ICC Chairman - "Test cricket is dying"

Test cricket has always been like that though. That is the nature of it, it ebbs and flows but sometimes there's a long lead up time for that to happen. It has never been a game for those with no attention span.

I don't know why that makes it more boring now than it's ever been before.
 

Bomberboyokay

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The boredom is more exposed now. Twenty20 made stark how Tests are built around filling time.
 
The boredom is more exposed now. Twenty20 made stark how Tests are built around filling time.
See I find T20 cricket boring and for the most fairly predictable. If I want to see batsman take wild cross batted swipes at everything there's always the Kanga cricket in the lunch break.
 
In the end I guess it comes down to personal preference. T20 has more stark brutality to it but in the end, it's a pretty fleeting thing so there can never really be much subtext to it. Some of the best Test cricket I can remember is Warne plugging away for what seemed like hours against Tendulkar who was padding him away, while ever so slightly altering his line until he finally had him LBW.

Others find that boring. Personally I think they're crazy but each to their own.
 
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Hours can and do go by without anything of importance happening. That's boring.

??
When?
Usually ‘nothing happening’ is a translated form of saying ‘no wickets fell for a long time.’
Given that batting is half the game, doesn’t that automatically mean that, unless the batsmen are scoring slowly with no real excuse, something is happening?
 
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In the end I guess it comes down to personal preference. T20 has more stark brutality to it but in the end, it's a pretty fleeting thing so there can never really be much subtext to it. Some of the best Test cricket I can remember is Warne plugging away for what seemed like hours against Tendulkar who was padding him away, while ever so slightly altering his line until he finally had him LBW.

Others find that boring. Personally I think they're crazy but each to their own.

This.

A lot of modern cricket passer-by fans would look at the recent test in Antigua and see the west indies’ pedestrian scoring rate, and Darren Bravo’s half-century, as being boring, the game not progressing etc.

From a cricket lover’s perspective it was some of the most absorbing cricket I can remember and perhaps Bravo’s finest (7) hour(s)
 

Bomberboyokay

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Tests can have a future that isn't crossing fingers and hoping Twenty20 will choose to subsidise it. Tests can stay the exact same they are now. But it can't have both.

Changes:

- No more dead rubbers, series end when someone wins
- Draws... find a way to make them harder to happen
- No more day 5s, antiquated and hinder scheduling
- Don't play at 10:30 in the morning

These may sound drastic but, as the ICC chairman says, it's ******* dying.
 
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Tests can have a future that isn't crossing fingers and hoping Twenty20 will choose to subsidise it. Tests can stay the exact same they are now. But it can't have both.

Changes:

- No more dead rubbers, series end when someone wins
- Draws... find a way to make them harder to happen
- No more day 5s, antiquated and hinder scheduling
- Don't play at 10:30 in the morning

These may sound drastic but, as the ICC chairman says, it's ******* dying.

One of the best innings by an Englishman in the last 25 years was a Mark Butcher century in a dead rubber.
The world record run chase in test cricket was in a dead rubber featuring one of the most iconic images in cricket history when McGrath and Sarwan eyeballed one another.
Tendulkar’s legendary century as an 18 year old in Perth was in a dead rubber.
The possible rebirth of West Indies cricket came courtesy of a dead rubber win in the UAE.
That took literally 30 seconds of thought.
Using your parameters none of those instances would have occurred.
We have two brand new test nations trying to find their footing and another who literally cannot win away from home and your solution is to deny them extra matches.

Awesome. That will help the overall quality.

Your point about draws seems fairly, well, pointless, given that there are less draws now than at any point in the entire history of test cricket.

As long as players make it their priority, test cricket will not die. It isn’t dying.
 
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Already happening. Test players quit for Twenty20.

Test players have quit for multiple reasons before.

Test players gave up the right to play test cricket by going to South Africa for rebel tours, signing deals with english counties, and going back even further, to take up careers in other industries.

90 per cent of players who make themselves unavailable for test cricket either wouldn’t be selected, or are at the tail end of their careers.

107 years ago Clem Hill sat out a series because of a board dispute and half a dozen colleagues did the same.

Hell, Bradman sat out the first test of the Bodyline series because of a deal he’d signed with a media organisation.

But nah, this - THIS - Kamran Akumal deciding he wants to drop easy catches and make single figure scores in T20 cricket rather than Test matches that is going to kill test cricket.
 
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Mitchell Johnson was a walk-up start. He quit and played Twenty20 for years.

Mitchell Johnson was 34 years old when he retired from test cricket ffs and in 3 of his last 4 series he averaged 35, 35 and 48. The only exception was against a threadbare West Indies side.

THATS what’s going to kill test cricket? Mean who reach an age where they are traditionally thinking about retirement, choosing to retire?

I guess there really is no hope then is there.
 
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One reductive example doesn’t prove your point.

Next it will be Morne Morkel or someone.

Look at every test nation at the moment and find me a dozen players in total who are under 33-34 who would be in their country’s first XI who are unavailable for tests due to T20 cricket.

No such group exists.

Hell, Kolpak has had a far greater impact.
 

Bomberboyokay

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Mitchell Johnson was 34 years old when he retired from test cricket ffs and in 3 of his last 4 series he averaged 35, 35 and 48. The only exception was against a threadbare West Indies side.

THATS what’s going to kill test cricket? Mean who reach an age where they are traditionally thinking about retirement, choosing to retire?

I guess there really is no hope then is there.

34 is hardly ancient in cricket. And he didn't retire. He kept playing.
 
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34 is hardly ancient in cricket. And he didn't retire. He kept playing.

Mate Alastair Cook is still playing cricket.
Merv Hughes was playing one day domestic cricket for the ACT four years after his last test.
Every second West Indies player from the 70s and 80s continues to play domestic cricket in England or elsewhere well after their last test.

Joel Garner - 34
Michael Holding - 33
Andy Roberts - 32
Colin Croft - 29
Malcolm Marshall - 33

That was the main five components of the most fearsome bowling attack in cricket history, and the age at which they played their last test.
Three of them - Holding, Roberts and Marshall - played on for at least 2 years (5 in Marshall’s case) for domestic sides.

So I’ll ask again.

How is Mitchell Johnson playing his last test at 34 a sign that test cricket is on its death bed.
 

Bomberboyokay

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Mate Alastair Cook is still playing cricket.
Merv Hughes was playing one day domestic cricket for the ACT four years after his last test.
Every second West Indies player from the 70s and 80s continues to play domestic cricket in England or elsewhere well after their last test.

Joel Garner - 34
Michael Holding - 33
Andy Roberts - 32
Colin Croft - 29
Malcolm Marshall - 33

That was the main five components of the most fearsome bowling attack in cricket history, and the age at which they played their last test.
Three of them - Holding, Roberts and Marshall - played on for at least 2 years (5 in Marshall’s case) for domestic sides.

So I’ll ask again.

How is Mitchell Johnson playing his last test at 34 a sign that test cricket is on its death bed.

You said it would be an issue if players prioritized Twenty20 over Tests. I gave you a big name player from a "Big 3" country who did exactly that. Now you're trying to pretend it has no significance.
 
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I don't get this petty fan rivalry between the two formats. They are both proper cricket and enjoyable in their own way.
This
I like test cricket
I like T20s
I like one dayers (but a fair bit less)

Test Cricket will always be the pinnacle of the sport. It will never truly die - if it becomes financially unviable then T20 will help fund it.
 
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You said it would be an issue if players prioritized Twenty20 over Tests. I gave you a big name player from a "Big 3" country who did exactly that. Now you're trying to pretend it has no significance.

Well it doesn’t. I’ve just pointed out a litany of examples of a comparitive instance from decades gone by - through which Test cricket has survived.
Johnson was famously mentally fragile and almost invariably gave the impression he’d rather be doing something else.
He retired from tests at almost the standard age for fast bowlers and THATS your reasoning that tests are dying.

It’s an argument that makes little sense.
 
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Well it doesn’t. I’ve just pointed out a litany of examples of a comparitive instance from decades gone by - through which Test cricket has survived.
Johnson was famously mentally fragile and almost invariably gave the impression he’d rather be doing something else.
He retired from tests at almost the standard age for fast bowlers and THATS your reasoning that tests are dying.

It’s an argument that makes little sense.
In addition to mental fragility Johnson's action was quite harsh on his body. I'm fairly sure he would have retired altogether anyway if T20 didn't exist.
 
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Not forever. The franchises will grow resentful. Twenty20 can't be a shield in the long term.

It’s not the franchises who would be funding it.

Who do you think gets rights money from the Big Bash? Just the franchises? Cricket Australia get it and they can distribute it how they see fit.
As long as the franchises get their slice and can keep operating there’ll be no problems.
 
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