There has been lot of discussion across the globe pertaining to the saving of test cricket from becoming obsolete. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the lawmakers of cricket, have been brainstorming on this issue for a while and come up with several solutions including ‘Day-Night’ matches.
The lack of interest for test matches has been being prevailing since 2004, after the introduction of T20 matches. The huge success of the Indian Premier League has fastened the demise of Test cricket. Andrew Flintoff’s retirement from test cricket has brought the spotlight again on IPL that provides a lucrative income stream for the players. It is rather apparent that the opulence provided by the IPL is resulting in the premature exit of several great players. Let’s see some solutions by which we can keep the test matches alive.
Starting the matches on Wednesday
This will increase the revenue of the match, since the last couple of days will fall on Saturday and Sunday. People will be quite happy to spend their weekends to support their home team.
The 20-20 Intervals
Currently there are 3 sessions, which are Lunch, Tea and Post-Tea. The mandatory overs bowled per day can be reduced from 90 overs to 80 overs. This would help to create 4 sessions of 20 overs each, which will avoid the ‘bad light’ issue, which happens very often these days. This will also help the players to charge up as they would be getting sufficient breaks. By reducing 10 overs everyday, the pace of the game will also improve.
Mandatory sporting wickets
An ICC committee should review each turf before the matches to ensure that they are made without any bias to the home team. It will make the match more competitive as the ‘home advantage’ factor is eliminated.
Test World Cup
The concept of a World Cup for test matches is quite a complicated topic, however there are few ways by which this concept can be applied properly. In the preliminary stage, the 8 test teams will face each other in a home and away match. There will be 40 match days in this round (8 matches * 5 days) followed by 20(4*5) in the semi finals and 5 days in the final. Altogether there will be 65 match days and this can be stretched to the whole season like the football leagues are conducted.
Above all, the cricketing fraternity that includes players, boards, officials and most importantly, the spectators should love and favour this version of the game. If the test matches are overlooked, the coming generation would find it hard to understand the feats by the great legends like Don Bradman and Garfield Sobers.
