshire attract the highest attendance for a Championship game at Lord’s since May 1966.
21,595 came through the turnstiles over the match’s four-day duration, numbers which the Sheffield Shield might dream of for an entire season, every state combined. The BBC for its part, continues to provide commentary on “every ball of every first-class county match”, a service its Australian counterpart, the ABC, long since shelved.
Yet even with this rose-tinted view of England’s long-form game, Mitchell’s tweet rings true – restlessness abounds.
18 counties to Australia’s six states fuels arguments of a diluted domestic competition. A widening gap between the quality of first and second division cricket lays the foundation of a them-and-us culture. Grassroots uptake of the sport has been declining for years.
Free-to-air television coverage is non-existent – you’re more likely to catch a game of American football on the box than our national sport. At the forefront of the disquiet is the failure of England’s T20 competition to capture the public’s imagination, or that of the broadcasters. There is much to like about the domestic set-up in England, but equally enough to dislike too.
It is a welcome respite from today’s real world consternations to be able to indulge in a spot of schadenfreude by observing Australian cricket’s apparent state of disarray. The bark and bluster is at levels only the romanticism of sport can inspire.
That there is a huge faff over Faf’s sweet-chewing habits, ill-advised though they may have been, only adds to the spectacle. Where elaborate moaning and a vicious critique of one’s own national team was once the preserve of the English, it’s a relief to think that we do not suffer alone.
There are issues within Cricket Australia’s framework, and evidently an imbalance has been created between long- and short-form cricket, between preserving tradition and attracting new consumers (and money). It may too be time to draw to a close the experiment of a Futures League over a genuine second 11 state competition.
Perhaps have a tinker with the scheduling of the BBL and Tests too.
Yet record numbers of grassroots participants, an unrivalled club structure which caters for the career amateur as well as it does the out-of-form international, and a domestic competition (albeit in short-form) that can fill the MCG, are but a few enviable distinctions Australia’s cricket following would be loath to dismiss.
We’re told that Australian cricket is in the grips of a Warner-esque disease – all bish, bash, bosh but little stick and grind. Yet Warner himself mustered a double century against the touring Black Caps just last year. Soon after Adam Voges achieved the same across the water in far less obliging conditions. Just 18 months ago Steve Smith and Chris Rogers put on a partnership of 284 together at Lord’s. Renshaw could well prove to be the next generation of this mould.
Australia’s cricketers are weathering a rough patch, deeper than any they’ll have experienced. The biggest culprits of a hit-and-run style mentality, however, are arguably the selectors themselves.
Until recently, apparently immune to their own mortality, the selectors’ revolving-door player-selection method has only added to the carnage. In Smith Australia have a captain of rare talent, temperament and tenacity, and enough in the players that surround him to ultimately triumph.
Turn down the hyperbole, and let cooler heads prevail, for Australia’s current predicament is not the end of the world. President Trump might be, but not this.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I see test matches as a combination of day/night tests in every major city with the exception of MCG and SCG which will remain boutique daytime contests, sitting as they are right in the peak holiday season. I don't think CA can afford to put all its eggs in the BBL basket. I see a future of growing divergence. There is still plenty of appetite for a premium long-form contest, if they can make it relevant, important and give it context. But a lot of those issues are out of the hands of CA and depend on international cooperation.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I agree with you on the tinkering with the shield, what happened in that game where NSW were allowed to sub Starc out and bring a fresh Bollinger in to destroy QLD in the 2nd innings was a farce. That sort of sports science where shield games become glorified training/fitness proving sessions is rubbish, and shouldn't be allowed. Either that or offer it to all sides, not just ones who happen to have a national rep trying to prove his fitness. I get what you're saying with the music analogy, but music doesn't just have 3 music groups to listen to. It's not like it's a choice between Beethoven, Beatles and Beyoncé. Hence why I maintain ANY interest is good interest.
sheek
Roar Guru
Paul D, My response was a general one to you rather than a specific one. BBL may well win the December-January time slot over test cricket. I seriously doubt CA can match its rhetoric with intent when it talks about preserving test cricket. They're full of bull dust. I also believe day/night cricket is the future & possible saviour of both test cricket & SS. But it's probably a mute point. Like I said above, I seriously doubt if CA can match its rhetoric with intent.
Rellum
Roar Guru
How are those crowds and TV audiences doing, getting bigger or smaller?
Rellum
Roar Guru
I don't actually bemoan than people don't watch the Shield. I don't expect big crowds at the Shield although it would nice if CA and Queensland Cricket advertised based on sessions. Try and get cricket fans and players to show up to one session a season. I bemoan that the comp is no longer a serious comp that the States have autonomy to peruse. And I bemoan that people do not care about if their States are winning or not. That does not breed a winning culture for the national team. On whether kds will grow into Test cricket. Yes we do not know how that will play out but I use the analogy of music. Kids never really get into the parents music, they see it as old. T20 has come at a time where there is a generational group of kids who will see it as the new and long form cricket as the old. Not many kids get into the oldies music. I hope I am wrong.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
One thing the BBL probably can take a lot of credit for is that participation in playing cricket is actually at record levels in Australia. So while a lot of players may want to play the attacking shots required for the T20 version of the game, the increase in the number of kids playing the game actually increases the chances of more world class players coming out. However, we are a few years away from seeing if there is indeed benefit in this. Kids who started getting into cricket on the back of the BBL are still in their early teens or yuonger. In 5-10 years we'll see more and more of them coming through the system and may find that the boost the BBL has given to playing numbers more than counter-acts any deficiencies in technique for playing the longer form of the game. By then players will likely have better worked out how to go between the two and make the required adjustments and not let one be detrimental to the other.
Rellum
Roar Guru
How much does your influence play on his desire to follow both?
Julian King
Roar Guru
Australian cricket fans expect success. As many have pointed out, we need to restructure to recapture that success. Also, like any good tradition, it needs to be taught to the next generation and it needs to come from people whom that generation respect. These two things together will ensure the sanctity of test match cricket remains.
Republican
Guest
.........I believe this is changing with multiculturalism. It is the old Anglo Saxon guard that continue to derive national identity through sport & war exploits in this country - sadly.
Republican
Guest
.......the truncated versions of the game are, for all intents and purpose, different games that require different skillets, especially at the extreme poles, i.e. Test and T20.
matth
Guest
And yet here you are on the cricket page of a sporting website. Come out to any cricket ground on any weekend and see the numbers of participants of all ages and all cultural backgrounds. Try to find a net to practice in on the weekend that isn’t already occupied. See the ratings for the Big Bash, or more importantly the web clicks on the CA and cricinfo websites. Cricket isn’t broken, far from it. It’s just that the national team is a little bit awful right now and to certain people this indicates that the sky is falling.
matth
Guest
It's because, unlike the football codes, the national cricket team has been the main focus for fan engagement. In the football codes you bleed with your club for the season and the internationals are one-off specials. In cricket, you bleed with the national team and don't follow the club or state level teams as much. It's similar to the Wallabies in Rugby. Therefore the whole health of the sport is tied to the fortunes of the national team more than other sports. This may start changing as young kids grow up supporting their Big Bash franchise.
Republican
Guest
.......glass half full spin but worth considering.
matth
Guest
My son goes to BBL games every year, but also goes to the test match and watches the tests on TV. He then goes out and plays for his school and club, where he is a classic test match batsman (i.e. very, very slow). I guess some kids have the brains to appreciate both forms as well.
Republican
Guest
......indeed, it is a devolution of society in my opinion and certainly NOT exclusive to Cricket.
matth
Guest
I think CA knew this and have accepted the risk of lowering test match standards as a pay off to the lure of Big Bash success
matth
Guest
Yet we still get decent crowds, decent ratings, decent participation and decent web clicks, so the world is not ending. We are also at the lower levels finally starting to see the rise of multiculturalism in cricket. and also finally seeing a viable professional women's league.
matth
Guest
And yet here you are on the cricket page of a sporting website. Come out to any cricket ground on any weekend and see the numbers of participants of all ages and all cultural backgrounds. Try to find a net to practice in on the weekend that isn't already occupied. See the ratings for the Big Bash, or more importantly the web clicks on the CA and cricinfo websites. Cricket isn't broken, far from it. It's just that the national team is a little bit shite right now and to certain people this indicates that the sky is falling.
peter wolf
Guest
Isabelle could not agree with you more with our recent poor performances especially the batting we had to make wholesale changes whether we like it or not, the selectors will always make decisions we do not like and that will always be the case we can argue the point 'til we are black or blue it will make very little difference.Unfortunately a number of players were shown the door and rightly so and judging by some of the new players we are not happy with some of the selections especially Matthew Wade as these players are selected on form & averages not sure which one comes first though? I am with Glenn's thoughts too instead of bagging Matthew Wade similar to the Marsh brothers and sometimes it's warranted? Isabelle i am a Pink Floyd fan i'll quote a couple of lines from Have A Cigar "Well I've always had a deep respect and i mean that most sincerely the band is just fantastic that is really what i think oh by the way which one's Pink & this line is even better let me know what you think Have you seen the chart it's a hell of a start it could be made into a monster if we all pull together as a team hope it makes sense
madmonk
Guest
Yes Isabelle for decades we bagged county cricket for having a 16 team competition and playing 3 day games. That was seen here as prioritising county cricket over test cricket. Not sure India have it all. Their relationship with Test cricket is sometimes curious.