As we enter this new decade, some will tell you that Test match cricket is at risk. It feels like half the world are pulling away from it, not popular enough, not cost effective when put up against the flash bang wham of T20 and white ball cricket. England and South Africa(or at least England’s players..not so much their board..) however, have other ideas.
This game was perfectly set, two teams with something to prove. South Africa wanting to show that after a pretty woeful 2019, their win in the first test wasn’t a fluke, that they can and will continue to produce and rise again. England needed a response, England always seem to need a response in the second game of any series these days...but that’s probably for another time.
And so, in one of crickets most iconic settings, amongst echoing talk of a reduction too 4 days and with New Zealand doing absolutely nothing to help by selfishly being pummelled into the ground by Australia down under, these two teams played out a classic to the tune of test match crickets greatest hits.
It’s was tough, at times slow, it was grinding, it made everyone on both sides feel every emotion on the spectrum. Test Match cricket though has one constant emotion, the one thing that always sits in the back of your mind no matter how rough things get. Hope. In the words of Joe Root after that incredible Headingley finale in the summer; “as long as there’s 2 men still breathing, then you always have a chance”.
That quote can almost sum up test cricket, we’ve seen it often, Perera and Fernando is South Africa, Stokes and Leach at Headingley, Jimmy and Monty in Cardiff...in Test match cricket, no result is ever assured. The game ebbs and flows in a way that no other sport can, the nature of 5 days can take someone who looks nothing but innocuous on day one and make them a superstar by day 5, it can turn a road of wicket into a Bunsen burner. It can have you relaxing on your sofa for 2 days only to have you on the edge of your seat for two more. It takes every ounce of players skill, determination and knowledge and it makes them question it.
To just take a glance at the scorecard does this particular game no justice, the casual t20 fan will probably highlight Stokes’ second innings counter, they won’t stop to take note of the dedication to the team cause to play with that mindset or indeed the skill to pull it off, they’ll scoff at Sibleys magnificent 300 ball century and they probably won’t even notice Malans final day vigil, an innings or incredible patience, determination and assurance on debut. This though, is not the fault of test match cricket. This is the fault of the powers that be. Test cricket does not need to be changed, it doesn’t need to be played at a faster pace, it doesn’t need to be shorter...it needs to be marketed, marketed as the pinnacle, marketed for what it is, the ultimate test of a player, of a team. Every great of this beautiful game has been moulded from test cricket and I think we’re living in a world that forget that.
If test cricket is too thrive once more then it needs help from those at the very top, Ireland dreamt of test status for a decade and now can’t afford to play test cricket, West Indies were the best of the best but no longer have the money to keep players from the riches of t20, New Zealand, despite my earlier jab, have on their day one of the best sides in the world but barely ever play more than a two match series.
It’s time for the powers that be to take a look at themselves because Test match cricket doesn’t need changing, test match cricket is perfect as it is and 22 blokes with 10’000 watching on in Cape Town proved that yet again today and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
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