Tests: Don’t segregate teams but make it more competitive for them

The cricket match which had seen the most mismatched of opponents was perhaps played between the outfits of Captain Russell and Bhuvan in that epic film Lagaan. However, as things often turn out in the reel, Bhuvan’s team had the last laugh in the three-day encounter even if its members didn’t have a proper attire or even shoes while taking on the former colonial masters. In the real world of cricket, however, nothing of that sort is ever going to happen and the ongoing struggle to find a better future for the game’s longest format – Tests – is a testimony to the fact.

It may sound ironical but cricket is increasingly struggling to accommodate Test, the variant which has given it its primary identity and credibility, in the scheme of things. Earlier in September, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) proposal for a two-tier system in Tests was shot down by a faction dominated by the Asian members and led by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – the richest cricket governing body in the world. The tiers were supposed to have seven (top seven) and five members (bottom three plus Afghanistan and Ireland), respectively, along with a promotion-relegation system but countries like India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh vetoed, saying the plan is not in the interest of all.

Certainly not the best proposal but there can always be new ideas:

The proposed system is definitely not a foolproof one. Although the ICC thinks that this would make the system more competitive by giving the lower division teams an incentive to elevate themselves and play the elite sides, in reality, it would only make things worse by widening the gap between the top and bottom teams. After all, how much will a Zimbabwe or Bangladesh gain by playing against each other and then somehow get an opportunity to play a top tier team only to be thrashed and relegated again. For a Lagaan like script is unlikely to succeed in the real cricket world which is too misbalanced at the moment. The second tier will only get reduced to a caricature over a period of time. Can a club cricket-like structuring really help international cricket to survive?

A shake-up is a welcome development:

On the positive side, however, a shake-up is indeed required for Test cricket at this juncture and this could be an indication to that beginning. Dull and lop-sided matches played between unevenly matched opponents, piling up records that threaten the forefathers’ feats and the reducing commercial profits are pushing Test cricket to death. The high popularity of T20 cricket and early exit of talented players from the Test arena to join the more lucrative slam-bang leagues has left Test cricket destitute. Arrival of new teams also will add more diversity to the same-old story of 10 sides with some too stronger for the rest.

Also read – Bangladesh have arrived and yet, face the risk of being exiled!

Test cricket needs quality more than business proposals:

But having seen both sides of the story, one feels that whatever is being said and done for the uplift of Test standards is too bureaucratic and business-oriented at the moment. As long as there is no improvement in the quality of players, things are going to change little on the ground.

We had two Asian Test championships in the past:

Some are speaking in favor of holding a world Test championship which is not a bad idea but it must ensure boosting talents to don the whites.

A Test championship was played in Asia twice in the past – in the 1998-99 and 2001-02 seasons. The inaugural edition had an attractive beginning with that famous Sachin Tendulkar-Shoaib Akhtar collision in the India-Pakistan encounter at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Pakistan made a terrific comeback to beat the hosts in front of empty galleries following a spectators’ disturbance. But apart from that game, the edition didn’t have much to offer apart from Wasim Akram’s two back-to-back hat-tricks against Sri Lanka and some regular tons and double tons.

The second edition, which didn’t feature India as it pulled out because of political problems with Pakistan and saw minnows Bangladesh instead make an entry, was even drabber. After both Pakistan and Sri Lanka heavily thrashed Bangladesh, the meaningless round-robin match between the two power houses was canceled and they straightaway played the finals. This time, Sri Lanka avenged the defeat of the previous final, thanks to a classy 230 hammered by Kumar Sangakkara. But apart from the individual brilliance from the likes of Sangakkara, Akram or a Tendulkar, what else had those abruptly held Test championships offered?

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We didn’t care to make them a regular fixture to see if there was any real progress that Test cricket was making in Asia in terms of performance and viewership.

Very little can be done to bring Test cricket back to life if not enough talents choose to give it their best (or may be even the minimum?). The two-tier system compartmentalizing the strong and the weak could make the gap even wider. Any system, therefore, we decide on, should have the primary focus on promoting talents.

Make two groups of evenly mixed teams picked by lottery:

If we are really thinking of such a system, why not mix both tiers with the good and weak sides as it is done in the limited-over World Cups? Things will be far more competitive if we put in place such a structure and not turn international cricket into a first-class one. Choose the teams through a lottery system and instead of making a hierarchy, put two groups in place comprising, say five to six sides, and allow them to compete hard over a period of time. Teams like Australia and England or India and Pakistan can be placed in one group so that their renowned rivalries can be used up for a positive advertisement for Test cricket. The group stages can see matches held in home-and-away basis (an exception can be made for Pakistan though) followed up with two semi-finals and the final.

This system will see:

Matches played more competitively than those in the bilateral series since they will be part of a bigger tournament.

Weaker teams trying to give it the best against bigger ones as they do in events like ODI World Cup. The competitive spirit can see more talents willing to sweat it out in Test matches.

The boards of the lesser teams can make up for the lost revenues during their matches with another lesser team.

Putting in place the international Test fixture for a long time:

Test cricket has faced problems at stages of its long-evolving journey and it has been too strong to lose out at any of those junctures. The beauty of this variety has always been appealing to the game’s lovers for it manifests in a way man’s biggest philosophy of life: Survival against the odds. The strong winds of change have made Tests face an existentialist crisis today and it can only be overcome if the best practitioners of the noble game of cricket lend it their hard labor. Proposals will be coming in to better the game – some will be more accepted than others – but at the end of the day, everything will depend on how realistically we envision a future for Test cricket.

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Written by Shubham Ghosh