Cabinet96
Global Moderator
It's weird because theoretically, if the standard of teams ranked, say 4-10, all became much worse, then the top three would seem more dominant, and many would say they're rivalling the greatest teams of all time. I'd say test cricket is close to an all time high in terms of worldwide competitiveness. It's one of the reasons I think they'll never be a player who can get close to Bradman. They'd have to be entirely flawless because there's so many more sides for a player to struggle against and a wider variety of conditions to play in.Yeah I absolutely agree but cricket fans in general seem pretty top tier focused for some reason. Maybe it's because of the country and era I've grown up following cricket through but I've always felt that cricket fans lack an appreciation for the difference between decent and crap. If you're not world class then no-one cares about you and the standard of cricket seems to be measured in many people's eyes by the numbers of 'stars' in the game who seem a class above.
That the standard of Test cricket at the moment seems to be put down because of the lack of truly dominant standout players confuses me somewhat; isn't the fact that fewer players or indeed are soaring ahead of the pack a good thing for the strength of the game? Sure we don't have as many Pontings or Muralis at the moment but we also don't have as many Matthew Harts or Xavier Marshalls so Test cricket is closer than ever. Closer doesn't always mean the standard is better if we've merely had a drop off in standard from the top nations/players and I get that people are saying that's what we've had here, but I don't think it's just that.
It's also one of the reasons I think the whole "test cricket is dying thing" that the media like to throw at us every month or so, isn't going to come to fruition. That results are so unpredictable, and most series are pretty close, makes the game much more interesting for the majority of countries. If it were just Australia and England dominating everyone else then the interest in the game for those countries may wane.