Time to make Test cricket more accessible
The West Indies captain Chris Gayle's lax attitude highlights the crucial issue of keeping Test cricket alive and relevant, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian .
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The West Indies captain Chris Gayle's lax attitude highlights the crucial issue of keeping Test cricket alive and relevant, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.
But it's a problem that should concern everyone, not just Gayle. The reality is that Test cricket has been under threat for some time, despite the administrators' assurances that everything is hunky-dory. When we used to tour India, where they say cricket is a religion, we'd play Tests in front of grounds that were barely half full – and a third of the spectators were from the Barmy Army. Now we hear ticket sales for this game have gone badly, and England is supposed to be one of Test cricket's last bastions. Maybe the harsh truth is that Twenty20 has kept cricket alive more than we like to admit.
Gayle on the defensive is a rare sight in cricket, but by lunchtime yesterday, hours after the interview appeared in a national newspaper, he was in full-scale retreat, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.
He is not the only cricketer to prefer one-day cricket and he certainly will not be alone in future in choosing Twenty20 cricket over Tests. It is an open secret that he would not choose to be captain and if Gayle was irritated by Strauss's criticism of his late arrival before last week's first Test at Lord's, he is far too laid-back to bear a grudge.
Gayle's admission that he would not be sad if Test cricket died out sounds heretical to cricketers of my era, who regard the Test format as the holy grail. It also sends warning signals that we should not ignore, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
Gayle's comments should make us think about how we go about putting together out cricketing schedules. There are two options:
1) Assess from a cricketing perspective what might excite players and public alike and then, but only then, try to work out how to make as much money as possible.
2) Determine how to make as much money as possible and then cobble together a cricketing calendar around that.
Too often the latter course is the one chosen by modern administrators and results in Test matches at the beginning of May before the weather or the fan base are ready.
Chris Gayle would have no more considered moderating his provocative views on Test and Twenty20 cricket, and the West Indies captaincy, than he would toning down his belligerent batting, writes Tony Cozier in the Independent.
When asked about the 'sanctity' of Test cricket, Gayle became the first cricketer to break cover; the first modern-day player not afraid to admit modern-day realities. But Gayle's interview was only shocking for its candour, not its content, writes Mike Norrish in the Telegraph.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo