Test cricket appears to be in its last throes. Unless something drastic is done by the International Cricket Council to rejuvenate it, it won’t be long before the ever-rising popularity of the exciting Twenty20 format pushes the traditional version of the game completely into oblivion.
Purists and Test cricket romantics still exist, of course, but even they would admit they are a fast-dying breed as the T20 version keeps winning converts to its cause. When it was introduced a few years ago, many dismissed it as a passing fad, an aberration and even an insult to the exalted status that five-day cricket enjoyed.
Not anymore, though. T20 cricket has evolved over the years and can now proudly claim legitimacy. It sets the adrenalin pumping, it shocks people out of their senses and it delivers knockout punches. To look at it as a mere dispenser of cheap thrills that appeal only to a certain class of fan who can’t appreciate the ‘finer’ aspects of the game that only Test fans are capable of, is no longer a valid argument.
Recent figures of people watching T20 cricket are enough to prove the point. In Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) last season, matches attracted an average of 23,539 spectators each. At least half of the spectators who attended those matches came as part of a family and a quarter of them were 16 or under.
That proves one thing: parents as well as kids find T20 matches enjoyable. But most notably these kids would progress into adulthood carrying memories of the thrilling moments they have had at T20 games. They are more likely to idolise the big-hitters like David Warner or Glenn Maxwell, much like traditionalists who still reminisce about the silken skills of David Gower or the defensive prowess of Sunil Gavaskar.
When Lalit Modi, the man who served as IPL commissioner from 2008 to 2010 before falling foul of the authorities, said cricketers would one day receive European football-type salaries, it was dismissed as a hollow boast.
But although the salaries have still not reached those levels, top T20 players still earn in one year what many of the Test greats of the past did not earn in an entire career. Indeed, many have gone to the extent of abandoning their Test careers to make a killing out of the T20 leagues that have sprung up around the world.
More evidence of the format’s popularity would come in the following three weeks when the T20 World Cup is played in India, a country that played a pioneering role in its popularity by launching the money-spinning IPL.
The build-up has been unfortunately marred by rows over security for Pakistan and the late release of tickets. But while some level of uncertainty always accompanies the start of any major sports event in the subcontinent, the fact remains that everything falls into place once it gets underway. At least that is what cricket fans all over the world would be hoping for.
Over to the action now.
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