Death of Test cricket?

[K]

'Eyebrows were raised ahead of the Ashes precursor when Ireland left out star bowler Josh Little, with the seamer ordered to rest after a successful IPL spell with runners-up Gujarat Titans ahead of next month's 50-over World Cup qualification tournament.

Cricket Ireland's high performance director Richard Holdsworth defended their decision by insisting the Lord's Test was not a "pinnacle event" to draw further concerns over the future of international red-ball cricket with more and more franchise leagues filling the cricket calendar.'

(cricket.com.au)

[K]

Two-match series are killing Test cricket: McDonald

August 2, 2023

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/two-match-series-are-killing-test-cricket-mcdonald-20230802-p5dt5m.html

'“I think the length of Test matches – we played four against India, and we play five against India next time we play them,” McDonald pointed out. “And here it’s a five Test match series, so I’d encourage that the minimum number of Tests against a nation should be three.

“And I think that puts an importance … I think two Test match series should be put on the back burner and that would show the importance of Test cricket to every nation if it was a minimum of three Test matches.”
...

Yet, the recently announced future tours program will have Australia play a glut of two-match series over the next four years, both at home and away, against the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. England play a pair of two-match series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh over the same period.
...

“I think it did, but it doesn’t solve all the problems,” Hussain said on Sky Cricket. “The top three, England, India and Australia, they have been successful, and they will continue to be successful.

“Those three are trying to push it on, but they’ve also got to keep an eye on the rest. It is not just about the top three. It’s all well and good me saying on commentary in my big moment at Headingley ‘the Ashes is alive, Test cricket is alive’ – have a look at other parts of the world where it’s not so alive ... it’ll be dull if we just play India, Australia, England, month in, month out.”'

[K]

R. Craddock:

'The fact that fewer than 3000 fans were present at the start of the fourth day, the mismatch between the teams and growing rumours that Test cricket will be further marginalised by a second IPL window are more alarming.

These are issues that threaten Test cricket in a way that a rogue deck just doesn't. In fact, it is one of cricket's great fallacies that substandard decks tear at the fabric of the game.
...

As the late, great cricket writer Peter Roebuck once asked in Sri Lanka when a dodgy deck for one Test resulted in a fine while a flat road for another was praised: "Does anyone actually ask the public what they want?"
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Cricket needs wickets of character. The game has enough pancake-flat roads which allow batsmen to swing with impunity and hit a ball from Perth to Fremantle.'

(The Australian)



P. Lalor:

'Cricket is always better when the pitch opens up, for bowlers that's how - apologies to Leonard Cohen - the light gets in.'

(The Australian)

[K]

'... Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers have opted out of the tour to prioritise T20 cricket.

Holder, a former West Indies captain, and Mayers, who struck an unbeaten fourth-innings double-hundred on Test debut against Bangladesh in early 2021, both turned down Cricket West Indies central contracts this year.

Holder will play in the UAE's ILT20 competition and Mayers is part of the Durban squad in the SA20 competition while the NRMA Insurance Test series is underway.
...

CWI requires players vying for World Cup selection to be available for the ongoing white-ball series against England as well as February's T20Is against the Aussies, creating a squeeze for the 32-year-old Holder and 31-year-old Mayers, who are looking to maximise earnings.

"I've been an all-format player for probably the last eight or nine years," said Holder. "If you look at the current scope of the sport in general, it's now a more common trend based on the dynamics of world cricket: everything is constantly evolving. There are leagues popping up here, there and everywhere and there are quite a number of options for players.

"It all depends on what a player wants in terms of his career. It's a profession, and there's a massive window in terms of franchise cricket early in the year. The main part of my decision is to prioritise playing as much T20 cricket as I can leading up to the T20 World Cup – and of course, in doing so, there is also the opportunity to maximise your earnings."'

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/3830514/west-indies-name-new-look-test-squad-for-australia-tour

[K]

Atherton:

I fear for longer format...

'... Cummins and Starc will earn more in match fees from sending down two balls - yes, only two balls - than they will for five days of a Test wearing the baggy green.
...

Oddly, while there has never been more money in it, parts of the game have never felt more impoverished. The key shift since my experience moved from playing to observing is that the game has become less self-sustainable.
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One of the key differences to football is the much smaller talent pool in most regions, and the increasing attractions of franchise cricket means the best players are pulled between various commitments and options more than ever before. This has a knock-on effect on selection for England teams, with the best XI not always available...'

(The Times)

[K]

Geoff Lawson:

Money is an unstoppable force in cricket, and the game needs to evolve or perish

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/money-is-an-unstoppable-force-in-cricket-and-the-game-needs-to-evolve-or-perish-20231230-p5euac.html

'Private ownership of cricket is also not a new concept. International cricket was privately financed and owned as far back as the 19th century; tours had to be profitable or there was no cricket at all. The wheel has turned full circle in that respect. Cricket authorities invented themselves to bring some order to the chaos that the competing professional game had conceived. We are returned to the chaos of private team ownership in private tournaments. The official cricket boards are up against the unstoppable force of money, and they had better evolve or perish.

Even the omnipotent Board of Control for Cricket in India is being challenged by Saudi money, and we know what they did with golf – offering not tens but hundreds of millions of dollars to procure talent.

However, the Saudis can’t produce golfers or cricketers. India produces local talent, but they and the Saudis buy off the top shelf. This is unsustainable without a broad crop being sown and grown somewhere underneath.
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The top of the pyramid stands on the wide base of community cricket, which is largely funded and subsidised by international series. Club and junior subscriptions are kept at manageable levels by the state bodies.

If the cricket world diffuses into a morass of privately owned and run tournaments, then the base of the pyramid is going to suffer badly. There will be fewer youths playing the game and less making elite teams, and, therefore, fewer players available for the highly paid franchises. A vicious cycle indeed.

This cascade might take a few years, but it would happen.
...

There is a way to increase local finances to support the whole cricket pyramid: introduce private ownership of BBL teams...

The valuation of these clubs to private equity must be $30 million and more. That kind of cash well used could be the fertiliser that nurtures, sustains and grows Test cricketers. Careful licensing agreements in the manner of the BCCI with its private franchises would maintain the integrity of the system.'

[K]

Steve Waugh:

“Is this a defining moment in the death of Test cricket.
...

“History and tradition must count for something. If we stand by and allow profits to be the defining criteria the legacy of Bradman, Grace and Sobers will be irrelevant.”


(Instagram)

[K]

“I can’t begrudge any player for making financial decisions to secure their future. Sport as a whole is a very short-term thing, cricket you never know when you’re in or you’re out, and we just have to find some sort of middle ground where all cricket prospers – not just English cricket, Australian cricket or Indian cricket.

“You want your best team playing international cricket. South Africa will have their reasons but when I did look at the team there was not one name that I knew. It is a very compact schedule, trying to force all three forms of the game in.

“As someone who has played Test cricket, the love I have for the game, it is something I don’t want to see die. I’m hoping that we can find a way outside that triangle of nations of India, Australia and England to bring back importance to West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa.”

(Brian Lara)

[K]

Shamar Joseph:

“I’m not afraid to say this. There will be times when T20 cricket might come around. Test cricket will be there. And I will say this live. I will always be available to play for the West Indies, no matter how much money it takes or come towards me. So I will always be here to play Test cricket.”

[Donny]

Check the topic name, K.