Australia and India contested a memorable Test series (Photo by Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon … [+]
Firstly, have your nerves recovered? Secondly, what are you going to do now?
Such the void after the frenzied five-Test series between cricket powers Australia and India ended following 20 days of an utterly compelling, rollicking battle that dominated the psyche of the Australian nation over the past six weeks.
The question being asked in the aftermath: Is this the greatest Test series played in Australia? At least since the immortal West Indies series of 1960-61?
I would argue the 2020-21 series between the teams had better finishes and more all-time great Tests – this one really only had the MCG match that fits the bill. I’m not sure one great Test out of five can be hailed as the GOAT.
Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question. Is it the most memorable? Undoubtedly yes. You just couldn’t keep your eyes off the frenetic, back and forth between flawed teams that were fairly evenly matched. The action was so frenetic that the dull parts of Test matches, lulls that often exist when one team is in complete control, were basically eradicated.
And the series was played amid the backdrop of record crowds and broadcast ratings plus a widespread feeling that cricket really was the centre of attention during the past month or so.
Crowds were enormous during the series (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty … [+]
While a long-time pastime in Australia, cricket’s heft has diminished over the decades amid changing demographics and the slower-paced sport up against the winds of hectic modern life and dwindling attention spans.
But the popularity of this series and its ability to cut through reinforced that cricket still holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Australians. And it showed that, despite some ambivalence from its hard-bitten compatriots at times, the Australian men’s cricket team remains the favored national side in this sports-mad country.
Only five-day Test cricket could strike such a chord among Australians with the format still the most prestigious and popular in the country.
Played over the equivalent of a working week, with the slowness of play only fuelling the tension, there is a payoff in Test cricket that far outdoes its knockoff shorter versions.
As perfectly encapsulated throughout the series, Test cricket is gripping, edge of your seat stuff that frankly no other sport can rival for such prolonged periods. With that sprinkling of fairy dust in the air, it’s little wonder giddy fans are gushing over the sheer beauty of cricket.
The drama of Test cricket is unmatched (Photo by Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via … [+]
‘Test cricket is alive and well’ is probably trending on the socials as we speak. It may be undergoing a renaissance in Australia, but the health of Test cricket worldwide remains a concern.
Really only powerhouses India, England and Australia have the financial might to regularly play and make money from the expensive format. Pretty much every other country can’t afford to exacerbated by lucrative private T20 leagues poaching their top players.
The only possible solution would be for those powers – mainly cash-rich India who get the bulk of the pie in cricket’s multi-billion dollar revenue sharing model – to agree for the sport’s skewed financial model to be cut up and replaced by something more equitable.
But that isn’t going to happen, so other measures are needed. A Test Cricket Fund was set up mid last decade to help Full Member nations outside the three powers with two biannual payments totalling more than $1 million. But the fund, which aimed to “encourage and support Test match cricket” outside India, England and Australia, was scrapped amid an overhaul of the financial model in 2016-17.
Reviving a Test fund has been mooted and initiated by Australia, with a minimum Test match fee of $10,000 for players hoped to ward off those enticed by T20 leagues.
But there are those who believe it is merely window dressing and the supposed Test fund has not been officially tabled at the ICC board level, it is learned.
It is also incumbent on countries like Australia to play the smaller countries, who don’t attract the type of commercial appeal compared to India or England. It’s been more than 20 years since Australia hosted Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in Test cricket, while they’ve never played Ireland.
“The young (Irish) guys have taken to Test cricket, realized how special it is. Test cricket is the ultimate challenge and the guys love it,” Ireland high performance director Richard Holdsworth told me last year.
Though the powers might be playing each other more regularly if the often proposed two tiers of Test cricket gets off the ground as is being currently discussed, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Promotion and relegation would have added to the commerciality of the ICC,” Holdsworth told me in 2022. “We pushed hard for it because it would have given Tests context for us, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. There needs to be ways at making it more commercially viable and attractive to broadcasters.”
While the Test series between Australia and India brought a lump to the throat of traditionalists, and even hooked the casual cricket types, it is a more bittersweet feeling for those countries wishing to regularly play this enchanting, elongated game that still endures.
