INDIA’S ascent to the top of the Test rankings has been a long time coming, and richly deserved as the team has surely and methodically honed its processes towards becoming among the dominant teams in Test cricket. A heady mix of young and experienced, firebrands and impenetrable calm, aggressive batting and innovative stylistic wrist-flicks, the Indian team has it all.
What it doesn’t have however, is a Test schedule that is conducive to its remaining at the top for too long. This is what tempers the feeling of elation with a feeling of utmost futility. At a time when the longer forms of cricket are sinking or struggling to stay afloat with nary a life-support buoy on the horizon, one begins to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of not just ODI’s, but also of Test cricket. That this sudden decline in Test matches played coincides with India’s rapid improvement is an irony that one will have to live with, but one must also wonder if this inability to schedule Tests will have more grim repercussions on the sport itself.
The IPL and T20 for the most part have proven themselves to be the wave of the future, with the former competing as a Professional Sports League with the very best across sports. T20 as a whole has had mixed success, with the viewership fluctuating based on the event and the teams participating. What’s clear however is that T20 is likely to siphon off significant funds for sponsorship, advertising, and franchising/ownership of teams. What would then be left is the residue, and a case in point is the inability of the BCCI to find a viable sponsor for the Indian team in the post-Sahara era.
The average viewers’ inability to sustain interest levels, or to be able to afford the time to sit through an eight-hour day of cricket will obviously also have an effect on the long term viability of the longer formats in cricket. But the rate at which Tests are being reduced on the calendars is likely disproportionate to the decline in interest in, and/or revenues generated from, Test matches. Factor in the pitches in India that are not conducive to results being generated (only records), and the team is looking at an uphill climb on a steep slope with scarcely any oxygen supply.
A great irony is that India is likely to lose the top spot over the next few months, not because it will be overtaken by a superior team, but rather because it won’t participate in more Test matches, thereby taking away opportunities from the team to showcase just how good it has become. The facts speak for themselves: India has the lightest Test schedule among the cricket superpowers, with only three tests being hosted in India in 2009, and a less than power-packed 2010 kicking off on January 2 with two Tests against Bangladesh. This is in sharp contrast to the schedule India has in the shorter forms of the game, and its players are additionally committed to the IPL as well.
What has ended up happening is that the World Cup T20 win may have started a negative mindset towards Test matches, with long term success seeming more probable in the shorter forms of the game. However, India’s performances belie the justifiability of this focus, with steadily declining performances in both ODIs as well as T20s. The latest loss to the Sri Lankans in Nagpur, coming as it does after the pasting the boys from the Emerald Isles received in the just concluded Test series, being a stark case in point.
While one can’t question the financial implications and viability of T20 in today’s day and age, Test cricket is still a vital cog in the overall success and quality of cricket today. Ushering it off into retirement is unlikely to be a formula for long term success, and this needs to be addressed now. IPL, CL, and WC T20 are all outstanding properties, but cricket starts with Tests, and until the fat lady sings, it will end with Tests: dollars, cents, euros, and one day perhaps yuans, won’t change that.
That India is at the top should be leveraged, not suppressed, and one hopes in future seasons India will participate in more Tests, and less trials and tribulations. For the sake of cricket and its sustainable and viable stay at the top of Indian sports. Much like the Indian teams’ long term stay at the pinnacle of all Test teams. Paradise lost, and Paradise regained: even Milton would have been proud of such resurgence in the purist’s idyllic playground: if one does take place, that is.
