Now New Zealand have joined support for four day tests with Australia and England. Four day tests. Four day tests. Doesn't seem right. People who really get test cricket understand that it's the closest a sport can come to life. And it is because just like in life even after you have had a bad day and don't feel like waking up and doing it all over again you are forced to do so. And before you know it the tide changes and you have a great day so you go back to sleep all happy and excited but you, just like in life, never know what tomorrow brings.
The ebbs and flows of test cricket are nothing short of theater. A slow narrative boiling over four days and then it picks up pace end of day four and you are hooked to your screens, now it suddenly makes sense why they declared half an hour late on day two when you thought they had enough. You never have enough in test cricket. Time is such a vital component. But now it has gathered pace and heading to a dramatic finish on the fifth day.. well hang on. There's no fifth day. And the match ends in a draw. What if it rains on day one? Well then even before the toss both teams, their supporters and everyone know that's it's most likely to be a draw. Now how about that.
As test cricket is so close to life and that's the highest compliment a sport can get, let's for the sake of fun just compare four day tests to life. Taking out a day from test cricket is like taking out 20% of it. I know, I know they have plans to bowl 98 overs every day for those four days, but who are we kidding? Teams barely bowl 90 overs with the extra half hour these days.
So if the average person lives say 60 years, and plans his life with the hope of living 60 years, there are exceptions of course but it is the norm to finish education by 22-23, get a job, get married by 26-27, have kids before 30. So your kids are settled or married by the time you get old or you retire.
But wait. It's a four day test, right? You don't have 60 years anymore, you have only 48. Now that changes everything. If 48 is the new 60, that means 24 is the new 30. So you should have kids by the time you're 24. Hello all the 24 year olds out there!! Think you can handle a kid? Nah? Yeah, thought so. But you should at least be able to get married by, let me calculate.. umm 20-21. Wow. But to get married you should at least have a job or a steady source of income for two years at least. Which means you should start earning decent money from a stable job at the age of 18. Which means all of your education, graduation, post graduation should be finished by the time you're 17! Hmmm any 17 year old post grad Sheldon coopers out there? You guys are lucky. The rest of us. It's going to be a race against time.
Test cricket would be no different when it's four days. Everything will have to be done at a faster pace because everyone wants a result right? So what was earlier the slow cooked biryani over five days would be a quickly made fried rice. Which is nice in its own way but test cricket isn't nice. Nice things don't survive 150 years, two world wars, natural disasters, every obstacle in its path despite a handful of countries playing!
Sometimes I think the administrators don't realise that the greatest asset of test cricket or USP as many people call it is the time. It's the time it has. Time makes people do stupid things. Why do we see talented batsmen time and again rule limited overs cricket but struggle to be a good test cricketer. Because time. You have to think in test cricket. As there's so much time you have to plan your innings accordingly and suddenly they don't know whether to play or leave and they are in two minds. Not every 100 meter sprinter can complete a marathon. Test cricket is a marathon.
Great limited overs captains have struggled to master test cricket. Why? Because test cricket doesn't have any power plays or set plays that you need to follow. No guidelines. It's a blank canvas. Every test is different. You want a deep point from the start go ahead. You want 4 slips and a gully for the first twenty overs no one's stopping you.
Test cricket is life. It's a relationship to which you give and give and give and when it gives back it does so in such a magnificent fashion that all your senses come to life. And you remember test matches for decades. Headingley 2005. Kolkata 2001. You think those two tests would have panned out the way it did if they had been four day tests? Think.
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