Don’t Say Test Cricket Is Alive

The Alternative Cricket Almanack has a great post on Test snobbery, T20 triumphalism and the contradictions facing all cricket  fans. You should read it in full, but here’s my favorite passage:

I’m not suggesting we should just roll over and let the spectacularly incompetent ICC destroy everything that’s good and holy about this crazy game we love so much, but I also believe that constructive and realistic ideas are our best bet if we’re ever going to change anything for the better. Saying that more Tests need to be played without at least recognizing that so many ODIs and T20s are not only being played to fill the ICC Blazers’ bank accounts, but also in order to be able to continue to play as much Test cricket as possible, isn’t going to get us anywhere. Same goes for the rage which the postponement of the Test Championship was greeted with. And, for the “This is why we love Test cricket!” hysteria these days when a Test match does not end in a 600 & 147-1 and 790-6dec draw.

Some other key points:

1) Just because no one shows up to watch Test cricket doesn’t mean it’s dying. It just means Test cricket is really expensive, time-consuming and not easy to appreciate live.

2) Stop it with all the Test cricket is dead talk. You’re freaking everyone out.

3) The Test championship may not matter as much as, say, better over rates. Or boards that clearly don’t know how to manage funds.

Advertisement