A modest proposal

Now that the MCC World Cricket committee has spoken, with recommendations ranging from a World Test Championship to day/night tests and pink balls, here are my two cents..

There is one and only one reason why Test Cricket is losing out to the other forms of the game - the draw.

In an era where attention spans are diminishing by the second, where the middle overs of an ODI are now considered tedium, a five day test that ends in a stalemate is hardly going to grab the attention ( or the eyeballs).

For those who consider me a heretic, let me say this - Cardiff may be the poster child for what a good test should be , but the only redeeming thing about Cardiff was the post tea session on the final day. T20 provides the same or more excitement in about the same period of time, maybe a tad longer. So why would I waste my time through 28 hours of tedium for the two hours of excitement that I can get anyway watching T20. And T20 assures me of a result, however contrived. 30 hours of play for nothing - how does that resonate in today's world view?

Better bats, better athletes, more sophisticated technologies, greater insight, intense analyses, all of which amount to nothing if after 30 hours and 450 overs of play, the landscape remains the same.

It is all fine and dandy to innovate Test Cricket so as to deliver a more pleasing product but, at the end of the day, all of that will come to naught if two basic concerns are not addressed

1. Over rates
2. Standardization of wickets

Plenty has been said about the over rates, I don't have much to add except to say that the monetary penalties imposed by the ICC ( on an ad hoc basis) haven't really arrested the problem. And that is because, as I read somewhere, most of the money that is paid in penalties comes from the sponsors, so the players are not directly affected anyway.

The second problem is a favorite bug bear of mine - the notion that the wise men in Dubai can conjure up the perfect Test wicket.

There exists "standards", if one may call them that, that determine whether the wicket is "good" or "bad". There are plenty of things a good wicket must be, and a lot more for the wicket to be bad, but there is no provision in the existing framework that regulates against roads.

Which is because roads are what the administrators want.

A test lasting the distance means 450 ad spots ( at a minimum) for the TV broadcaster. 5 days of gate money for the home board. Plus 5 days of sold out corporate boxes etc etc.

Roads are also a vindication for the ICC. Because roads represent the ultimate standard wickets. Every wicket, just like the other one. Geography be damned.

Welcome to standardized wickets, but are we doing anything to improve the quality of cricket?

T20 is being blamed for the "plonk your front foot forward and hit thru the line of the ball", but if the same is possible in a Test match, on the first day, where lies the difference between a batathon that is the T20 and the batathon that is Test Cricket?

What if ( and here is my proposal), Cricket Boards, before signing on to the new FTP, identify the venues that will be hosting Test Cricket in their respective countries. And also identify the nature of the wicket at each of the venues for the duration of the FTP.

That way, if Dilli is identified as a raging turner, then it is incumbent on the the BCCI to maintain that characteristic withing a prescribed delta ( The delta being for changes due to weather patterns). If the wicket deviates outside of the prescribed delta, the host Board faces a stiff penalty, including but not limited to, a ban for a duration previously agreed upon by all Host nations. Add a deduction of points from the Test Championship leaderboard and not only do host countries face a loss of revenue, but a loss in the rankings as well.

The side effect of this is that players will not only know the nature of the wickets beforehand, they will therefore have to adjust their games to suit and thus become more all surface players.

And if the Boards unanimously decide that all wickets, the world over, are roads, then pink balls or not, we can kiss Test Cricket good bye.