When England and the West Indies get our international summer of cricket underway on May the 6th this year at the home of cricket, it will be with more than a shade of disappointment that I sit down to watch. Not because it won’t be a well-contested match or because I would rather be watching the Sri Lankans (they were scheduled to tour but pulled out because all their best players had already signed contracts to play in the IPL), but because the players will barely have time to get into their stride before the series is all over. The two test, three one-day international series will take place over just twenty one days, giving the players just eight days to recover between thirteen potential days of cricket. In those eight days the teams will travel over 650 miles over the length and breadth of the country, from London to Durham all the way back to Bristol. Then add into the equation the chance of a rainy May affecting the results and the series is not the prospect it should be. The corresponding series currently taking place between the teams in the Caribbean lasts over two and a half months, yet there are only two more test matches (three included the abandoned second test) and ODIs being played. When looking for answers as to why fast bowlers are unable to stay fit in the modern era, one surely needs to look no further than the hectic schedule that gives them so little recovery time between international matches.
2009 is of course an ashes summer and the anticipation is already growing, certainly in my household; thoughts of Kevin Pietersen having his way with a weak Australian bowling attack while a rejuvenated Harmison and Flintoff terrify the Aussie batsmen have certainly sprung to mind; but a hard fought series against the West Indies might put paid to our hopes before the series even begins. Before the 2005 ashes England warmed up by thrashing Bangladesh twice while never having to get out of 2nd gear, but the West Indies will offer a sterner test, increasing the chances of both fragile confidence and injuries playing havoc with the ashes preparations. If Darren Powell or Jerome Taylor were to break one of Pietersen’s fingers, where would that leave England’s hopes? Or if Harmison or Flintoff were to break down again after having to bowl fifty overs as England pressed for victory, what would people be saying about the series?
I am just about old enough to remember the West Indies’ tour of England in 1995, when Dominic Cork took a famous hat-trick and Brian Lara blasted three centuries as the series was shared two apiece. It was the series that really got me hooked on test cricket. I can remember listening anxiously to test match special in the garden when my mum forced me to turn off the television to soak up some much needed daylight. I couldn’t wait for the next match every time one ended, but that was because there were ten days between each match, not three. When England take on the West Indies the series will not be a marathon over a whole summer with twists, turns and dips in form, it will be a month-long sprint with one victory enough to avoid a series defeat. The West Indies are one of the most exciting teams in the world on their day, and at his swashbuckling best there is no-one batsman more enjoyable to watch than the effortless Chris Gayle. Why then will the British public have to make do with less than a month of his swashbuckling style? It is because the ICC refuses to acknowledge that limits have to be set on the volume of cricket being played. The needless Champions Trophy has been rescheduled for next October in Pakistan, which would leave less than a month for players to recuperate after the gruelling ashes schedule. 20-20 cricket has permeated the international calendar so quickly that just five years after its arrival a biennial World Twenty 20 Cup is now a fixture so surely two worldwide one-day tournaments is enough. The IPL, love it or loathe it, is here to stay and thankfully the ECB has at long last allowed English players to participate, albeit only for half the tournament because of the needless series in May. When broadcasting rights for home test matches are next up for auction, the ECB must realise that in future we can probably learn to do without two-match test series in soggy May against second rate opponents. Instead the cream of England’s crop can test their skills against the rest of the world’s best in packed venues full of adoring fans while raking in half a million quid at the same time. Some people say that twenty 20 cricket teaches players bad habits for the longer form of the game, but what really constitutes the best preparation for the modern game, a walkover against Bangladesh at a rainy Chester-le-Street in May? Or needing 19 off the last over to win the IPL in front of 50,000 people? Cricket in the 21st century is a high pressure game with plenty at stake, and learning to cope and flourish in these tense moments is what separates mediocre sportsmen from great ones.
The twenty 20 vs. test cricket argument is very important to me. I am part of twenty 20 marketing men’s target audience and really enjoy the short form of the game for what it is; fast and simple entertainment. I think world cricket is better off for its existence; it has an appeal that test match cricket will never have. However it can only survive as test match cricket’s reckless wildchild, not as the main attraction. Test match cricket must be protected by the ICC, without it the stars of the modern game would be one-hit wonders, disappearing into anonymity as fast as they burst onto the scene. There can be no better example of what test match cricket has to offer than the third test in Antigua last week. Five days of exciting cricket culminated in a finish so tense that I could barely watch, but there is a limit to how much I can care about a contest that only has fourty overs to develop. If the trend towards the short form of the game continues as it is, how long will it be before there are no five-match test series and we are forced to play Australia for a month in June or tour for a month in January? Or will test cricket survive just because people become tired of the over-saturation of twenty 20 cricket? I don’t think test match fans can afford to count on that.
