Test Cricket: Quo Vadis

Where would we be these days without Cricinfo? We probably wouldn't have learned about this story, for example.

http://content.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/394478.html

To my mind, the real issue is not what is being openly stated, but what's not being said. As I remember from the first draft of the proposed championship I saw (way before it was presented to the ICC), there was always space for "iconic" tours such as the Ashes, India/Pak, etc. In fact, James Sutherland even alludes to this in the article.

My take is that India are unwilling to sign up to the time commitment that such a championship requires at a period when they are looking to free up time in all nations' calendars to play the more lucrative 20/20. From the BCCI point of view, the FTP schedule ending in 2011, the flux situation with Pakistan, and the reduction in tests played by nations like NZ all contribute to strengthening the business case for more local and global 20/20 tournaments. And as the key instigator, guess who'll pocket the lion's share of the lucrative TV rights.

The ICC is in grave danger of becoming more and more irrelevant. The two Malcoms (Gray and especially Speed) really built on Dalmiya's initial work of creating more ICC owned events. Over the 1990s and 2000s, the ICC has gone from owning one event every 4 years (the ODI world cup) to having several events in its portfolio for which it can sell the marketing, TV and other rights.

The BCCI have obviously cottoned on to the fact that they don't need the ICC and have probably conveyed this to CA and CSA. The other's (NZ, Pak, SL, WI) will just follow the money. England are the only ones digging their heals in (and signing stupid deals with the likes of Stanford) in an attempt to counter balance the shift of power from Lords to wherever Lalit Modi has his office.

Think about it: if Modi builds on the success of the IPL, develops the Champions League and then mushrooms forther, from a purely monetary point of view, who besides the ICC really needs the ICC World Cup (50 overs), the ICC Champions trophy, the ICC 20/20? Please don't even get me started on the various ICC associate trophies. And ICC women's world cup? What the fuck is that all about?

Unfortunately, I believe, while Rohan Sajdeh's proposed test championship is a strong idea, it probably got elevated to the key stakeholders a bit too late. If this was presented in the previous cycle when the current FTP was being signed, and before the Wisden recommended Test Championship table was implemented, perhaps we'd be in the middle of a truly world Test Championship. In the current scenario however, I think it might need a bit of back to the drawing board, taking into account the current market realities.

Does this mean the future of test cricket is uncertain? Too right it is. I predicted last summer that we are seeing the last generation of test players. Rather cruelly by the year 2020, 20/20 will have seen off the last test match. Most of my fellow cricket lovers disagree with me on this one, but let's wait and watch. In the meantime, I must get back to cricinfo. There are a couple of test matches I'm following on the text commentary.