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Kohli backing gives Gower hope for Test cricket’s future
LONDON, Nov 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The inexorable rise of Twenty20 cricket
has sparked fears that the Test format is in serious jeopardy — but the
longest form of the game has a powerful advocate in India captain Virat
Kohli.
The popularity of quickfire T20 matches can be seen most starkly in the
Indian Premier League, where players earn vast sums of money playing in front
of packed houses.
Tests by contrast — outside England and Australia — are often played in
front of sparse crowds in big, echoing arenas.
But former England captain David Gower said comments made by Kohli, the
world’s top-rated batsman, during India’s 4-1 Test series loss in England
this year, are significant.
“We had a fantastic series against India, closer than the margin suggests,”
said Gower, one of the leading Test batsmen of his era, during the inaugural
Ranji Memorial Public Conversation on Cricket in London.
“It is a reflection of the balance of power if Virat says that — you’ve
got a lot of people who will listen,” explained Gower, who said the
introduction of a World Test Championship from next year will help provide
greater context for matches.
Kohli insisted Test cricket was the “most beautiful format of the game”
despite the razzmatazz and hype around the shorter formats.
And no one should doubt what it would mean to Kohli were he to lead India
to their inaugural Test-series win in Australia during an upcoming four-match
campaign.
He is, though, against matches in the 141-year-old format being reduced to
a maximum of four days from five to make them more attractive — England are
playing a four-day match against Test newcomers Ireland in July.
– Indian wealth –
India are the undisputed financial powerhouse of world cricket, with an
audience of more than a billion people providing huge commercial and
broadcast revenues.
Tours by India boost opponents’ bank balances, allowing home boards to sell
TV rights to the lucrative subcontinental market.
Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer said the Board of Control for
Cricket in India had been “blinded” by Twenty20 to the detriment of an
overall vision.
“India have been sort of blinded by the T20, the IPL,” said Engineer,
speaking alongside Gower. “Your first priority is to play for your country
and then the riches will come automatically.”
That Engineer played 46 Tests in just over 13 years while recently retired
England batsman Alastair Cook made 161 Test appearances in 12-and-a-half
years is an indication of just how congested the international calendar has
become.
Engineer’s fellow panel member Mushtaq Mohammad said it was crucial to make
Test cricket affordable and that spectators risked being priced out of the
game.
“If you want Test cricket to survive you’ve got to reduce the entrance fee.
Open the gates, let the people come in, make it affordable.”
As for the recent innovation of day-night Tests, the former Pakistan
batsman added: “In Southeast Asia we’ve got the right weather for day-night
cricket but don’t reduce it (Test cricket).”
Test cricket has suffered a marked decline in the West Indies, who
dominated Test cricket from the late 1970s until the early 1990s, playing
with a crowd-pleasing swagger.
Gower said reviving five-day interest in the Caribbean was no easy task
despite a significant cash injection from the International Cricket Council.
“If you are talking about the Caribbean, you are not talking about one
nation but several nations,” he said. “You are talking about socio-economic
problems and it’s disjointed.”
Of some consolation to traditionalists is that the debate is nothing new,
with Test cricket still alive and kicking.
“In this ultra-modern age, counter-attractions have multiplied many
times….They (young people) just haven’t the time to devote to cricket or is
it they just can’t be bothered to dash home to tea, then to the local cricket
ground?”
It might sound like a contemporary lament, but those words were written by
England great Herbert Sutcliffe after his country’s 1950-51 Ashes Test series
loss in Australia.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0836 hrs