It is the holiday season. The world is making merry. Late night parties, food coma time! My alarm clock wakes me up at 4:45 am though. It’s pitch dark outside. The coffee is brewing as I am all set- to watch the first ball of the Boxing Day Melbourne test. This has become a habit now. There is something about waking up early to see a gripping test match. If the venue is Australia, then it is even better. The world has moved on to ODI’s and T20 cricket. But I still like my cricket the old school way. So this post is dedicated to all test cricket lovers. Here are ten reasons why I still like good old test cricket.
- There is something ethereal about test cricket. The traditional whites- there can be many tennis events but there can just be one Wimbledon right?! The red cherry, the white sight screen all add to the aura. There is a nervous excitement as the umpires (in whites again) call ‘Play’. The swinging ball with a full slip cordon, mark the beginning of an eventful five days.
- Test cricket is a platform for specialists. ‘Bits and pieces’ players have no role to play here. You better be good in plying your trade because this format will surely ‘test’ you. Ask for a traditional opener and you have Boycott, the no.4 can be Sachin as an accumulator, Steve Waugh can be your no.6 to play the role of crisis man or shepherd the tail. The all-rounder ideally at no.7 can balance the side like Kapil or Botham. You need genuine swing bowlers like McGrath to take the new ball or Akram to give it reverse swing with the old ball. Only a great spinner like Warne will do here- to take advantage of a wearing pitch on a fifth day. Why? You even have specialist fielding positions here- like our very own Eknath Solkar at forward short leg.
- Test cricket truly calls for skills in the ‘art of leaving’. In the T20 era where dot balls are like maiden overs, test cricket still rewards those who try and wait. The first hour of the match especially calls for oodles of patience- it’s like you move ahead by taking two steps back. The openers perform the thankless job of waiting and waiting, ensuring that that the shine wears off the new ball so that the middle order can make merry when the sun is out. Remember Sanjay Bangar playing this role to perfection at Headingley with a painstaking 68 as India made 600 plus in the 2002 test win.
- Test cricket also truly tests the adaptability of a player. Sunny Gavaskar is considered one of the best test batsmen of all times as he had 13 centuries against the fearsome Windies fast bowling line-up while being equally comfortable tackling spinners on a dustbowl of a fifth day wicket- his Bangalore 96 in the fourth innings vs Pakistan is considered to be one of the classics. Sachin with 51 tons has mastered all conditions. Among modern day greats, Steve Smith has done well in the sub-continent as much as home fast conditions. Kohli needs to tick the box in English conditions. He has pretty much ruled everywhere else.
- There is that adventure of doing well in an away series in tests. Normally all countries do well at home but great teams win overseas. That was Ganguly’s legacy when he captained India- the team traveled well and drew in Australia and won in Pakistan. The Aussies under Steve Waugh considered India to be the ‘Final Frontier’ in their ‘Alexander-esque’ ambition of conquering all in early 2000’s. How can one forget the India batting collapse at Barbados 1997 chasing 120 to win? Away performance is also a reason I hold the South African team in great regard- they were unbeaten away from home for close to a decade from 2006 onwards. Fingers crossed, Kohli & co. will be able to do a South Africa to South Africa in the current series!
- Test matches give you a great opportunity to make a comeback. Very recently, England scored 400 in the Perth test and still lost by an innings. Because the match goes on for five days, there is always a chance of a team turning the tide, however hopeless the case may be. Remember the Eden test in 2001 where Dravid and Laxman scripted the unthinkable by batting through the fourth day? Or Botham’s amazing performance to turnaround the Ashes Headingley 1981 test match.
- Then there is the drama around declarations. This is purely the captain’s call. Do you want to be aggressive and give your bowlers more time? But you may declare early and give the opponents enough time to win the test! It’s fascinating. Sometimes it opens a can of worms and lot of talking points- like Dravid’s declaration at Multan which left Sachin stranded at 194.
- There is also the concept of night-watchman that comes into play in test cricket. When the end of the day is drawing close, a bowler is sent in to protect specialist batsmen and in a way buy time so that they can prosper the next day. It’s a riveting sequence of play normally. Some of the night-watchmen have gone on to make useful contributions and created nuisance for the opposition- like Gillespie with a double ton in his last test vs Bangladesh.
- The day 5 action is usually the highlight of a test match. The pitch deteriorates so the match moves fast, especially in the sub-continent. All four results are possible. There can be a tie like the Chennai 1986 test vs Australia. Or a draw with scores level- as it happened vs West Indies in Mumbai in 2011. Even an attempt to block to draw can be truly memorable- like Amla and ABD’s ‘blockathon’ in vain in Delhi in 2015 when South Africa scored 143 runs in 143 overs trying to get to a draw, but where they ultimately failed.
- Test cricket also breeds great rivalries. The Ashes is the epitome of test cricket more than a century old. The Border Gavaskar trophy has also given us memorable encounters. At a personal level, Sachin vs Warne or Sunny vs the Windies Fearsome Foursome- mouth-watering stuff!
The world has moved on- so an IPL or Big Bash garner the TRP’s and fill the stadiums. But to me, test cricket is still the pinnacle.
Like Lord Tennyson’s famous lines from the poem ‘Brook’
‘For men may come, and men may go,
But I go on forever.’
Silly Point 
True. All this is the romance of test cricket and then some more. As a Bengali I can never forget Ajoy Bose’s commentary on the opening day of a test match. Thanks to the slew of limited overs matches being played nowadays, technique has gone for a toss. Which is why, test matches are being played like ODIs or T20s – the recent India-South Africa test being a prime example.
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Completely agree. There is a thrill in admiring ‘the silence and pause’ that test cricket is all about. Alas, this the new generation hardly values nowadays!
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