How to improve test cricket

[GIMH]

Keep playing till a result is reached. If you ain't good enough to bowl a team out, well stiff ****, your chasing 2000 runs.

Jimmy & Monty would still be batting away now, setting your boys a target

 

[marc71178]

Obviously a seventh or eighth day would be too much. The sixth day suggestion from PCB was meant for countries where Test matches are held in October and such and only 70 odd overs are bowled everyday. I don't see the problem with adding an optional 6th day in such conditions to try and get as many of the 450 overs in as possible. Of course the optional sixth day would be utilized only if a certain amount of overs were lost. Would be ridiculous to have an extra day for 5 overs for example.

I would say that's fine if it were 6 days of 5 hours each as a schedule - although the other answer would be to not schedule games at times when conditions do not allow a proper match to be played - if that means a reduction in the cricket played, I personally wouldn't have a problem with it.

However an additional day as reserve for a games such as the current one is problematic IMO - where would you draw the line as to what can be made up and what can't? Could easily lead to even slower over rates.

 

[Andre]

Wondering if neutral groundsmen to prepare pitches would make a difference. Eg. a groundsman who is on the payroll for another country being brought in to prepare a wicket, with no pressure on to please the home boads etc. Not much chance of it happening, but would be interesting.

Btw, not suggesting pitches are doctored all over the world to suit the home teams.

 

[G.I.Joe]

No. That'll just bore people.

The quality of Test cricket will improve, I feel, when the BCCI's monopoly (like the ECB's back in the early 20th century) ceases. That way, countries with limited funds (like NZ) will not feel moved to produce utterly flat decks and play into the hands of the Indian batsmen just to avoid bankruptcy.

Yeah, because the ball seams around like crazy when Australia visit New Zealand

 

[NUFAN]

Jimmy & Monty would still be batting away now, setting your boys a target

Nah North and Johnson would still be at the crease.

 

[DaRick]

Yeah, because the ball seams around like crazy when Australia visit New Zealand

Perhaps I was just being a conspiracy theorist, but I recall the pitches when AUS.vs.NZ having more life in them than in the recent series against India.

The same applies to the last India vs NZ series, too.

I've even heard arguments that NZ prepared such pitches so that India would actually tour.

 

[Athlai]

Packed grounds for 5 days. The conspiracy should go no further than cricket grounds of NZ enjoying a bit of cash from a rather full house.

 

[aussie]

Yeah, because the ball seams around like crazy when Australia visit New Zealand

Although AUS & NZ pitches have been flat alot during this 2000s era, you are still likely to get a bowler friendly deck in those countries - more than in IND.

 

[Langeveldt]

I know, how about Bikini clad bitches shaking their bits to some Indian music? We could use a white ball and make it twenty overs a side so it is over more quickly and there are always results..

 

[G.I.Joe]

Perhaps I was just being a conspiracy theorist, but I recall the pitches when AUS.vs.NZ having more life in them than in the recent series against India.

The same applies to the last India vs NZ series, too.

I've even heard arguments that NZ prepared such pitches so that India would actually tour.

Yeah, which is why we saw 100 meet 100 test matches when India toured NZ in 2003. And I must have imagined all those 300+ chases when Australia toured NZ. Besides if those were dead pitches this year, all the more credit to the Indian team for beating NZ on those pitches.

 

[G.I.Joe]

I know, how about Bikini clad bitches shaking their bits to some Indian music? We could use a white ball and make it twenty overs a side so it is over more quickly and there are always results..

Very classy.

 

[nightprowler10]

I know, how about Bikini clad bitches shaking their bits to some Indian music? We could use a white ball and make it twenty overs a side so it is over more quickly and there are always results..

All class is our Rich...

 

[DaRick]

Yeah, which is why we saw 100 meet 100 test matches when India toured NZ in 2003. And I must have imagined all those 300+ chases when Australia toured NZ. Besides if those were dead pitches this year, all the more credit to the Indian team for beating NZ on those pitches.

Those were in one-dayers, not Tests. That's different again. Some of the Australian bowling on that ODI tour was utterly rank, too. I was referring to the 2005 Test series.

Sure, I'll give India some credit for beating a modest (if promising) NZ side on flat, very un-NZ like decks. But it would go without saying that India would prefer to face NZ on those kind of pitches (with it's vastly more powerful batting line-up), than on 2003-like seamers (on which blokes like Chris Martin and James Franklin can become much more dangerous).

 

[Athlai]

Those were in one-dayers, not Tests. That's different again. Some of the Australian bowling on that ODI tour was utterly rank, too. I was referring to the 2005 Test series.

Sure, I'll give India some credit for beating a modest (if promising) NZ side on flat, very un-NZ like decks. But it would go without saying that India would prefer to face NZ on those kind of pitches (with it's vastly more powerful batting line-up), than on 2003-like seamers (on which blokes like Chris Martin and James Franklin can become much more dangerous).

No doubt, on a green true NZ wicket (a thing practically of the past now) we'd just need a Taylor or Ryder to have a great day with the bat to actually threaten a superior Indian lineup.

 

[Langeveldt]

Have you seen what the American's are planning for test cricket? I can't wait, am so excited to see the game I've loved forever be butchered by some fat waster who has pitched up at Lord's and has decided that it's a load of rubbish..

'We're going to do it well, we're going to do it smart, we're going to do it best'


you ****ing idiot

 

[SJS]

You can not set Test cricket right (or any other ailment for that matter) without a proper diagnosis.

Once before, at the end of the sixties, cricket was thought to be suffering but forget diagnosing the disease, the quacks of ICC and MCC took the symptoms to be the disease and al steps were taken to treat the symptoms and side effects. So one day cricket was introduced to bring crowds back into the stadia and money into the coffers of the game instead of finding what ailed the first class game and Test cricket.

Today the disease is more serious and a lot of it self induced (or extraneous) but once again the attack is on symptoms and side effects of the disease and this time the quackery could be fatal.

I have very strong views on the subject but this requires a very detailed deesrtation.

 

[simmy]

Pitches. D/N test as well for evening audiences.

 

[elcid]

One innings instead of 2 innings, and reduce the length to 3 days

 

[Jamee999]

Only let England and Australia play.

 

[aussie]

You can not set Test cricket right (or any other ailment for that matter) without a proper diagnosis.

Once before, at the end of the sixties, cricket was thought to be suffering but forget diagnosing the disease, the quacks of ICC and MCC took the symptoms to be the disease and al steps were taken to treat the symptoms and side effects. So one day cricket was introduced to bring crowds back into the stadia and money into the coffers of the game instead of finding what ailed the first class game and Test cricket.

Today the disease is more serious and a lot of it self induced (or extraneous) but once again the attack is on symptoms and side effects of the disease and this time the quackery could be fatal.

I have very strong views on the subject but this requires a very detailed deesrtation.

Well said. But you have to admit SJS, as Keith Miller said in his autobiography. Cricket needed One-day cricket, cause lets be honest in 2009 test cricket as the only form of the game couldn't compete globally like Football, basketball etc.

The problem is basically ICC not being a governing body, it always goes back to that. A proper governing body who UNDERSTANDS (a key quality) the dynamics of this sport. Could have controlled the rise of T20s & keep fans & players in check.

The fire is already burning the house down, so ICC has to become a governing body & revamp things under these extreme circumstances.