Four-day idiocy
This is idiocy. Four-day tests? If tinkering with test cricket till it is unrecognizable is the ICC's idea of saving the game, then shove it. I don't need this "to save the village we had to destroy it mentality". I'll watch baseball instead.
Do something about the pitches; about ensuring the making up of lost time; about the over-rates; about ensuring that only quality teams play test cricket. Reducing the time of the game does nothing. If the pitches remain the same, we'll get four-day draws instead.
Do something about the pitches; about ensuring the making up of lost time; about the over-rates; about ensuring that only quality teams play test cricket. Reducing the time of the game does nothing. If the pitches remain the same, we'll get four-day draws instead.
posted by Samir Chopra at 6:38 AM
13 Comments:
Completely agree Samir... But then again, it is the ICC. So this is par for course.
Cheers,
I've got this horrible feeling we're going to watch cricket kill itself not just in our lifetime, but in the uncomfortably near future.
Homer: I cannot believe that the ICC cannot see that given the wholesale changes in the attitudes of the players (i.e., more attacking batting, better fielding etc) we have a chance to make test cricket to make more exciting if pitches could be made more sporting. But no, they'd rather do something completely irrelevant.
JK: My feelings precisely. I dread the next couple of years.
I am not entirely opposed to four-day Tests. If the pitches are made more bowler-friendly (so that the draw rate stays about the same) then I don't think it'd be too bad.
Day-night Tests would change the game dramatically though. It may become advantageous (like in the olden days) to win the toss and bat, to ensure that you start batting in daylight.
I like the full five days, but I'm not convinced that changing to four would be such a big change, especially since everyone will go into the game knowing the situation. Certainly not more dramatic than the difference between timeless and five-day was.
David, exactly what a day-night test is like will be very different depending on the location and the time of year and start times. The whole end of the day could be not so good for bating, but then the last few overs effect might be lessened.
shooting the messenger rather than fighting war...
Guess this rules the rest day out. Damn.
Jonathan, I agree that it'd depend on location and time of year, but we can get a feel for the overall effect by looking at ODI's. In day games, about 60% of matches are won by the team batting second (this decade). In day-nighters, it's about 55% for the team batting first.
Batting under lights (at least in the places where the most night cricket is played) is much harder than batting in daylight.
It will make dead rubbers even more boring where one team already ahead in the series is playing for a draw, they will go knowing they will mostly have to bat only for a day - probably even less. And ICC say they want to make an even contest between bowlers and batsman.
David, if the pitches are made more bowler-friendly, tests ought to become more exciting right away--perhaps more readily yielding results in four days--thereby obviating any need to tinker with the format. At least, so I hope. I'd rather the ICC spent its time trying to stop the bleeding where it's actually occurring.
Josef, don't get me wrong, I'd like Tests to stay at five days. But if there has to be a major change to the structure of Test cricket, I think that going to four days is the least worst.
It would be better if the ICC looks into overrates and pitches going around.
Some of the wickets in the recently concluded series in the Caribbean were as flat as it gets.Overrates also have been an problem.
Of course they can look into day and night test matches but ICC just do not want to think about such things.
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