Four day Tests – the Potential Legacy of T20 Cricket

Filed in Other by on February 13, 2011

This article was first published on The Big Tip website on January 12.

During the inaugural one-day international (ODI) World Cup in 1975, India were set a total of 335 to win off 60 overs against England. Indian opening batsman Sunil (Sunny) Gavaskar, a man who would later become the first batsman to pass 10,000 runs in Test cricket, was of the view that it was simply impossible to score so many runs within 60 overs. How he came to this view after being in the field whilst 334 runs were scored by the English is unclear, but that’s by the by. His instincts told him that the 335 run target to win was unachievable, and thus he faced 174 deliveries in scoring 36 not out as India crawled along to a final total of 3/132 off their 60 overs and a 202 run defeat.

How times change. The recent advent of twenty-twenty (T20) matches has changed the dynamic of how cricket in all forms is played, increasing the urgency shown by players and the desire of spectators to see the game move along at rapid pace, rather than languidly meandering along as was the case in many a day gone by.

An overarching question lingers though – how does the way that T20 matches captured the public imagination impact upon ODIs and Test matches? I don’t foresee either version of the game dying out, though it is likely that the number of international T20 matches programmed for each year will outstrip the number of programmed ODIs in the not too distant future. Rather, the impacts on ODIs and Test matches are likely to be more subtle and potentially to the benefit of each version of the game as a spectacle.

Impact of T20 on ODIs

The best way to summarise my views on where ODIs are headed (and what needs to be done to reinvigorate them) is to consider a young lady who was once the most attractive girl in town. She didn’t have to do much more than turn up at a bar and guys were keen to talk to her. She was always the centre of attention. A few years of exalting in this status pass by and eventually as she reaches her mid-20s, her younger sister and her friends turn 18. More to the point, even though there’s nothing resembling a Rhodes Scholar amongst them, they are smoking hot. Uh-oh. Suffice to say, it’s rather more difficult for the former centre of attention to find herself a willing audience (check out the attendance figures for the recent Australia v Sri Lanka ODIs) these days. Moreover, the years of being the apple of every guy’s eye led her to become complacent. Now the time has come to reinvent herself in order to maintain public interest (Note: the analogy has clearly gone a little sour here – in real life, a woman shunned in this way is likely to spread vicious rumours about the hotter, younger women in order to drag them down rather than lift herself up. It’s true).

The single biggest problem that ODIs face is apathy associated with overs 20 to 35, where part-time batsmen face up to part-time bowlers with a sieve-like four fielders inside the circle. Five ambled singles in this over, six in the next over. This is supposedly fun to watch. But here’s an alternative:

  1. Power plays are scrapped.
  2. Overs 1-20: Only two fielders permitted outside the 30-metre circle.
  3. Overs 21-30: Only three fielders permitted outside the 30-metre circle.
  4. Overs 31-40: Only four fielders permitted outside the 30-metre circle.
  5. Overs 41-50: Five fielders permitted outside the 30-metre circle.
  6. Bowlers can deliver a maximum 15 overs, allowing teams to bowl their allotted 50 overs with only four bowlers if they choose to.

While the changes are only simple, they would encourage teams to select six specialist batsmen, a keeper and four specialist bowlers, rather than your ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ type players. The best cricket contests are invariably based on a well fought contest between quality batsmen and quality bowlers – why wouldn’t rule changes be made that facilitate such contests occurring more often? Cheap singles would also be harder to come by in overs 21 to 40, with some element of the risk/ reward trade-off that is evident in the first 20 overs being retained. Spinners operating during the middle passages of the innings would need to be on their game, but ideally they were picked as specialist bowlers and were thus up to the challenge. And the final ten overs would play out in the same manner as they do currently.

Come on ODIs, the crowd in the bar is happily mingling while you stand half-heartedly on the fringes waiting for someone to come and talk to you. The time for reinventing yourself has come.

Impact of T20 on Test matches

Staying with the bar analogy for a moment, Test matches were like a woman who was in her late-20s when the first young lady arrived on the scene. For a while there, it looked like she might be forced to play second fiddle to the young girl on the scene. Instead, the arrival of the younger girl helped her to reinvigorate her own appeal and by the time the hot young T20 crowd first entered the bar, she was in her 30s and feeling very self-assured about her appeal. If anything, the contrast between her and the T20 crowd is so stark that it reminds some people of how much they enjoy Test cricket. Ultimately T20 is great fun to look at, but presents few moments that are likely to remain memorable in the longer term, leading to conversations such as this:

“Remember that time that Dave Warner smashed all those sixes? No, it wasn’t that game…. not that game either… oh wait a minute… maybe it was that game…. I dunno… wasn’t it awesome?”

Compare this to Test cricket: The memories of the epic Edgbaston Test in 2005, Steve Waugh’s fighting century at the SCG in 2002-03, Shane Warne’s first Test match delivery on English soil, the heartbreak of the Adelaide test in 1992-93 when the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy was but two runs from being in Australia’s keeping…. we could be here for a long time listing great Test moments, so I’ll leave it at that. Test matches resonate on a level that T20 matches can never hope to achieve. And that’s fine. Both have their place well marked out on the cricketing landscape, and both are here to stay. But T20 matches are likely to have a more subtle impact on Test cricket over time.

As the opening paragraph alluded to, cricket (in particular batting and fielding) is an instinctive process. The is insufficient time for conscious thought when a ball is sent down towards you at upwards of 140 km/h and natural instincts kick in – move forward or back, get your feet and head into the right position, play or leave the ball. Generations of batsmen have honed their instincts to serve them well in first-class and Test cricket, judiciously leaving alone deliveries which offered more in risk than in reward. The shorter forms of the game, which place an emphasis on scoring at every opportunity, are slowly altering the instincts of batsmen, and will continue to do so as future generations grow up on a mix of the shorter and longer versions of the game. While the Australian team faltered badly when faced with the prospect of a long grind to survive in both Melbourne and Sydney, their failures were symptomatic of a subtle shift in the dynamic of the bat versus ball contest. A greater proportion of deliveries are played at, creating more opportunities for scoring runs but also for losing wickets, leading to a faster pace of Test match cricket that over time will lead to the following outcome:

Within the next 50 years, Test matches will be played over four days, rather than five.

This is unlikely to come about via a groundbreaking ICC decision that seems unfathomable at the time. Rather, it is likely that over time, a far greater proportion of these faster-paced Test matches will conclude within four days in their own right, leading to a natural conclusion that the fifth day is rendered irrelevant so often, so why continue to allow for one? The trend towards gradually shorter matches is already apparent when analysing the significantly declining percentage of games that were unable to be decided within the existing five day span over the past three decades, as per the table below:

Decade (Tests, Draws, % Drawn)

1980s   (266, 122, 45.9)

1990s   (347, 124, 35.7)

2000s   (464, 114, 24.6)

Moreover, if you consider that:

(a) Test cricket is best served by an even contest between bat and ball;

(b) a fair reflection of this even contest is a team score of around 300 or slightly higher on average; and

(c) faster rates of scoring would lead to more than 300 runs being scored in any given 90 over day,

why wouldn’t a high quality Test match in the year 2050 finish at some point on the fourth day?

Will this be good for Test cricket as a spectacle? Actually, I think it will. Spectators, be they groups of mates bemoaning the lack mid-strength beer and making the decision to drink full-strength wine out of spite or families bringing their kids to the cricket for the first time and trying to avoid these wine-drinking groups, are becoming increasingly time-poor and thus more demanding of the entertainment provided on their day(s) out. Four-day Test matches would promote bright and vibrant cricket and potentially invite bolder declarations by captains who are looking to force the pace and push for a victory. 

Much like the youngest crowd of girls in the bar may be fun to introduce yourself to but will ultimately make you wish for someone who can…like….you know…. totally converse with you, the growth of the T20 format will make us appreciate Test cricket (and to a lesser extent, ODIs) all the more. There’s plenty of room at the bar for everyone.

Thanks to Tom Shaw/Getty Images AsiaPac for use of the photo
 

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