I am a self-confessed cricket nut.
My childhood almost constantly revolved around it. From playing juniors on a Saturday morning, watching the seniors on a Saturday afternoon, playing district cricket every second Sunday, comparing MyCricket stats with the boys at school on a Monday morning, training twice a week and backyard cricket whenever else I could manage it.
The TV was always on, Channel Nine and, more recently, Fox Cricket a constant source of contention between my Mum and I.
I lived a completely cricket obsessed life, and still do. For the last five years ever since graduating from high school, I have worked as a cricket coach.
As a junior coach, I have worked my way through the ranks from under 13s through to 17s and have had the privilege to work with a number of young, extremely talented cricketers, who have gone on to represent the state at underage levels, and I would love nothing more to see them on the big stage in the future.
It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
But I have decided to stop.
And it mainly comes down to the fact that the game that I obsessed over as a kid just is not the same anymore.
The T20 revolution is well and truly here, and as much as old-school tragics such as myself wish, it is not going away.
We now live in a reality where the South African Cricket team will now prioritise a domestic T20 cup competition over a one-day international series against Australia.
A reality where international sides, including Australia, pick second-string sides for international tours, while big-name players chase a quick buck in meaningless franchise competitions.
A reality where the English Test captain would step down from ODIs in favour of pursuing franchise opportunities.
A reality where the ICC will black out two entire months of the Future Tours program in favour of the IPL.
(Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
And we sadly now live in a reality where at junior levels, coaches are now being directed by state cricketing associations to focus on the shorter format, and more inventive batting. Gone is the instruction to ‘get yourself in and play every ball on its merits’.
The instructions from higher up now reflect the high octane, thrill-a-minute cricket of the Big Bash generation.
Strike rates are now seen as more important than averages.
I personally know young batsmen who have piled on bucket loads of runs at junior levels left out of representative teams in favour of others who score quicker, but far less frequently.
The same goes with bowlers – anyone who has pace is quickly snapped up, regardless of statistics, but what about the kid who swings it both ways and has 25 wickets at an average of 12?
Nope, he is just another victim of the T20 revolution.
Now, I am not deluded enough to say that there isn’t a place for T20 cricket. It has its place, as a gimmicky, fun format, but it has now become the dominant form of cricket across the world.
And sadly, it is now also the dominant form of the game at grassroots level. In the under-17s Junior Premier Cricket competition I coached in last year, we had a 16-round season plus finals. Ten of the 16 games ended up being T20s.
In the interest of player development, how can this possibly be a good thing for producing Test cricketers in the future?
We have seen a power struggle like this before in the past. World Series Cricket in many ways did push cricket forward, but that was mostly around players being paid what they were owed, and more competitive broadcast rights. It was not a complete change to the fabric of the game, like the T20 revolution has become.
This summer we will see more T20 cricket than ever before. The World Cup comes to our shores, barely a year after the last one, which while mostly a result of the pandemic, still seems bizarre.
We then have the marathon that is the Big Bash League, dragging on for a month too long, as soulless city franchises play each other in front of half-empty stadiums for a trophy that no one really cares about.
We thankfully do get five Test matches to savour, but do not bank on any reserve players playing Sheffield Shield during this time to keep themselves sharp and push for a call up, because it won’t be played during this time!
Sadly, as much as I bemoan all of this, it isn’t going to change.
The almighty dollar rules all, and to cater for the much larger markets in India and possibly America in the future, true cricket tragics are the ones who pay the price.
I cannot really blame the players – who wouldn’t jump at earning over a million dollars in six weeks?
Worse is to come, though. Look at golf. LIV Golf, backed by the Saudis, is offering eye-watering figures for the best golfers. Cam Smith may jump across almost immediately after winning the Open.
It is reasonable to suggest, considering the most recent T20 World Cup was held in Dubai, that oil-rich nations may also look to do the same with cricket, and then we will have a true existential crisis in our game.
From the grassroots to the international sphere, the T20 revolution has swept all before it, and for those of us who loved everything about the game as it was, it is really hard to really get excited about what lies ahead.
I for one find I am losing a lot of interest in the game, as I ponder the question: is international Test cricket really still the pinnacle of our game?
James Barr
Roar Rookie
Absolutely bang on mate. I'm a cricket tragic just like yourself and it's sad to see the game headed in its current direction. Unfortunately, there's no obvious way of turning it around with Cricket Australia having their eyes focused on their wallets, which doesn't help when your domestic competitions don't bring in much money and TV deals are the primary source of income. Player development is no longer prioritised and One-Day cricket is an afterthought.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
But still pace dominated
jammel
Roar Rookie
we were also the pre-eminent spin nation of the world from 1992-like 2007!! Thanks SKW!
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I've long lamented the passing of the Windies 4 pace attack from the levels of over 30 years ago. Things change. 90 years ago Australia was the pre-eminent spin bowling nation. Whooda thunk!
jammel
Roar Rookie
Even in India, T20s are attracting more interest than Tests. My Indian friends say as much - they love the IPL over India v England or India v Australia Tests. Which I can never get! IMO ODIs will die-out slowly. Tests and T20s will endure. The biggest problem for cricket IMHO is not the forms of the game, it is the game losing ground in some countries. Like South Africa and the West Indies. Football is overtaking cricket in RSA; and US sports like athletics and basketball are dominating in the Windies. Countries like England/India/Australia really need to assist the game internationally if it is to be preserved in these countries. Cricket will always be fine I think in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, England, etc
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Yes true. Probably an over reach to say no Test players play Shield. More so that not enough do, regularly enough, to lift prospective talents to the point where the bridge in the gap to the next level is smaller. It's why we have no choice now but to give players extra time to develop into Test players once selected in the national team. The days are gone - at present at least - where the step-up should be expected within a short period of time. Some may say the Test team is no place to develop players, but not so sure the current system provides much other choice. -- Of course, it doesn't help when the Test attack has been mostly out of NSW for a while now. No fault of NSW, but it limits the exposure of batsmen - and bowlers - from Shield sides if they only get one match (or more likely no matches, depending on fixtures) playing with/against those Test bowlers.
Rellum
Roar Guru
To be fair in the last couple of years some Test players have played Shield. But the bowlers need to bowl more and there is no reason batsmen can't play go backward and forward between levels and formats outside of the inability of CA to organize cricket
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
So I'm still a chance then?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Equating the growth opportunities between Canada and USA is so irrelevant. You would understand the many differences between those markets. Simply because the two countries border one another, is as irrelevant, in similar and different ways, as trying to make an argument re cricket growth opportunities in Mexico. -- One can continue to be a contrarian re what ever anyone else says on this article, but the fact is there is serious money being invested into US cricket for a reason, whether you accept that reality or not.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Talk about a fall of grace we have had two decades to make sure this current situation was avoided. We will look back in disgust this has occurred to our great game!
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Difficult when a) the Shield is compartmentalised and b) the current Shield players now never have exposure to the best players - either as team mates or opponents. One can demand that Shield players pouring on runs or taking bags, should be natural elevations to the Test team and therefore be challenging incumbents, but unfortunately the performance-measure of Shield outcomes is now quite a gulf to Test requirements; there's no sense of certainty at all that a well-performed Shield (or County) player can make it at Test level. Unless the quality of all Test teams across the board similarly declines. Then it becomes a race to the bottom re the quality of Test cricket. The teams may come back to being "equally competitive", but the quality may not be attractive.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
That's the issue for me JN. As I've posted elsewhere, there is a core of teams that will continue to attract support for Test series contests (in SAF's case as you have noted, Australia, India England). But spread that too thinly, where there are consecutive summers against teams of lesser-interest, then that starts to "damage the brand" (not a favourite term personally, but it is relevant), and in a competitive format market, it may not take much over a short-ish period of time, for the other formats to eat into the Test market ("fill the vacuum and take hold"). Then it's a question of whether Tests can reclaim it's market interest at a later time. I'm not as confident as some others that the default position is that Tests will always re-emerge to the top of the heap if the situation is left to foster for a period of time.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
We need to start blooding the next generation of test cricketers very soon.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
There's a reckoning coming for CA. And the impact across the board re internationals and FC is likely to be significant. As have noted before, Test interest within Australia should remain strong in the foreseeable future, but re longer-term outcomes, this is going to be dependent on the "lay-cricket follower" being interested in who the summer Test opponent is. As much as I wish to see all Test teams being given the opportunity for exposure to the Australian team/market, hosting the West Indies two summers in a row (this summer and next summer), may be problematic re keeping Tests as the absolute forefront of broader public interest. That said, it will be followed by 2x summers of 5-Test tours by India and England, so that should help somewhat.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
The BBL will erode to nothing no money to keep our top talent from playing in SAF league.
Micko
Roar Rookie
CA should really and try to get to SAF for a 2 test series at least in the next couple of years in my opinion, after cancelling a couple of years ago (regardless of whether it's a designated TC round or not).
Micko
Roar Rookie
The ICC TC is a good start though. :thumbup: (got the kiwis crowing!)
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
It’s most certainly still seen by the players in South Africa as the pinnacle . For the fans whoever only when playing Aus , Eng and India does Test Cricket take centre stage . That I would imagine mirrors just about everywhere else . For what it’s worth a Test series against Australia still trumps all other formats and countries . But in SA demographics are shifting fast. Now the Worlds youngest population and although cricket is attracting large numbers of new recruits into the game , they have little time for tradition and I’m afraid T20 is where they are at .
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"Having Tasmania involved in the Shield is great" Two heads are better than one, as they say.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Excellent points. Disturbing to near that coaches are being told to prioritise strike rates over number of runs scored, as if T20 was going to be the only format in the future. Surely it’s still only a minor format at first grade/premier league level? I would differ slightly about the relevance of Stokes stepping down from ODIs in favour of pursuing franchise opportunities - at least he’s staying on as Test captain and there is a point where 3 formats may be harder to sustain. I’m not too sympathetic about number of games played these days when you compare with the past, as I wrote in an article earlier this year: https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/02/08/bubble-what-bubble-try-the-1878-cricket-tour-to-england/ . But if one format has to go, 50 overs seems the obvious - ten overs of fun at each end that correspond to a T20 game, with lots of easy singles into spread fields on flat pitches for about 30 overs in the middle.