Four better or four worse, Test cricket is in for a major shift that could save the game
The only part of life that is getting longer is life itself, so it is only a matter of time before Test cricket is reduced to four days instead of five.
This may upset those with a penchant for tradition, but time marches on and cricket has had more rule and regulation changes than most sports. There was a time, of course, when Test cricket imposed no time constraints on itself at all.
Changing from five days to four is about as risqué as an elderly librarian taking off a cardigan, but it could have a profound effect on the game, which is exactly why Cricket SA and the England Cricket Board are at the forefront of pushes to make the change.
Initially, both four- and fiveday Tests will be permitted once the issue has been discussed at the ICC CEs board meetings in Auckland in the second week of October.
Initially, they will agree to the change on a trial basis to iron out the practicalities of, say, adding extra overs to the mandatory 90 in order to lessen the impact of losing a full day.
But, as the great cricket statistician, historian and lover of the five-day game, Andrew Samson, says: “The change is primarily being pushed by the TV broadcasters so it will definitely happen based on the old truism that, in a contest between common sense and money it is common sense to put your money on the money.”
Playing Test cricket from Thursday to Sunday is also common sense.
But when has Test cricket and common sense ever gone hand in hand? The Monday finish is a strange creature. For all the drama created by a gripping, nerve-tingling draw, there are also the days when great victories have been concluded in front of a few hundred people.
Anybody who saw the last day of Jacques Kallis’s career at Kingsmead will still cringe at the memory. There were more people doing the lap of honour with him than there were in the stands.
The argument that playing four-day Tests will enable more of them to be played is nonsense. We should be grateful that it might enable the existing ones to be played. Any days saved will be used to play domestic T20 leagues.
Another nonsensical argument is the one that players and captains will speed the game up, play more shots, declare earlier and set more attacking fields. Sure they will — when things are going well and they are already dominating. But a team, and its fans, that is under pressure would still far rather draw than lose and will do whatever it can to make that happen. If that ever changes then we can give up on it altogether.
It seems certain that there will be more draws when all Tests are four-days, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Exciting draws are what makes Test cricket unique, but in the past five years over 80% of Tests worldwide have produced a positive result.
You could argue that, currently, there are not enough draws. The biggest problem will come in some parts of the subcontinent where pitches are traditionally flat and in parts of Andrew Samson the world where rain is common, such as New Zealand and the north of England.
Losing a whole day in those circumstances will lessen the chances of outright victory — unless groundsmen are instructed to prepare bowlerfriendly surfaces.
It also makes sense to stage Tests between the “strong” and “weak” nations over four days.
With great respect to Zimbabwe, nobody other than a long-range weather forecaster could see a way for the one-off, Boxing Day Test to be played under St George’s Park’s shiny new floodlights to extend to a fifth day.
Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of four-day Tests, apart from the scheduling one, is Parkinson’s Law: “Work will expand to fit the time available.” Give a student a fortnight rather than a week to write an essay and they will take it. That’s why the clever ones become lawyers and charge by the hour.
Finally, we will all be better off without the unedifying sight of batsmen continuing late into the third innings with far too many runs already in the bank but not declaring because there are too many overs still remaining in the game.
So, take a deep breath and calm down if you don’t like the idea because the change, while hardly dragging Test cricket into the modern era, might just be a step in the right direction of saving it. For now. of Test matches over the past five years have produced a positive result
THE CHANGE IS BEING PUSHED BY TV SO, IT WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN BASED ON THE OLD TRUISM THAT, IN A CONTEST BETWEEN COMMON SENSE AND MONEY, IT IS COMMON SENSE TO PUT YOUR MONEY ON THE MONEY