All of a sudden, it is test cricket everywhere!!

By CAM

Believe it or not, three different test matches, all taking place this week!! Apart from the ongoing India-SL series, the New Zealand-Pakistan and Australia-West Indies series are set to kick off. Wait a little over another 2 weeks and the South Africa-England series will also begin. Say that again please – not enough test cricket? We can all eat those words now. No matter which country you are a fan of, you will have a series to watch – if not this week, certainly in the next couple of months.

Here is list for you test cricket hungry folks…

- India – Sri Lanka

- New Zealand – Pakistan

- Australia – West Indies

- South Africa – England

- Australia – Pakistan

- Bangladesh – India

- Bangladesh – England

And this is just till Feb 2010. In just 3 months!!

I am assuming of course that those of you reading this love this age-old format of the game. For all you from the microwave generation, this game actually lasts 5 days. Yes, 5 days!! Not twenty overs, bang-bang, and done. Here, we are talking 5 full days of cricket, 90 overs a day. A game of patience, technique, psychology, and above all, just good cricket. If you are starting to complain that this is toooooooo long, just be thankful that they have gotten rid of the “rest” day – some of us old timers had to live through the agony of a rest day which was usually after day three during a typical 5-day match when the players “rested” and the fans did not know what to do with themselves. It was not until day 6 that the game was finally over.

With the stark differences between Test cricket and the shorter versions of the game, one wonders what will spark the interest of the Twenty20 generation in Test cricket. Is it a full calendar of bilateral series involving 3, 4 and 5 Test matches? Is it a Test cricket world championship event? Or is it a change to the format of the 5-day game as has been suggested by a few? Honestly speaking, are the powers that be gutsy enough to actually effect a drastic change to this classic age-old format. Only time will tell. IMHO, Test cricket must be left the way it is. Start a new format if you like, call it something else. Not Test cricket!

For now, let us just sit back and enjoy some enthralling test cricket around the world.