Test Match or One Day Cricket

[Neil Pickup]

Eventually to the disgust of traditionalists, test cricket may be wiped out due to its lack of profitability and popularity. Like it or not, ODI cricket attracts big crowds and big bucks. Cricketers who want a slice of the action need to look to get into their country's ODI team as test cricket may gradually get phased out.:O

Never going to happen.

Lord's would be on the end of an arson attack, probably from me, in that case.

That's me on the New Labour hit list then.

 

[anzac]

unfortunately another confirmation of the 'instant gratification generation'.......they haven't learnt yet that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and that nothing that comes easy has any real value!

But seriously Test cricket will not die out unless the governing bodies of the game & every nation are taken over by commercialisation & run exclusively by the ODI generation. Furthermore it would also need a massive influx of new teams & players whose whole career & success is based solely on ODIs. There is just tooo much tradition within the existing test playing nations to ever consider the demise of Test cricket.

Conversly we may see a decline in the amount of ODI cricket following the players' complaints about the amount of cricket being played, and the proliferation of meaningless ODI series. Definately a case of more not meaning better!!!


:P

 

[badgerhair]

The future of cricket lies with one day cricket. Test cricket is simply not attractive enough to the younger generation with its slow pace and lack of colour and atmosphere. Admittedly some test matches are real classics. However when you go to an ODI, especially involving Asian teams, the spirit and involvement of the crowd is on another level.

This is a discussion which is just about always initiated by Asians, most of whom are utterly convinced that one-day cricket is the only form of the game which is viable in the long-term.

The responses from everywhere else, particularly England and Australia, contest this and maintain that Test cricket will continue as the premier form of the game. And while Test cricket in those countries continues to be massively profitable, Jaggu Dalmiya's vision of a million ODI's a year is not going to come to pass.

The difficulty which the Asian faction have to contend with is that the players consider Test cricket to be the supreme test of their skill and generally far prefer it to the crash-bang-wallop formats. If you remove Test cricket from the equation, you will severely reduce the talent pool because people will stop wanting to play.

Killing off Test cricket because young Asian fans are too shallow and idiotic to follow a real sport is not likely to happen for many years.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[PY]

Killing off Test cricket because young Asian fans are too shallow and idiotic to follow a real sport is not likely to happen for many years

Ouch.

 

[Anil]

This is a discussion which is just about always initiated by Asians, most of whom are utterly convinced that one-day cricket is the only form of the game which is viable in the long-term.

The responses from everywhere else, particularly England and Australia, contest this and maintain that Test cricket will continue as the premier form of the game. And while Test cricket in those countries continues to be massively profitable, Jaggu Dalmiya's vision of a million ODI's a year is not going to come to pass.

The difficulty which the Asian faction have to contend with is that the players consider Test cricket to be the supreme test of their skill and generally far prefer it to the crash-bang-wallop formats. If you remove Test cricket from the equation, you will severely reduce the talent pool because people will stop wanting to play.

Killing off Test cricket because young Asian fans are too shallow and idiotic to follow a real sport is not likely to happen for many years.

Cheers,

Mike

Hey, badgerhair, that was totally unwarranted and had strong racist undertones. Just because a handful of youngsters expressed an opinion on a cricket forum doesn't mean that an entire continent thinks that way.....please note that I am not apologising for their opinions or for being an Asian(it's a free world and everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is none of my business what those boys think....). A discussion or argument is different from racial abuse, understand that.

 

[Neil Pickup]

In the intention of hitting this hard on the head now before something completely unintended springs out:

I'm fairly sure that the initial point wasn't meant to come out as racist - but the fact is it did. It is not just an Asian youth issue. Take one look at the ages of a typical English County memberships. "Zimmer frames and Walking Sticks aloft" was how one newspaper described the Sussex members' reaction to their recent title.

I urge you to reconsider what you said, Mike, and I would like others to think very, very, very carefully before commenting in this area.

 

[PY]

unintended :P

How are the attendances at ODI games and Tests comparitively on the sub-continent?

Are there huge differences? Don't get to find out because I don't have Sky :!(

 

[badgerhair]

Hey, badgerhair, that was totally unwarranted and had strong racist undertones. Just because a handful of youngsters expressed an opinion on a cricket forum doesn't mean that an entire continent thinks that way.....please note that I am not apologising for their opinions or for being an Asian(it's a free world and everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is none of my business what those boys think....). A discussion or argument is different from racial abuse, understand that.

If someone Asian specifically mentions Asians in his post aboput why one-day cricket is going to take over the world, it would be daft not to address the difference between Asian and other cricket fans.

After nearly ten years of discussing cricket on the net in various places, I can say it is an observable fact that people from the Asian countries are very keen on killing off Test cricket and promoting one-day cricket in its stead, and that people from everywhere else think otherwise.

There is, of course, a pretty obvious reason for this.

In the non-Asian countries, there are other team sports whose games are over in a matter of minutes rather than days which have a significant following and in which the national teams do quite well.

Cricket in the sub-continent has to do duty as the instant-thrill team sport for the hooligan masses, a role fulfilled in most of the "white" countries by the various codes of football.

Chers,

Mike

 

[Neil Pickup]

unintended :P

How are the attendances at ODI games and Tests comparitively on the sub-continent?

Are there huge differences? Don't get to find out because I don't have Sky :!(

Corrected now, thanks.

I believe the attendances at Eden Gardens hit around 100,000 for ODIs regularly, as for Tests, the record is 465,000 over the five (?) days at Kolkate in the India-Pakistan Test of 1999.

 

[PY]

I believe the attendances at Eden Gardens hit around 100,000 for ODIs regularly, as for Tests, the record is 465,000 over the five (?) days at Kolkate in the India-Pakistan Test of 1999.

:O :wow:

Blimey Riley. Can't even begin to imagine 100,000 people at a cricket ground anywhere but especially not in England. Ours struggle to hit 100,000 over 5-days unless there's an offer on or it's a decider.

Our capacities don't even allow for 100,000 crowds over 5-days
Lords - 28000
The Oval - 18500
Edgbasten - 17500
Headingley - 14000
Old Trafford - 19000

The atmosphere must be awesome, there's nothing better than having a tense Test match to watch when the ground is packed. There's a buzz. However, after going to a ODI last year, I do understand why people are of the opinion that ODI are the way forward because of my generation's shorter attention span .

 

[Anil]

If someone Asian specifically mentions Asians in his post aboput why one-day cricket is going to take over the world, it would be daft not to address the difference between Asian and other cricket fans.

I repeat, one Asian or a handful of Asians doesn't/don't represent all of Asia and if he/they, in his/their ignorance or arrogance claim(s) to do so, you should know better than to just accept it. It is as ridiculous as you claiming your opinions as representative of all of Europe or Australia or wherever you are from.

After nearly ten years of discussing cricket on the net in various places, I can say it is an observable fact that people from the Asian countries are very keen on killing off Test cricket and promoting one-day cricket in its stead, and that people from everywhere else think otherwise.

Same answer as above....

There is, of course, a pretty obvious reason for this.

In the non-Asian countries, there are other team sports whose games are over in a matter of minutes rather than days which have a significant following and in which the national teams do quite well.

Cricket in the sub-continent has to do duty as the instant-thrill team sport for the hooligan masses, a role fulfilled in most of the "white" countries by the various codes of football.

India and Pakistan do have hockey which has a huge following....which is a team game and is even shorter than one-day cricket....but cricket is more popular because it has been covered and marketed so much better...

Just because the general masses in the sub-continent watch one day cricket more doesn't automatically mean that all of them are hooligans....so please don't classify them as such....people who know cricket enjoy both varieties....we talk about hooliganism in English football...that doesn't mean that all English fans are hooligans....and in any case, just being from a "white country" doesn't give you any right to brand the Asian forum members who prefer one dayers as hooligans.....which is what you are effectively doing.....

 

[LankanPrince]

I can't believe my opnion has sparked off such a row! I was merely expressing my personal opinion which I am entitled to have. I am not representing all Asians, just my own views. I think the comment about young asian fans being 'shallow and idiotic' is highly unnecessary. Whoever said this is making some heavy assumptions, I may have one view which is not to everybodys liking but it does not follow that I am shallow and idiotic. Even if it was not meant in a racist manner or directed me, it is unnecessary in a forum about cricket.:!(

 

[Anil]

I can't believe my opnion has sparked off such a row! I was merely expressing my personal opinion which I am entitled to have. I am not representing all Asians, just my own views. I think the comment about young asian fans being 'shallow and idiotic' is highly unnecessary. Whoever said this is making some heavy assumptions, I may have one view which is not to everybodys liking but it does not follow that I am shallow and idiotic. Even if it was not meant in a racist manner or directed me, it is unnecessary in a forum about cricket.:!(

Absolutely....and that's what I was trying to convey to Mike....your opinions or mine may be different from his, but that doesn't automatically make him "the enlightened one" and the rest of us "shallow and idiotic".

 

[marc71178]

Conversly we may see a decline in the amount of ODI cricket following the players' complaints about the amount of cricket being played, and the proliferation of meaningless ODI series. Definately a case of more not meaning better!!!

One can but hope.

 

[Andre]

Ok, gentlemen, enough is enough.

I'm pretty sure what badgerhair said just came out the wrong way. I doubt he would mean to attack anyone.

Regardless, if this thread doesn't go back to topic, it will be closed.

 

[Craig]

For me when I saw pictures of the crowd between Pakistan and New Zealand at Lahore where Inzi made his 300, I was disappointed not to see a larger crowd.

You would think there would be a huge crowd as NZ were the first team to show some guts and tour Pakistan.

NOTE: That wasnt intended to be racist.

 

[Gaijin-san]

Finally, the cool head of Andre comes to the party. It only takes one person to stop things getting out of hand...

The biggest grounds I've been to are the SCG and the WACA. What does the SCG hold? 25,000-40,000 people? I'm not sure.. Not sure about the WACA either, but my point is I simply couldn't imagine 100,000 people turning up to a game. Has anyone here been to a capacity Indian ground?

 

[iamdavid]

For me when I saw pictures of the crowd between Pakistan and New Zealand at Lahore where Inzi made his 300, I was disappointed not to see a larger crowd.

You would think there would be a huge crowd as NZ were the first team to show some guts and tour Pakistan.

NOTE: That wasnt intended to be racist.

When Matthew Hayden made his 380 there were about 5,000 people in at the Waca which I beleive holds close to 30,000.

On the last day of the SCG test against Zimbabwe there were just over 1,000 people in.

However on Boxing day in Melbourne it is not uncommon to get 80,000+.

All Sydney ODI's are generally sold out a week before the game & Sydney holds just under 50,000.

Gee all the English grounds are small , in fact all the grounds PY quoted put together cam only hold 97,000 , less than the capacity of the MCG when its renovation is complete.

 

[anzac]

just a curiosity......

I wonder how many people know the incidents I was referring to in my earlier post (esp SA v NZ test), and what people would consider to be their equivalents in ODIs????

for me I can think of incidents such as
the underarm bowling;
RSAs brain fade in the last WC

I know that ODIs have not been around as long as Test cricket, but they are making up for it quickly by sheer volume of games being played.

I'm curious to see what people consider to be truely memorable incidents, heroics & games.....

 

[iamdavid]

For me the 1999 World Cup semi final between Australia & South Africa remains the best ODI ever played , it had everything , there were so many twists & turns in just 100 overs & with so much at stake.