Question for the fellow Test cricket fans: Are there

[Islandman]

any practical reasons to make an effort to save first class/Test cricket?

I understand the sentimental reasons for long time cricket fans and it being the pure form of the game, but does cricket really need Test cricket/first class cricket to survive as a professional sport?

The more I read about IPL, Aussies Big bash and so on, I wonder if it can and should survive in an overcrowded cricket calendar. It seems certain that the big money makers in cricket are going to be the Twenty20 stars, not the Test cricket stars.

The best argument i have heard for first class cricket is that it develops skills of the players in a way that the short form of the game does not. I am now wondering if that is even really true, I mean it may develop SOME skills that you don't get by playing Twenty20, but won't those skills be less needed if you aren't playing much first class cricket anyway?

I am looking for reasons to "bat" for Test cricket but I think they are dwindling.

[Muadib]

how long has this condition existed ?... talking to yourself I mean.. ?

[Islandman]

Play just start for the day, its not time for entertainment from the mound yet....

[Willi]

LoL

I think he is saying that you are the ONLY test fan left. LoL

I say 1st class Cricket yes, test cricket no.

[Karl]

Well I reside in Shady Pines and oldsters here, like me, vote overwhelmingly for Test Cricket to remain supreme among cricket matches.

[Gamma]

they are dwindling. but i still think that test cricket is the purest form of cricket and will remain a fan. unfortunately i am not inetrested in trying to convert anyone so, it could well be that at the end of the day is me one...but a suh!

[Islandman]

I expect it to be around for a while if only because so many diehard and longtime cricket fans love it.

I'm wondering though that as the next generation of world class players mature and make big money off Twenty20 tournaments, will they want to play much Test cricket. We will see.

[Peter R]

I-man, as you said in the post above eliminating Test and or 1st class cricket will change the game and how it is played, for the worse IMO. I coach youngsters and I see among these 10-yr-olds the influence of T20s in particular, on how (some of them) want to bat. Of course this is anecdotal but I am willing to bet that this phenomenon is being repeated globally among young cricketers.

Playing a stroke in many instances is no longer about getting your foot close to inside the line of the ball and playing a shot, but instead it means getting your foot "out of the way" and heaving the bat in a mighty slog. I have always maintained that the short form is better for bowlers than batters, notwithstanding a different standard of judging statistically, performance of both.. for example in T20 an economy rate of 6 or less by a bowler is fantastic... in batting you are judged by how many 30s you scored ...but i digress...

It would be a shame to see test cricket disappear; like Gamma and Karl I see this as the truest test of a cricketer and purest form of the game. Without batsmen learning to "bat long" and bowlers to persevere, cricket now becomes more like a mutated home run derby where players play (IMO) many ugly strokes and the bowler (with some rare exception) becomes a second class citizen in the piece.

However, we cannot fight this trend... I enjoy T20 purely as entertainment rather than a sport. On any given day any given team can win a match...Trinidad made it to the final of the Champions league tournament 2 years ago beating many (on paper) "better" teams along the way. test cricket will survive but we will no longer see five match series. Apart from the Ashes played recently I cannot remember any two countries playing more than a three match series in recent times. The number of matches played in a series will not exceed three and might even fall to one given as you say the proliferation of T20 leagues.

For test to survive they (ICC) needs to make some changes, and in the context of today's world, not necessarily radical. Here is a link to one guy's suggestion which has merit. http://cricketnext.in.com/blogs/sanj...t-cricket.html

I read another one where the author suggested a four year cycle of tests like a WC for tests... teams play each other at least one home and away in a two year cycle... points are accumulated and at the end of four years the (two ? , cant remember how many he said for playoffs) teams with the most points play off for a WC test trophy. I couldn't find the link but I think I saw it at this website http://www.holdingwilley.com/ .

I know that night test isn't far away as they are testing a pink ball (apparently the white ball wouldn't last as long) and they say it has done well. Having tests start in the afternoon and end at night makes eminent sense...more people will go into the grounds after work especially since in JA they insist on playing a test Mon-Fri as they are doing in JA right now.

Anyway, I am beginning to ramble... may test cricket in whatever format, continue to live long!

[Islandman]

Good post, thanks for the perspective.

[TDowl]

Ketchie shuby still reigns MDDWL

[Peter R]

Ketchie shubby tek ovah yu mean!!