Holding right on the money

Ifreely admit that I back Michael Holding’s adherence to the long-standing traditions of Test cricket being the ultimate mirror of the game and fully agree with him that the limited-overs and Twenty20 versions might have brought back the crowds but in real terms have contributed little to the great game.

In discussion with Ali Bacher, Holding, the great West Indian fast bowler nicknamed “Whispering Death”, freely admitted that he has consistently refused to lend his own charismatic brand of commentary to anything but the classic five-day international.

Even more to his own point of view, he has by his own admission never as much as watched a T20 game.

But, with 60 Tests in a superb era of West Indian cricket – and with 249 wickets at an average of 23.68 with 13 Test five-fors and twice claiming 10 wickets in a match – you have to respect his views and his stance.

He is, as is every believer in the merits of the classic game, merely standing by the concept of playing the type of cricket that the Don Bradmans and the Len Huttons passed on like a sacred baton, probably naively unaware that the passing years and the advent of mass communications technology would force changes they could never have envisioned.

Holding’s rationale is that why would you popularise and promote a version of the game then be told not to apply it at the highest level.

He is right on the money. Playing T20 is much like taking on a quick game of checkers. Test cricket is in comparison, more like a chess match, full of nuances and the subtleties of formulating revised strategies under fire. In short, Holding is right. You can’t compare the two.

The great West Indian has my vote on the level of the traditional rather than stirring the uncertain pool of the largely critically uninformed to boost gate and television revenues.

These are doubtless welcome in the modern world; if for nothing more than to help finance cricket at the ultimate level and perhaps in the hope that some of the baying mobs on the T20 terraces have the nous to make the transition.

For, like it or not, cricket might be ruled by transition, but equally it is its traditional strengths which keep the game so firmly rooted.