Cricket at the Crossroads : Part I - Test Batting

Cricket is at a crossroads like never before – a bigger paradigm shift than bodyline or the World Series Cricket. This shift has been brought about by not merely a change in attitude of the administrators and the sponsors but by a major attitude change of the fans and the players themselves. This is part of a series of articles in an attempt to dissect the position of each and every format of the game and the likely direction in which they are headed. The following are my observations on the standards of test batting.

The powers that be, media personnel and players (current and past) would have you believe that Test cricket is in the pink of health and there is virtually no encroachment by the shorter forms of the game on the traditional one. I would bet an arm and a bit that all such persons have more than a little divested interest in speaking the way they do. Anyone who has followed test cricket for any length of time will admit that the format is getting increasingly hypoxic. There are obvious and the not so obvious pointers to this.

Hashim Amla : The Best Test Batsman to have emerged in the past 5 years

At the very outset – there has been a drastic drop of crowds at test match venues (even at the most traditional venues. Add to it the progressively increasing refusal of the so-called fans at home to sit and watch test cricket. An increased pace of daily life, overburden of social and professional commitments and the new found method of reading online commentary / scores on the move have no little bearing on this. You would be hard pressed to find even a handful of people who can claim to have watched all 90 overs over the entire duration of a test match. The more convenient evening schedule and an instant result (especially in T-20) make it obviously favourable for viewership in hordes. Furthermore, there is an entire generation of cricket fans which has been brought up idolising the limited overs version and in another decade there will be another generation in place who will consider the IPL as the premier form of the game.  Only England and Australia seem to draw relatively packed houses on all 5 days of a test match. The heart-breaking sights are empty stadia in the Caribbean and at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on the opening session of a test match.

It is the proverbial chicken-egg roundabout to attempt to decipher if crowds are responsible for the declining quality of test cricket or the quality has left the arena empty. But there can be no doubt about the fact that the quality on the pitch in the longer format has probably never seen worse days.

In terms of batting – attempt a quick finger count on the world class batsmen who made their debuts in the first 6 years since 2006 and the ones that have emerged since even discounting the pre 2000 stalwarts (Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis , Dravid, Jayawardene and co).

Of the ones making their international debuts before 2006 , the names who claim a more than decent test record at first thought are the likes of Sehwag, Cook, Pietersen , De Villers, Clarke, Strauss, Bell, Smith, Hussey and maybe a couple of others. On the other hand the only names since then that can probably claim some sort of similar status are Hashim Amla and JonathanTrott ( Even Amla made his debut in 2004 but I'm placing him in the latter as his career really kicked off from 2007) .  The likes of Gambhir , Duminy and Watson have had good seasons followed by prolonged indifferent spells, while promising youngsters like Kohli have a long way to go to prove their test mettle. Not a single opening batsman to have debuted after 2006 can honestly claim to be one of the best in the world. Even that great Aussie assembly line of batsmen appears to have dried up – remember the nineties and early nougthies when the likes of Lehmann, Eliott, Love and Hodge could have walked into any other test side but managed only a handful of tests between them thanks to the sustained brilliance of the likes of the Waughs , Ponting, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist, Clarke and Hussey. India has still to provide a consistent test batsman since Sehwag and Sri Lanka one after the duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene.

Equally abysmal is the increasingly predominant ‘Tigers at Home- Bunnies away” phenomenon.  True, teams were always strong at home, but you remember great overseas performances like India in Australia, Pakistan in England and South Africa in India. Australia of course won series’ in every country during their world dominance. Over the last couple of years, home dominance has been all the more magnified. England demolish India 4-0 at home and then are promptly whitewashed by Pakistan (with an Indian whitewash in the offing later this year if they don’t sort their act out soon. Non sub-continent bastmen are consistently clueless on turning tracks while those from the sub-continent are whipped decisively by seam and bounce (look at India’s combined 8-0 drubbing last season).

Progressively more batsmen are being inducted into test cricket from the shorter version of the game rather than vice-versa. Stories like David Warner will soon be the norm rather than the exception, not that there’s anything wrong with it, but you hardly expect the likes of Warner and those that follow in his ilk to eke out test careers similar to the likes of a Dravid or a Kallis. Even among the handful of stalwarts of test cricket that exist, there are characters like Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen who have compromised their test careers – a number of reasons behind them , but not least being the lure of more lucrative limited overs leagues.

The saddest outcome from this whole scenario has been the increasing absence of top test players from domestic competitions – be it in Australia’a Shield cricket or India’s Ranji Trophy. Some of the great cricketing stores have emerged from teammates taking each other on in domestic competitions. Duels between Marshall and Richards are still talked about in English pubs by the gaffers – how many Indians can remember similar stories between Tendulkar and Kumble. There is a dual rot caused to the system by this malady is: upcoming batsmen miss out on an early opportunity to play with seasoned and more skilful veterans resulting in an increasing gulf between domestic first class cricket and Test. Bowlers similarly miss the opportunity to hone their skills against the ream masters and as a result enter the test scenario undercooked (especially compared to their counterparts from the previous decades) – more on bowlers in the next article.

In recent years I have watched with great anticipation the debuts of touted young batsmen in test cricket – from Cheteshwar Pujara to Usman Khawaja to Johnny Bairstow. Most youngsters have flattered to deceive in recent years. There are occasional bright spots , none brighter than Pujara, but the careers have to be watched and honed carefully especially in the initial years. I fear that if recent history is any guide , the test batting arena is increasingly likely to be littered with an over-smattering of average players with the odd decent one. My greatest fear is a test match in a few years time minus the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis, Smith, Pietersen and Jayawardne. For whom would one, even an avowed test enthusiast like me, tune in to watch bat?