International Test League

The world is changing at such a pace that our children are learning things at school that they will need to use in careers that have not yet been discovered. School leavers today are entering careers such as internet marketing which wasn’t even around when they entered grade one in 1992.

Likewise encyclopaedia salesmen have had to reinvent themselves as their once very stable occupation ended rather abruptly with the creation, first of CD-based, and now internet-based encyclopaedias.

Businesses are being forced to re-think the value they offer to their customers in order to survive against this backdrop of extreme change. Cricket is faced with the same challenges, and in this column I’m exploring ways that Test cricket can survive and thrive in this fast evolving environment.

I will never forget going on a holiday in 1992 to the Caribbean to watch South Africa play its first Test match after isolation against the West Indies. It was a momentous occasion and one that I cherished as I watched two highly competitive teams give everything they had to get the better of one another. It was during this match, watching every ball on the side of the field that I began to understand the pure mastery of cricket at its best.

Quality fast bowling, clever spin bowling, sharp fielding and courageous batting were all on display as I became mesmerised by this ultimate battle between two great cricket nations. The determination of every player to give everything of himself, mentally and physically was evident throughout the four days.

I never stayed to watch South Africa collapse needing a further 80 runs with eight wickets in hand on the last day with the great Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose producing one of the most devastating spells of fast bowling ever seen. But I had seen enough. I desperately wanted to be part of this. I wanted to know what it felt like to score a Test 100 for your country. I wanted to play against the best cricketers in the world and I wanted to know what it would feel like to win a Test match at Eden Gardens or Lord’s or the SCG.

What was this attraction? What was I seduced by? Why did playing Test match cricket for my country become an obsession?

As I started my Test career, I began to truly understand why every Test match was a really special occasion. I realised that to score a Test match 100 would require a mammoth effort of concentration, courage and determination and the opposition would try everything possible to bring about my demise. My mental resolve and physical endurance were comprehensively tested and the ecstasy of success or the disappointment of failure left me exhausted at the end of a Test match.

This was performance at its best where the opposition had the opportunity to expose their opponent’s character and find what they were made of. There was no place to hide as players were tested in every department. Can he play the short ball? Is he prepared to get hurt? Can he face quality spin bowling? Can he score runs in different conditions? Can he handle the pressure? Can he fight back? These were questions constantly asked of Test batsmen as they embarked on another Test match innings. Could there be anything more exhilarating than facing this ultimate test and succeeding for your country, your team mates and your self?

I grew up in a generation where Test match cricket defined each one of us who have been fortunate to play it. It provided a meaning to life and gave us the motivation to live every day with great intensity and energy. It challenged our every move and we knew that to take it too lightly would expose who we are and what we believe in. It was the ultimate test of character. Would we want to be remembered as a player who backed off when the going got tough or did we have the resilience to hang in and turn things around? Test cricket would let us know just what type of person we were.

I believe that the sports entertainment industry has undergone major change over the last 15 years and cricket has been forced to reinvent itself. The game has produced a shortened format (20 overs) that has satisfied the stake holders of this sports entertainment era. It has produced a new type of cricketer armed with a variety of exciting skills. It is filling the stadiums and generating an interest never seen before. IPL has introduced a powerful new franchise club system driven by big business and is already beginning to look remarkably like professional football or American baseball.

So where does that leave Test cricket?

I believe that Test cricket is the backbone, or the foundation, of this great game. Without it, the game would lose its soul. But how does it survive in this modern age of sports? I ask this question because we have seen around the world - except for maybe Australia and England - that people are not coming to the stadiums even though they might have an interest in the game.

In order to move the game forward I believe it’s necessary to ascertain why the Test format may perhaps not be holding quite as much interest as it should. And we only need to look at other sports – and even other cricket formats - to find the key.

I believe the time is right to create a world league system for Test cricket. The game needs to have a world champion every year. It’s what keeps people interested, involved and engaged. Devotees need to have events and fixtures upon which to focus; from which winners and losers are separated; and from which an eventual champion emerges.

The idea of an annual Test Championship comprising one-off Test matches between the nine or ten Test-playing nations, I believe would create global interest. Four home games one year, five the next. It would mean every Test playing nation would play nine or ten Tests per year which would count towards the Championship.

Crucial to the success of such a departure would be the introduction of a bonus points system so that every game has a meaning and a purpose. The top Test nations may expect to beat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe every time but the onus would be even greater, and bonus points would make things even more interesting. In today’s world of travel, it is easy to get around the world for a Test match, so logistics needn’t be a problem.

Iconic series like the Ashes or India against Pakistan could still be included in the programme, as playing up to 14 or 15 Test matches in the year would still fit into the world cricket schedule.

In this way the character of Test cricket would remain unchanged but the format would be altered to accommodate the new cricket entertainment landscape. There are other great ideas, put in circulation by respected “cricket people” which I believe all need to be considered as the time for change is now.

I started this muse with a look to the business world and it is there that there are many lessons that can help us map a course for Test cricket. One case is the music industry that has been revolutionised by innovations such as iTunes and iPods allowing people to buy music digitally rather than on a CD.

The world of cricket must be careful not to fall into the trap of protecting the wrong thing. Music companies have spent fortunes protecting CD’s with plastic covers to prevent them being stolen in stores and digital copy protection to prevent people copying the CD. In doing this they miss the point that people want the content, not the disk.

Customers drive change. Successful companies line themselves up around the needs of their customers, not protecting the way things have always been.

The customers in Test cricket are viewers and the viewers are delivered to Test cricket by large media networks who act as gatekeepers, paying the players and administrators and collecting a handsome profit in the process.

By holding on to the past and keeping Test cricket the way it’s always been, the 5-day game is at risk of remaining perfectly intact while also being perfectly irrelevant. The successful innovations in the IPL and 20 over version of the game give indications as to where Test cricket needs to go.

Just like the music industry is slowly realising that their business is about distributing music and not about distributing CD’s, so too must the ICC realise that it is in the game of sport entertainment rather than the game of Test cricket.

Test crickets’ competitors are other formats of the game and other sports. How competitive it is will determine the future. If Test cricket can re-invent itself it has the potential to thrive well into the next century. If not, then we may, in the not too distant future, think nostalgically about memorable tests in the same was as we do about vinyl records today, and will do about CD’s within the next decade when we use them as placeholders for our coffee cups.

The soul of this great game is under threat because of an ever changing landscape. We all know the time has come for innovative thinking to keep it alive.