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By Will last year, at the end of November Add your comment below
Friends keep asking me lately whether I’m missing covering cricket since I moved jobs. There’s no doubt I will miss it, probably when England’s Test series gets underway and certainly if Kevin Pietersen inhales the pantomime-fury foaming from the stands to cough out something truly spectacular.
But no, I won’t miss it so long as there are pitches as spirit-crushingly lifeless as the one at Kanpur. India are 417 for 2 at stumps on the first day. Ninety overs of tedium. Three sessions of bat dominating ball, crushing bowlers’ will to live and bowl. This could be classed as entertainment, and I’m sure millions of Indians loved the sight of Gambhir and Sehwag flogging it willy-nilly to all parts. But I’m equally sure that a sizeable portion of them craved to watch the nuance of technical discipline and, well, competition.
There are lots of partly cynical, often highly plausible, reasons for the state of Test cricket being in its current apparently precarious position. Pitches are certainly a factor. And there’s one thought that the TV companies demand – sorry, politely request – that matches last as long as possible in order to drive up their revenues. This means one thing: a dead pitch, lots of batting, definitely plenty of fours, and a greater chance of the match being extended into five days.
But sooner or later, this greed for cash – by whom we’re not sure or at liberty to suggest – will come back to haunt them, because I sense a very strong sense of pissed-offness by fans these days who are no longer willing to be conned by these turgid concrete slabs which offer so little to the game, rendering captaincy and tactics almost redundant and leaving bowlers reaching for diazepam or a long piece of rope. Bowlers, fans – whatever.
Yes, the game is a business. Cricinfo makes money out of it. So do dozens of TV channels. Sport is huge business. But if you don’t protect the essential fabrics of the product, those interested in making money out of it will soon disappear. And what state would the sport be in then?
Tags: dead pitches, Gautam Gambhir, pitches, virender-sehwag |
In general I think that the players have come to the party in Test cricket to keep things entertaining. Faster run rates and more results.
But, yes, absurdly prepared pitches do not help at all.
I fear for Test cricket with the fast-food forms of the game taking over more and more.
It will be a pity if the wonderful traditions and history – and particular talents required – that are Test cricket come to an end.
Let’s wait for 2 more days before passing judgment on the pitch. If this also goes the Ahmedabad (1st test) way, then let’s say goodbye to test cricket in India.
I’m not sure that Test cricket is going to die out, but I do think that the state of pitches is the major cause as to why fans aren’t really turning up anymore.
It could be that the authorities in India don’t care about the popularity of Test cricket if it’ll drive fans to T20, but it also seems that they live in an ivory tower. I’m sure if any cricket administrators anywhere in the world went out and asked the fans what they’d want, 90% of them would say a proper contest between bat and ball. And yet nothing is done about pitches like these.
Really, though, is it so inconceivable that a pitch could offer something for the bowlers, and still produce a match that can last five days and produce a result?
excuse me didn’t india loose 5 wckets in span 3 runs on the pitch
Kanpur is traditionally a paradise for batsmen. I am quite surprised by the noise about pitches.
Also, I am curious. If Test Cricket is not a money making business, why should it be protected? For whose benefit? And who gets to decide what the essential fabric of cricket is?
Typical doomsday predictions from frightened nerds.
What happened??
India won with loads of time to spare on the 4rth day.
The problem lies in this inherently snobbish theory of turners being bad tracks.
Under-prepared,dust-bowl wickets is how most snobs describe these wickets.
Reverse-Swing & high quality spinners win you games on these surfaces.Not mindless morons who keep whcking the ball into the pitch ball after ball & then crib about the low-bounce.
ICC shoots off warning to the BCCI after India thrashed South AFrica on a turner last time in Kanpur.They say absolutely nothing when confronted with a dead track,like the 1 at Ahmedabad.Obviously,the curator,who comes from a not-so-well-off family will do anything to save his job.Hence th flat-tracks.
Difference in mentalities-thats all it is.
You look at the Kanpur track & say flat,no chance,we’re dead.
We look at it & say abrasive enough to obtain decent amounts of reverse-swing.
Isn’t it time poor lil england started preparing turners,so that their batsman would be more confident facing spin,instead of playing every ball as if it were a hand-grenade?
Golandaaz, what a ridiculous question. Much of life is not a money making business, but still should be, and is, protected. Will doesn’t make any money out of providing this blog which gives you the opportunity to infer that Test cricket should be systematically destroyed by greedy administrators, Indian and from other countries.
Test cricket should be protected for the benefit of people who understand the game, which may or may not include you.
Actually its not a ridiculous question. If it were the answer would be obvious. People have to earn a living out of cricket. You and me (sorry if I sound presumptuous) have other means to make money and indulge in voicing opinions on blogs as a “side”
I ask once again. If Test Cricket cannot be a profitable venture. Why should it me sustained? I am not suggesting money is everything but even for a church, a charity, a not-for-profit organization to run, matters of money have to thought of.
So if the traditional paying public is dwindling for Test Cricket, how do you propose we sustain it and why.
What’s the harm in letting it die if there are no consumers for it?
Also, I would much rather watch a test match than a mindless LOI game. However I am yet not able to get myself to criticize the administrators; greedy Indians or noble westerners.
People like you and me who love test cricket will grow old and die one day. There is not enough of the new generation that is taking to test cricket. So why invest in a product whose consumer base is dwindling
I actually applaud the administrators; again; greedy Indians and noble westerners; who have realized this and are innovating with various formats of the game; primarily to gain new customers and protecting cricket…not just test cricket.
It is all fine to say; not everything in life is about making money. True. But test cricket is not life. Its business. And much of business is about making money.
To sum up:
Sunny Singh needs to calm down. Fact.
Oh and you’re feminine.
Golandaaz, there’s some sense in what you’re saying, but it seems to me that a lot of administrators aren’t actually making that much effort to increase interest in Test cricket. And I think ensuring pitches which produce even contests between bat and ball is one way they can do that. Okay, so Kanpur got a result, but so many pitches just seem to be batting paradises which produce huge scores and not enough wickets. Not just in India either, but also in the West Indies, and other grounds like in Adelaide or Taunton. Look at the match in Dunedin- that pitch had something for batsmen and bowlers alike, it produced a result and some compelling cricket, and it got a really great crowd on the final day (which happened to be a Saturday), so I think that goes to show that if Test cricket is handled the right way, it can attract interest, get good crowds and make money.
Obviously pitches aren’t the only problem- ground facilities and access are also issues- but Test cricket could be made so much more compelling, unpredictable and successful if more pitches were produced like the one in Dunedin.
I am glad, Marcus, you see what I am saying. Actually the strategy that most administrators are taking is this…use the non traditional short formats to gain new customers and convert them over time to test cricket.
As for the pitch. Result rates of matches in test cricket have improved over time. Today a test match is more likely to result in a winner, than say in the 80s and 90s. This is true especially in India. Criticism against India over the flat pitch in Ahmedabad is puzzling, because it is not the trend that it is being made out to be.
The administrators have to maintain the tradition of test cricket and yet make it appealing to the average T20 fan. Its not an easy ask and it may be not worth the cost.
My guess is, Test Cricket will survive in markets like England, Australia, South Africa, the sub-continent. It will survive not because these countries value “tradition and life” but because Test Cricket will make money for the boards. It will be a niche product. Only countries that can guarantee a sustainable market for test cricket should be included as “Test Playing Countries”. The only way Test Cricket will survive is if became market savvy.
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