Making a mockery of Test cricket

Tests in India can no longer be referred to as the five-day game. We have the fantastic (pun intended) pitch curators to thank for that. Just like the first Test in Mohali and the three Tests in India before that - last test to go for more than three days was the third Test in the Border-Gavaskar series - the Nagpur Test was done and dusted with before the end of the third day. India won the match and the series comfortably as South Africans were caught unawares on a treacherous track.

It is one thing to have pitches that favor the home side and another that mock the sport in itself. I fear that this is what the Test series between India and South Africa has become- a mockery of Test cricket. There is no use in glorifying India’s victory beyond a point because it is happening on dusted surfaces that take the fun out of the game. Some might argue that both teams play on the same pitch, while that may be true it doesn’t make the pitch a good one for Tests. In a continued attempt to make changes in a well-established game one must examine the sport regularly.

Every sport favors the home team. But cricket is the one of the few sports where conditions not only differ from country to country but even from city to city within a country. The only other sport where conditions matter as much is probably tennis where the speed, bounce and surface conditions vary. Cricket is the one sport where the pitch has the most impact on the result of the game. The impact has lessened in the ODI game, which is now pretty much a batsmen’s game and so flat tracks are the norm. T20 is just a 40-over match and so how much does a surface really matter.

The Test match wicket is the perplexing one and makes it a bit of a joke. This is because a huge impact on the outcome of the game depends on whether the captain correctly calls “heads or tails.” When the flip of a coin plays such a crucial aspect in determining the outcome of a sporting event then you know that a revision in the sport is required. In a lot of cases in test cricket it is boiling down to the toss. While I am not belittling the impact of skill and eventually players do have to perform, how often do we talk about how the toss is critical?

So how do we take out the coin flip from the sport and yet at the same time allow home teams to take advantage of their strengths? A suggestion has been floated and supported by a few former players that the toss shouldn’t exist at all. The logic is that since the home team determines the pitch condition the visiting team should have the right to choose whether they wish to bat or bowl first. This is easily implementable, logical and to a large extent evens the playing field. I for one would implement this starting tomorrow. (Firstpost.com)

By Pranav Gandhi