Death of Test cricket?

[Pies4shaw]

[K]

[K]

Baum:

The big challenge facing the Big Bash League

January 10

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/big-challenge-for-the-biggest-bash-20230110-p5cbjt.html

"Here we are, at last. Nirvana.

Test cricket’s out of the way, not that there was much of it to get in the way.
...

The Sheffield Shield was booted to the sidelines ages ago. It is now being taught in history classes.

... From now until when the Australian team goes to India, it’s all Bash, Bash, Bash. We’re all free now to spend the rest of cricket’s peak season jamming fast food buckets on our heads.
...

If this is how people want their cricket from now on, this is how it will be. Globally, administrators and telecasters think it is. Increasingly, so do players. New T20 leagues are popping up like mushrooms, numbering at least 12 active around the world.

Two are being inaugurated this week, the International League T20 in the UAE and the SA20 in South Africa... Fifteen mercenaries who appeared in the first half of this season’s BBL have hauled off to play in these start-up comps. Some Australians will follow at BBL’s end.

So the merry-go-round spins.
...

As T20 expands, other forms atrophy. As battered South Africa left Australia to get home in time for the SA20, it dawned on the rest of the world that South Africa will not play another series of more than two Tests until late 2026.
...

Some players have a dozen clubs already on their CVs. Literally, it’s a circus.

As T20 grows, and a swelling body of freelancers follows the money, this phenomenon will become more acute. It’s exciting for players, but it makes it harder for fans to identify with their clubs the way they identify with, say, football clubs."

[LaurieHolden]

Even if it does, we'll have great memories -
Incredible interview with LEGENDS Keith Miller and Denis Compton, 1980.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD77deeim6E&ab_channel=ChrisLaw

[K]

^^^ May also be worth watching this ABC doco on Bradman and Tendulkar:

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/bradman-and-tendulkar .

[K]

How the Big Bash compromised Australia’s tour of India

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/how-the-big-bash-compromised-australia-s-tour-of-india-20230212-p5cjvj.html

'Cricket’s hopelessly cluttered schedule has seen Australia rob Test cricket to pay the Big Bash.

Ahead of the previous India tour in 2017 Australia’s stars spent a fortnight at a specially arranged training camp in Dubai and then flew to India and played a tour game before upsetting India in the opening Test...

This time they had a week practicing on a scarified pitch at North Sydney Oval and then on spinning pitches in Bangalore before heading into the first Test at Nagpur. ...

“There was a big push for the Big Bash,” a source close to Cricket Australia, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Sunday. “It was comfortably the shortest preparation time we’ve ever had for a tour of India.”
...

It’s near impossible to know what works for touring teams in India given they have lost only two of 43 Tests at home over the past decade and Australia have won just one series there since 1969, but on the evidence so far this preparation certainly hasn’t.'

[K]

Baum:

"It’s true that on this pitch against these bowlers, a man is liable to get an unplayable ball, spinning or not in contradiction to all his instincts. But none of these were.

You’d think they all were playing Big Bash League a minute ago. Which they were. But we’re all meant to close our eyes and pretend that has nothing to do with it and that the emperor is wearing clothes."

(The Age, February 19)

[K]

Brettig:

BBL before spin practice: ...

"After the first Test, Australia’s planners were already conceding privately that much had been left to fortune by the tight timelines around the tour.

As a simple guide, the 2017 Australian touring team that very nearly beat India had 24 clear days between departure for a camp in Dubai on bespoke pitches and the first ball in Pune. That contrasts with the mere 13 days between a mini-camp in North Sydney on a scarified surface and the start of the Nagpur Test. Pakistan preparation was similar, but for a series played on pancake flat pitches.

Even then, this year’s camp was only attended by players not taking part in the Big Bash League – of the Australian top six in Delhi, only Pete Handscomb was available. Unquestionably, the timeline most administrators worried about during the home summer was more about broadcast rights talks than batting against spin.
...

CA then kept faith with its broadcasters by deigning to have Warner, Smith, Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw all fulfil their BBL commitments even though the rights had been locked in.

Meantime, the likes of high-performance chief Ben Oliver, head coach Andrew McDonald and selection chair George Bailey held their tongues. It is worth pondering whether Pat Howard, engineer of the 2017 preparatory camp, would have been so diplomatic in the circumstances."

(The Age, February 20)

[K]

Matthew Hayden:

“It’s not possible because a week before we came over here everyone was screaming bloody murder about their superstars not playing the Big Bash League – and yet they’ve got a Test match nine days later.

“This is where I really don’t envy the role of Andrew McDonald. He has to work out what is the priority in terms of his playing group of which he has zero per cent control over a two-month period because of IPL.

“Part of that tenure would be, ‘what do we want to win fellas?’ Because if it’s India we know what it takes to win there.”

(The Age)

[K]

Test cricket’s still a great game, for some, but can Bazball grow it?

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/test-cricket-s-still-a-great-game-for-some-but-can-bazball-grow-it-20230223-p5cn0n.html

'“Test cricket is too hard for most countries,” said Australian great Greg Chappell, who has maintained his links to the game for the four decades since retiring. “I know how much we spend on player development, including the Sheffield Shield, and most countries can’t afford it. Even we’ve had to cut back extra development programs due to less income - and to service the women’s game - and I’m not sure how long we can keep it up.

“Countries like the West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, South Africa and Sri Lanka don’t have strong enough domestic competitions to develop competitive Test teams in all conditions. New Zealand do a great job, but they can’t compete with the big three.”

Former England batsman and chief selector Ed Smith, now director of the Institute of Sports Humanities, watches and even as he rejoices for England, his heart sinks. “The facts are simple: some players are withdrawing from national contracts to become free agents, and national governing bodies are cancelling tours because they are focused on the success of their own T20 leagues,” he said.

“Even within international cricket, the balance of power has shifted towards T20. The price of buying the rights to broadcast a T20 international has grown exponentially in relation to the price of buying the right to broadcast a Test.

“There is a difference between a self-correcting cycle and a long-term trend. This is a trend. And we’re still waiting for a system-wide solution.”
...

Chappell fears it is too late. Though Test cricket’s obituary is written often, for the first time there is a viable - though lesser - alternative.

“It’s hard to see how Test cricket can survive this own goal,” he said. “The success of the three formats has put pressure on Test cricket."'

[Donny]

Australian great ?

Great what ? Batsman, fielder and captain ? Yes, albeit had a great team to lead - Redpath, Stackpole, both Chappells, Walters, Lilllee, Thommo. Tangles, Marsh, Mallett etc. - Coach ? Six miserable years with Sth. Oz. never doing better than 5th. and a near winless term as head coach of India.

Hardly, a 'great' record.

[K]

Well, Donny, let's see how Cam Green's batting develops. If it ever measures up to Chappell's "best batting talent since Ponting", then maybe Chappell's a great judge of batting talent.

Sheesh... Oz cricket could do with another batting great. It's been a long wait since Ponting's prime.


Update: A maiden Test century is a small step. Dead pitch, but one step at a time.

[K]

Brettig:

"The struggles of Renshaw in the first two Tests in India have technical origins, as he tried to return to the methods that served him well in 2017: using his full height to get a long stride forward for smothering the spinning ball.

On this trip, he has found himself caught propping half-forward, a good position for hitting boundaries in the Big Bash League but not so much for committing to defence against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

But there is no question that he remains a key part of longer-term plans for the Test side, beyond Warner, Smith and Khawaja in particular. Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft have also been mentioned in dispatches, but at 26, Renshaw has the longest journey still to run."

(The Age)

[K]

The raid on Australia’s best players that could redefine international cricket

Senior Australian cricketers are being targeted by Indian Premier League giants to sign multi-club deals worth up to $7.5 million in a sweeping disruption of the global cricket economy.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/the-raid-on-australia-s-best-players-that-could-redefine-international-cricket-20230331-p5cx1d.html


The five countries that could be left standing in Test cricket

Manoj Badale loves Test cricket, but he’s pragmatic: ‘Tests aren’t paying the bills’. Like many, he says a shake-up is looming.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/the-five-countries-that-could-be-left-standing-in-test-cricket-20230331-p5cx1p.html



EDITORIAL

Test cricket’s future will require compromise

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/test-cricket-s-future-will-require-compromise-20230412-p5czrh.html

'... while the Ashes still draws sizeable crowds and interest, there is little doubt that the health of Test cricket more broadly is in decline. As The Age has reported this week, this is in no small part due to the rapid rise of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League.
...

The growing power of this new league was affirmed by Neil Maxwell, one of Australia’s most influential player agents. He believes the next phase of the IPL revolution will have players asking for permission from their Indian owners to represent Australia, not the other way around.

For many traditional devotees of Test cricket, who revere the high level of technical prowess, patience and concentration, and the temperament required to succeed in the longer format of cricket, this will be viewed as the death knell of the game. As one IPL owner, Manoj Badale, told The Age: “It is hard to see a long-term future for Test cricket, in its current form. It is my favourite form of the game, but I am not the future.”'

[K]

Turn Test cricket into once-a-year events like Wimbledon: IPL team owner

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/turn-test-cricket-into-once-a-year-events-like-wimbledon-ipl-team-owner-20230505-p5d5tm.html

'Manoj Badale, the lead owner of Rajasthan Royals ... has warned that the amount of Test cricket scheduled will be reduced in the years ahead... Badale said that the future of Test cricket could be a short annual tournament.

“We can make Test cricket work if we make it more of an event,” Badale told the BBC’s Tailenders Podcast.

“We should have it at the same time every year, played between a small set of nations that can actually afford it and Lord’s becomes like a Wimbledon, an event that is the diary.”
...

“The amount of times I hear arguments like ‘Ben Stokes wants to play Test cricket’ — that is important but what is really important is what the fans of the future want to watch and where are they going to spend their hard-earned money,” Badale said. “We are going to have to think creatively about Test cricket if we want it to work.”
...

“It is difficult one for me because Test cricket is what you grow up on as a fan and I haven’t missed the first day at Lord’s for however many years, it is still my preferred format,” he said. “But it is not about me, it is about what the 10 to 15-year-olds in India and across the world are thinking.”'