The Future of Test Cricket

[Skemp90]

Hi guys,

I have been working on a documentary project as part of my degree and I recently completed a film looking into the future of Test cricket and some of the challenges it faces to survive. Hopefully some of you on here may enjoy it so I will pop the link at the end of the post. Happy viewing

https://youtu.be/UM_6nzWfWAc

 

[Burgey]

Really enjoyed that mate. Congrats on putting together a pretty slick doco. Thought provoking stuff.

 

[Skemp90]

Really enjoyed that mate. Congrats on putting together a pretty slick doco. Thought provoking stuff.

Thanks mate, I'm glad you enjoyed it, appreciate the comment.

 

[Bijed]

I'm with Burgey on this - that's an impressive piece of work, thought you did really well to cover a number of angles all in an interesting way.

Saeed in the YouTube comments section echoes my thoughts pretty well exactly. In my opinion Olympic cricket would be fantastic for the sport - I mean, the event has a huge global following. Yeah, maybe it will take a little while before the status quo starts seeing any serious disruption in terms of who wins, but to be quite honest I don't think that matters if it still results in the sport growing and once other teams start developing well, the sport really could be so much the better for it. Imagine if the attitude with football/soccer had been 'lets keep this between England and Scotland, shall we - no need to risk demoralising other countries by letting them play us', then look at the success of the sport today (we'll conveniently forget about the massive corruption levels for the moment ). Anyway, it's not as if Bangladesh, for example, got all demoralised and ran away from international cricket when they were repeatedly thrashed early on - they kept at it and now, after what in the grand scheme of things isn't a massively long time they're generally respected and competitive worldwide.

Also, I didn't get the argument that cricket shouldn't look towards the olympics because it would face competition from other sports and wouldn't be an event immediately. Poor, poor attitude there imo.

Anyway, please don't take any of the above as a criticism of yourself (as I know they're not necessarily your views) or the documentary as it's of course a good thing that those view were represented - I just disagree with them. As I said, it's an impressive piece of work and thanks for sharing it!

 

[Deleted member 34141]

I agree with certain raised issues and it asks questions. Think there should definitely be a league system for test nations which will make test cricket more competitive and give tests a purpose and yes I agree with day/night matches despite that being what I would consider as a last option.

I think the drawback will be that if you were too actually go ahead and introduce a league structure basically you more or less kill off The Ashes, it becomes pointless and redundant unless you separate it from the league structure.

 

[fredfertang]

Interesting - if you'd told me at the outset that two of the contributors were Eoin Morgan and Jarod Kimber, and that one would talk perfect sense and the other total bollocks, that's exactly what I'd have expected - but not that way round

 

[S.Kennedy]

I'd see Olympic cricket how I see Olympic football and tennis. To me those are not really Olympic sports. When I watch the Olympics I watch it to see the track and field and gymnastics and a bit of swimming and amateur boxing.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I agree with certain raised issues and it asks questions. Think there should definitely be a league system for test nations which will make test cricket more competitive and give tests a purpose and yes I agree with day/night matches despite that being what I would consider as a last option.

I think the drawback will be that if you were too actually go ahead and introduce a league structure basically you more or less kill off The Ashes, it becomes pointless and redundant unless you separate it from the league structure.

That is the problem isn't it as it becomes a probability that England and Australia would find themselves in different leagues - more likely, England in division 2 haha - and therefore no Ashes, no Sky lucre, no Ashes attendances (sold out venues, £80 tickets, in England) etc etc. But the minute you give the Ashes 'special status' you rather devalue any league structure.

 

[Adders]

If there is test cricket there will be The Ashes.

 

[cnerd123]

Well made documentary

I don't think the premise is valid though. Look at the last few years of Test cricket. It has been fabulous. Bangladesh won matches. India had a brilliant summer, capping it off with that series against Australia that did record ratings. Pakistan have looked so good. England remain strong, and their side is arguably one of the most exciting in the world. New Zealand are stronger than they have been in ages, South Africa still put out terrific teams, and Sri Lanka are hurting from the retirement of Sanga and Mahela but have plenty of exciting talent. The only country who seem to be giving Test cricket a miss are the West Indies -and that's been the case for a while now- and Zimbabwe -which has more to do with politics and corruption than anything else.

For all the talk of the BCCI not caring about Tests and just giving lip service, their newest round of contracts put Test-specialist Pujara in the highest bracket. The recent summer did higher ratings than ever before. All the recent changes in Ranji cricket have been done with the goal of strengthening the Test team. The A Team has been sent around the world to play more 4-day cricket than they ever have in recent memory.

Test cricket is in great health, and this is despite the prevalence of all the T20 leagues around the world. So I don't quite see the argument on how T20 is cannibalizing the game. If anything, it has increased people's participation and engagement with the sport - as you highlighted in the documentary.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I'd go as far to say the last Border-Gavaskar was a real shot in the arm for cricket because it was in Twenty20 obsessed India and was one of the rare occasions when the cricket actually eclipsed expectations. Generally I'm less pessimistic about the state of test cricket than most though; I basically think it is fine the way it is, and that we do not need championships or league structures or day-nighters. We just need to get the Zimbabwes of the world playing more.

 

[tobe_ornot2]

Test cricket's problem, or rather, the major problem facing first class cricket across countries is participation. In England in particular, first class cricket is pretty much the domain of the rich, with private and grammar schools holding an almost complete monopoly overt hat part of the sport. If there is limited participation and limited resources for the poorer boroughs and their schools, then there will naturally be an inclination to move away from that format of the game. Why should one watch something they have never been exposed to?

If the ECB truly want to grow the game in Britain they need to increase funding so that a borough like Newham, which has a very high sc population and yet only has one turf pitch...let that sink in. This is a part of London with over 300k people and yet there is only one turf pitch. The astroturf pitches that are scattered around are of a terrible quality and completely disregarded iwth zero maintenance. There are many kids from Pakistania and Indian backgrounds who are exceptionally talented but by the time they recah their mid teens and their cricketing level needs to improve, they can't and they move away from the sport. This is symptomatic of similar areas all across the city and England and Wales. The ECB claimed the sky deal in 05 was going to help cricket financially but all its done is help an elite few who run the sport, all the while it had become something that has a decreasing relevance to british culture.

With regards to the Olympics, I do not think it would do anything for the profile of the game. Much like football and tennis, the Olympics are not the highest prize on offer and not something associated with the tournament. I'm curious as to what the viewing figures on the BBC for athletics and boxing were in comparison to football and tennis during the last Olympics. I'm pretty sure I know which sports came out on top.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Test cricket's problem, or rather, the major problem facing first class cricket across countries is participation. In England in particular, first class cricket is pretty much the domain of the rich, with private and grammar schools holding an almost complete monopoly overt hat part of the sport. If there is limited participation and limited resources for the poorer boroughs and their schools, then there will naturally be an inclination to move away from that format of the game. Why should one watch something they have never been exposed to?

If the ECB truly want to grow the game in Britain they need to increase funding so that a borough like Newham, which has a very high sc population and yet only has one turf pitch...let that sink in. This is a part of London with over 300k people and yet there is only one turf pitch. The astroturf pitches that are scattered around are of a terrible quality and completely disregarded iwth zero maintenance. There are many kids from Pakistania and Indian backgrounds who are exceptionally talented but by the time they recah their mid teens and their cricketing level needs to improve, they can't and they move away from the sport. This is symptomatic of similar areas all across the city and England and Wales. The ECB claimed the sky deal in 05 was going to help cricket financially but all its done is help an elite few who run the sport, all the while it had become something that has a decreasing relevance to british culture.

With regards to the Olympics, I do not think it would do anything for the profile of the game. Much like football and tennis, the Olympics are not the highest prize on offer and not something associated with the tournament. I'm curious as to what the viewing figures on the BBC for athletics and boxing were in comparison to football and tennis during the last Olympics. I'm pretty sure I know which sports came out on top.

Isn't that what that Chance to Shine thing was supposed to do, increase cricket in state school? (I'm not sure how successful it has been?).

 

[James]

Fantastic work with that, a very professional documentary.

The key point I took out of it was the context of Test cricket and the Test Championship Table in simplifying it to the point of 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and teams regularly playing each other rather than a select few.

What I'd be interested in is with T20 becoming so big is what do kids mostly follow nowadays in terms of the different forms of the game and enjoy the most?

One thing I disliked though, you mentioned Championship football and showed an image of the London Stadium (West Ham United's home ground). We're still in the Premier League and we're staying there

 

[Deleted member 34141]

That is the problem isn't it as it becomes a probability that England and Australia would find themselves in different leagues - more likely, England in division 2 haha - and therefore no Ashes, no Sky lucre, no Ashes attendances (sold out venues, £80 tickets, in England) etc etc. But the minute you give the Ashes 'special status' you rather devalue any league structure.

I don’t believe it was a conscious attempt too devalue a proposed league system though id sadly see it been the long-term effect.
If there was a scenario where England & Australia play each other twice, possibly three times a year then it would raise questions about a five match test series.
Also believe there is another problem which would arise in that would be different seasons involved, times of the year, as Australia play their home games at different times of the year. When would your typical season start/finish.
The documentary was thought provoking but I could see any proposed league system been just as complicated as the current test rankings already in place. At the same time don’t think it should be discouraged, just needs to be practical.

 

[honestbharani]

Fantastic work with that, a very professional documentary.

The key point I took out of it was the context of Test cricket and the Test Championship Table in simplifying it to the point of 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and teams regularly playing each other rather than a select few.

What I'd be interested in is with T20 becoming so big is what do kids mostly follow nowadays in terms of the different forms of the game and enjoy the most?

One thing I disliked though, you mentioned Championship football and showed an image of the London Stadium (West Ham United's home ground). We're still in the Premier League and we're staying there

See I will prefer it this way -

4 - away win
3 - home win
2 - away draw
1 - home draw

 

[tobe_ornot2]

Isn't that what that Chance to Shine thing was supposed to do, increase cricket in state school? (I'm not sure how successful it has been?).

Sadly I have not had the opportunity to follow chance to shine but just seeing schools around London and having friends and family who are teachers, I can tell cricket is barely even relevant. Football, basketball (an American sport), netball and a few others are all played more often and engage children a lot more than cricket.

 

[tobe_ornot2]

See I will prefer it this way -

4 - away win
3 - home win
2 - away draw
1 - home draw

This is a good, logical points system.

 

[GotSpin]

Fantastic work with that, a very professional documentary.

The key point I took out of it was the context of Test cricket and the Test Championship Table in simplifying it to the point of 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and teams regularly playing each other rather than a select few.

What I'd be interested in is with T20 becoming so big is what do kids mostly follow nowadays in terms of the different forms of the game and enjoy the most?

One thing I disliked though, you mentioned Championship football and showed an image of the London Stadium (West Ham United's home ground). We're still in the Premier League and we're staying there

I cant speak for others but ODI was definitely the most popular format growing up amongst myself and all my friends. But the point is that it got me engaged with the sport as I began to grow up and understand the intricacies of test cricket it became the more interesting format. That is what I will presume (and hope) will happen with the T20 fans right now.

 

[Adders]

See I will prefer it this way -

4 - away win
3 - home win
2 - away draw
1 - home draw

Agree, would need to be weighting for positive away results.