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Is Test Cricket losing popularity/dying worldwide?

Cricketismylife

U19 12th Man
I am curious to find out what people think of the popularity of test cricket compared to say 10 or 20 years ago and whether it's on a downwards or upwards curve. Any stories from any of the countries worldwide would be ideal.

As a massive fan of the purest form of the game, I badly want test cricket to go back to the days when individual series were surrounded by a lot of planning, organisation and hype. For example, I remember thinking last year when Pakistan played West Indies that there was hardly any interest in the series, whereas 15-20 years ago that would be unthinkable. I hope that the empty grounds are more due to availability of matches on the internet/ high ticket prices rather than lack of interest in test cricket. I also hope that this series win for Pakistan regenerates interest in test cricket in Pakistan.
 

Agent Nationaux

International Coach
A lot of people in Pakistan did celebrate the win. Hopefully with the high number of result matches, there is going to be an increased interest in the game.
 
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Jayzamann

International Regular
At least for me, ever since 06/07 when Australia fell off our mantle and the top 5/6 teams have been at level terms(ish) in test cricket, it's piqued a lot of excitement. Sure, the fall was frustrating, but now with fresh faces and improvement it's really fascinating. Especially when you get slipups like Hobart and apparently something bad happened in South Africa last year, I forget.
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
Pakistan recent win was a front page headline in all major newspapers and all the news channels ran special coverage after the whitewash was completed. Interest in test cricket imo has remained similar or slightly increased over the last 20 years globally,
 

Faisal1985

International Vice-Captain
Test Cricket imo is still just as popular and thrilling....and Test cricket will never die out its the mother of all cricket.

I think the important thing is that young emerging players at domestic levels consider playing tests the ultimate goal and not T20 or ODI. If they work with that goal in mind they will turn out better cricketers as well as the standard of test cricket will be higher and that is what makes Test cricket better than anything, the level of play, concentration, stamina etc have to be of superior quality.
 

gvenkat

State Captain
It's not dying. Certainly the fan base has dwindled. In the past decade there were only a handful of contests as good as the Ashes of 2005/06 or the India-Australia 2000/01 and 2003/04.

There were only a few series that have been really fought tooth and nail. Unless teams can produce that level of excitement consistently Tests will slowly lose followers to ODI's and T20's.

ODI's generate revenue and T20's generate instant entertainment. Tests on the other hand does neither unless we have teams that are really really competitive and can give us a contest.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I don't know what you mean - overall the number of close games and results have never been higher than in the past decade.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Quite.

I mean, just involving us in the last few years, I can think of four:
Ashes 09
Aus/SA 08/9 (both)
Aus/SA 11

India/SA 10/11 was fantastic too.
 
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Xuhaib

International Coach
Pakistan & India visit to SA in 2006-7 was also high quality cricket all 6 test mathes produced thrilling cricket.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Yeah if there was another, say, four sessions after the last day Edgbaston could've gotten very interesting. Clarke/North didn't look like getting out but we weren't exactly a long way ahead of the game.
 

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