Just how much will its texture and rhythm be affected if Test cricket is played over four days instead of five? South Africa are awaiting permission from the International Cricket Council to reduce their Boxing Day Test against Zimbabwe to four days. Other such requests are sure to follow.
It is not really a tradition versus money argument, since Tests have been played over three, four and six days too in the past.
The question is, will it change the essential nature of the Test as a timeless, irrational, enduring spectacle unbound by the demands of a result? It is illogical, quirky, irrational, beautiful, and is on the opposite side of the fence from the result-oriented, quick-rushing, here-and-now of today.
Luckily, cricket has other versions to satisfy the here-and-now. Shorter, more packed, packaged for a quick glance rather than the lingering look. It has meant that all the experimentation could be done on the shorter formats so Tests could be left relatively untouched.
The attempt now to find a middle path by reducing Test cricket to reflect its shorter cousins is, well, just not cricket.
Television decides
There will be talk of sharpening the edges of Test cricket to attract the youth. “Something must be done” has been the ICC’s recent motto when the question of the relevance and survival of Test cricket has come up. But is four-day Test the answer? ICC’s own cricket committee does not think so. But that is a recommendatory body, and if television thinks that is the way to go, then that is the way it will go.
Colin Graves, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has said that the four-day Test would “save a lot of money from the ground’s view and from the broadcaster’s view.”
The stats will be rolled out too. In the 1980s, 77% of Tests went into the fifth day; this decade it has fallen to 58%. In the past year, India played 13 Tests at home, only seven of which went into the fifth day.
Yet, what is not conceded is that often it is the pressure of the looming fifth day that brings a match to its conclusion on day four. In the Indore Test against New Zealand, India made 557 for five declared but didn’t enforce the follow-on after New Zealand replied with 299. They hit a quick 216 for three and declared, leaving New Zealand 475 to win in a day and a half. India could afford to bat with freedom in the second innings (they played just 49 overs), and declare knowing New Zealand would have to play out more than 130 overs. Take away 90 overs from that, and theoretically, survival becomes easier.
A four-day Test will see captaincy change, more dramatic declarations, and greater borrowings from T20 and one-day cricket. It will see the end of the grand defensive innings that draws matches.
Blow for spinners
More significantly, it will be yet another blow for spinners who will not have the natural wear and tear of a fifth day wicket to assist them. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if India objects.
A year ago, the then president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Anurag Thakur said he was against the concept. But things have changed, and the BCCI top guns, in their posts at the pleasure of the Supreme Court, have little time for cricket as they work out ways and means to stay in power.
Before the next board meeting of the ICC which might take up the matter, the BCCI should work out what its own thoughts are. Indications are that by 2020, the four-day Test will be in place.
Perhaps it could be tried on an experimental basis first, or there could be an understanding that when the top six teams play each other, Tests remain five-day affairs while they become four-day matches when a top six meets one in the bottom six.
The suggestion that some of the time lost could be made up by bowling 105 overs a day (and thus 420 overs per match instead of the current 450) is a stretch given that teams struggle to bowl 90. Floodlights help to ensure the quota is bowled, but there is also the question of the day-night matches and how to ensure some parity in the conditions.
The changes are, after all, mainly for television. As the American sportswriter Dave Zirin said, fans have become scenery for television. And empty stands on the fifth day is hardly advertisement for advertisements.
Then there is the matter of the T20 leagues. Shorter Test series will mean more time to squeeze in these money-makers. Which means that players will not get more rest if matches are shorter, only more profitable breaks.
There is something unique about a five-day game that could end in a draw. No other sport can claim that it matters not who wins or loses, just how you play the game. Let’s preserve our idiosyncratic sport. There’s too much of the conventional anyway.
