‘Test cricket is dying’
‘Test cricket is alive and kicking’
It’s interesting how we keep hearing both refrains from time to time. If you are unable to make up your mind about which camp you belong to, don’t fret. You are not alone.
Regardless of how big a hit it takes in terms of viewership and overall popularity, most experts feel that Test cricket will survive. But what state will we find it in, in, say, another decade? Are we heading into an era where Tests will have to keep making way for T20s, just like One-Day cricket has had to do? Or has that already happened?
Out of the 23 bilateral men’s Test series being played in 2024, as many as 12 had only two matches, five had three matches and only two had five matches (England in India and India in Australia). Let’s make no mistake—we are currently living in a time that is witnessing one of the most interesting dichotomies in cricket viewership patterns. While the real fan demand seems to have well and truly shifted to T20 cricket, it’s also a time when a day-night Test in Adelaide between Australia and India sees six of the seven sessions of play more than one million viewers on average, across all platforms. The first two days of the Perth Test between Australia and India saw a record number of people go through the stadium gates.
A Test In Patience
They say it’s called ‘Test’ cricket because it tests the players involved and their skill sets. What the longest format of the game also tests, however, is the patience of the viewers. There’s a certain time commitment that Test cricket demands, and, let’s face it, time is what most people don’t have in today’s day and age. It’s true that purists who prefer a clash in all whites still live and breathe, but they make up a very small pool. Many Indian fans are also keeping a close eye on the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, but how many of them will also be watching the England vs New Zealand series? How many of them will tune in to watch Pakistan take on South Africa in the longest format?
Therein lies the real problem. Many fans still like to watch Test cricket when their own country is in action no doubt, but not otherwise. How many Indian fans, for example, will get up early in the morning to catch a day of Ashes cricket in Australia? Compare that to T20 cricket, made almost invincible with its enviable franchise formula, and you will see there is a rather large gulf that has formed. Earlier this year, Alistair Dobson, the General Manager of the Big Bash leagues (men and women) in Australia talked about “a significant increase in audiences globally this year, particularly in India”. The Big Bash, Australia’s franchise T20 competition, even added Indian commentators like Ravi Shastri and Harsha Bhogle to their broadcast roster to woo larger Indian audiences.
Worrying Signs
Then there are cricketers themselves who are choosing the shortest format over Tests. Quinton de Kock chose to retire from Test cricket aged 29 and from ODIs at the age of 31 to focus on T20 cricket. Kane Williamson (32 Test centuries) stunned the cricketing world when he stepped down as Kiwi white-ball captain, not accepting a central contract for the 2024-25 season. He also announced his aim to play in the SA20—South Africa’s franchise-based T20 tournament. Cricket South Africa had to send a considerably weakened team for their two-Test tour of New Zealand earlier this year (and lost 0-2) because the dates clashed with the SA20. These are worrying signs for the overall health of Test cricket.
Many viewers would also argue that Tests just don’t give them the adrenaline rush that T20s do. But a look back at 2024 shows just how nail-biting and exciting men’s Test cricket has been. Before the start of the third Australia vs India Test in Brisbane and the third New Zealand vs England Test in Hamilton, there have been 48 Tests played this year and incredibly, only one of them (WI vs SA in Port of Spain in August) ended in a draw. This was a year that saw India beat South Africa in Cape Town, with Jasprit Bumrah taking 12 wickets in the match. This was only the second time the Proteas lost a Test at this venue in the last decade and India’s first ever Test win in Cape Town. It was also a year that saw the West Indies, currently ranked 8th in the ICC rankings, beat Australia in Brisbane in the day-night Test in January by eight runs. England beat India in Hyderabad by 28 runs. Bangladesh beat Pakistan in Rawalpindi and New Zealand whitewashed India 3-0 in India. These were all hugely entertaining matches, replete with suspense and drama. But, just how big an impact will these have on the overall interest in Test cricket, globally? If you haven’t watched a non-India Test match in the last five years, will these results make you watch other teams in action?
Add Some Drama
Another factor that works against Test cricket becoming more exciting is the deep gulf between the ‘top teams’, the ‘middling’ ones—which do beat the top teams once in a while—and the ‘minnows’. While teams like Australia, India, South Africa, England and New Zealand are the alphas of the pack, the likes of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh are dark horses, capable of pulling off upsets against the ‘big boys’, but more often than not likely to lose to them. And then there are the likes of Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, who bring up the rear of the 12-team rankings. The cricket economy, driven mostly by broadcast rights, doesn’t allow big teams to play bilaterals against the ‘minnows’ too often. Australia beating India or the other way around might be exciting, but it doesn’t really result in any serious jaw-dropping. Many a jaw would drop though if Afghanistan beat England or Ireland crushed New Zealand. And that would be a huge shot in the arm for the format’s popularity too, because the one thing neutral fans want to see more than anything else is exciting, unpredictable cricket. When Afghanistan beat Australia to reach the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup earlier this year, it did wonders for the popularity of the format. The same happened when Ireland beat England (DLS method) in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Test cricket could also do with a similar adrenaline shot.
Franchise cricket, meanwhile, has taken a cricketer’s workload to a whole new level. Scheduling bilateral series and trying to squeeze in a respectable number of Tests is becoming increasingly difficult. One suggestion that has been made by some like Ravi Shastri and Michael Vaughan is to have two tiers of Test cricket—a Top 6 and a Bottom 6, with teams mostly playing other teams in the same tier. Vaughan has also suggested reducing Test cricket to four-day affairs.
Change is the only constant. The governing bodies of cricket need to change with the times to keep pace with the evolution that we are seeing in fans’ preferences. The future looks exciting in terms of the various different blueprints that can be drawn up. Let’s just hope that the soul of Test cricket is not tampered with too much.
(The author is a former sports editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is currently a columnist, features writer and stage actor)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
