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Test Cricket - Is there genuine reason to be concerned?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AFCSR6
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I can see a time in the not too distant future when it'll only be played by us the Aussies, South Africa and New Zealand.
I think it will die out on the sub continent and the West Indies.
 

Go back 50 years and people were saying test cricket was dying because of slow scoring, the likes of Bailey and Barrington boring the arse off the few that used to turn up, followed by Tavare and Boycott, and they used to bowl 20+ overs an hour in those days too. Then we had stupidly low over rates and intimidatory bowling stretching the patience of spectators and test matches still survived. It survived Packer and the rebel tours and I reckon it'll still be there in 50 years.

Personally I don't think a day's test cricket, in this country anyway, is any sort of value for money until they get the over rates up again. At times the players are deliberately stalling so they don't get all the required overs in. Amazing the authorities don't do anything about it. Then some people get excited over supposedly tight finishes when England for example were hanging on with 9 wickets down so they could call it a "draw" rather than being completely humiliated over 5 days, losing by an innings and plenty. Twice in a row iirc.

Even when the Aussies were just about unbeatable for 15 years they couldn't apparently do it without constant extreme sledging of the opposition to a degree that no other country has ever done it. So it wasn't necessarily all about cricket skills and ability.

You can keep test cricket for me. Although I'm not a fan of the IPL I reckon T20 is worthwhile and has a place in the calendar.

Here's an interesting interview with Merv Hughes.

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Test cricket is definitely on the way out in terms of quality of the product. You only have to look back to the 80s/90s and the quality of the bowling and in particular fast bowling. That really was the pinnacle then. Now players have so many more games to play, distractions of money making in shorter formats and there is a general dilution in the standard. We've also got a load of rubbish test teams that aren't greatly competitive and also don't interest a lot of the general paying public.

We can't keep playing Australia every year or so. South Africa is rarely a long series and the whole thing is a mess. At least English people believe in test cricket and still watch it but you watch some of the games played abroad and the grounds look like club grounds with similar crowds (eg New Zealand!).
 
Robanner said:
Test cricket is definitely on the way out in terms of quality of the product. You only have to look back to the 80s/90s and the quality of the bowling and in particular fast bowling. That really was the pinnacle then.
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You cannot be serious. What about Lillee and Thomson, Hall and Griffiths, Trueman and Statham, Proctor and Pollock, to name a few.
 
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