Safety first, but at what cost?

It is easy - and tempting - to be harsh on the two captains and their teams for the way the series ended, with a giggle preceded by a yawn. But these same teams had given us in Chennai one of the finest Test matches of recent years, and anyway, the series was never going to be about the cricket alone.

To begin with, India and England have probably altered the meaning of the word ‘series’. Do two Tests constitute a series? Is this the precursor to the one-Test series?

Captains have a responsibility towards Test cricket, especially at a time when interest in this form of the game is waning worldwide. But it cannot be the captains alone. Administrators have an even greater responsibility. The Indian cricket board pays lip service to Test cricket, but shows by its actions that its real interest is the shortest form of the game. Senior board members, who ought to be concerned with the big picture, run private IPL teams - and in this clash of interests, it is Test cricket which loses out.

It is easy to criticise Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his apparent negative tactics in Mohali, but the fact remains that this is no time to play Test cricket in that part of the country at this time of the year. A Test match was reduced to a virtual four-day affair, and it was difficult to shake away the impression that India were only going through the motions.

True, it was up to the 0-1 down England to do all the running, yet it was a trifle disconcerting to see the attacking, positive, cheerful, imaginative captain Dhoni do a Sunil Gavaskar by taking the early lead in a contest and then sitting on it.

Once Virender Sehwag was run out in the second innings, India simply shut shop. It would have been good to see at least an attempt to win the Test. If safety first was the theme, then England would not have returned to India after the terror attacks. There is a time for clinging to safety and a time for taking on a challenge head on.

Having decided early (too early, in fact) that it was not possible to get England out a second time, Dhoni decided to focus on individual records - the bane of Indian cricket. Perhaps had the full quota of play been available over the five days, this might not have happened. Playing under lights is an answer. Where lights are available, they must be used. Playing in Mohali was bad enough, but fobbing off spectators with a 50% contest is criminal. Especially when Test cricket needs special looking after.

England came, they came back, and they gave us a good first Test. It meant that Indian cricket was able to send out a message to the rest of the world. All this was to the good.

But two-match series where one match is a washout after three days’ play cannot be good for Test cricket. One of the arguments for Twenty20 cricket is that it will attract new fans to Test cricket. But when a ‘series’ is handled thus, it will do the reverse - frighten away genuine fans of Test cricket and drive them towards Twenty20. Or was that the plan all along?