Speed Thrills but Kills

Twenty20 cricket, the newest form of cricket has undoubtedly brought a lot of life into the game of cricket. T20 world cups and IPL has helped the cricketing boards to pull in huge crowds and increasing the game’s fan base. But it is foolish to think that test cricket; the longer 5 day version of the game will die because of T20. T20 won’t survive if Test cricket doesn’t.

T20 cricket is more entertaining and eye catching to the latest generation of spectators who want to spend just an evening watching cricket. It is also more appealing to the new witnesses of the game; the concept of limited overs, collect runs as soon as possible and defend it to win the match is easy to comprehend. But, T20 can’t survive without test cricket. The reason – it still requires players, both batsman and bowlers, with quality and they are born from test cricket.

Test matches are so named as it is a test of the proficiency of each of the 22 players playing the game. It is the true form of the game, the absolute demonstration. The wide array of elegant strokes; the drives, the cuts, the pulls and, of course, the defensive strokes are woven into test cricket. The essence of Swing bowling, Pace bowling and spin bowling is seen only in test cricket; catchers surrounding the batsman, his patience being tested. Whereas, in T20 cricket, victory and defeat is decided mainly by the batsman and the bowler plays a role of just restricting the runs rather than taking wickets. Form of a player and even a team are usually very inconsistent as chance plays a larger role. If T20 would be the only form of cricket in the future, then every player’s career would be short lived and team selection would be a very tough job.

A closer look into test cricket reveals that this form of the game actually reflects every individual’s life. There are sessions in a test match which swing in favor of either team, but only the team with the absolute determination, technique and patience wins the match. It can be said with confidence that no two out of the 2000 odd international test matches played in the history of test cricket have been identical. There is always a constant evaluation of the situation of the game and a wide gamut of strategies is employed. But, though some people argue that it is still new and lot of research hasn’t been done on the game, T20 has already become repetitive. This was evident in the recently concluded T20 world cup in England where teams batting first scored 150 runs and defended the runs to win a match. Success of a strategy is low as luck plays a large role.

The reason for questioning the fate of international test cricket in recent times is due to the poor marketing of the game. Similar to an ODI or T20 world cup, a Test championship could be held once in 4 years involving the top 4 or 6 teams of test cricket and determine the true champion. The schedule of bilateral series must be more rigid with appropriate intervals between each other. Fans are poorly informed of the future tours of their teams. All these would bring more admiration towards the true form of cricket.

To conclude, T20 is entertaining and fast but it cannot survive on its own. It will always be dependent on test cricket. It is unimaginable to think about the death of test cricket as that would eventually result in the doom of all other forms of cricket.