Nick Bendel
Refund please
November 11th 2008 04:40
Will it be remembered for the rise of India? Will it be remembered for the ending of Australia’s hegemony? Will it be remembered for the remarkable debut of Jason Krejza? Will it be remembered for the emotional retirements of Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly?
Or could it be that the series is remembered for unsavoury, rather than historic, reasons? The incessant sniping between the two teams, perhaps, or the controversial suspension of Gautam Gambhir? The appalling over rates, or the embarrassingly empty stadiums? Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 8-1 field, or the percentage cricket routinely employed by both sides? Or could the abiding memory of India 2008 be that it marked the time when- at long last- a message was delivered to the custodians of the game that something needed to be done to preserve the sanctity of test cricket?
Much has been written, by Sport: The Australian Disease included, of the superficiality of Twenty20. But at least you know what you’re going to get. Contrast that with this Border-Gavaskar contest, which, having promised so much, fell well short of meeting expectations. Customers of McDonalds understand that the trade-off that comes with ordering something quick and tasty is that it is also going to be cheap and nasty. Those who patronise a fine restaurant, however, demand- and are entitled to- food and service of the highest quality. Sadly, the fans who watched the Indian tour got nothing of the sort, instead receiving unpalatable and overpriced stodge. They were short-changed.
The most damning indictment that can be made of the just-completed series is to highlight the interest surrounding the cricket that will soon be taking place on home soil. This interest, though, is not related to the two tests about to be played against New Zealand, or the three to follow against South Africa; rather it concerns the wretched Twenty20 fixture between a weakened Australian outfit and the ACA All-Stars. When people are more taken with anticipating an exhibition match than basking in the memory of a Border-Gavaskar battle, it suggests that test cricket is in trouble.
Given the rivalry that exists between the world’s two best teams, given the talent that they put out on the field, and given the fact that they were fighting ferociously for supremacy, it was only reasonable to expect entertainment. After all, if Australia and India can’t put on a show, who on earth can? This is the question that casual observers must be asking, and it’s reasonable to speculate that the answering of it will only make them less favourably disposed to the longer form of the game.
What made the showdown so disappointing was the way it became infused with negativity. Far too often, the line between pragmatism and cynicism was crossed. Exchange banter and engage in mental disintegration by all means, but desist from the juvenile name-calling, the ceaseless needling and the primitive elbowing. Go on the defensive when required, but eschew the wide bowling and ultra-conservative field-settings that are designed to bore the batsman to death. Talk tactics and reposition players should the need arise, but for God’s sake make sure that every one of the 90 overs are bowled in a day (especially if an extra hour half is added on).
However meaningless the All-Stars match is going to be, it is certain that the problems that blighted the Border-Gavaskar series will be absent. The threat of costly punishments will ensure that the game is kept flowing and the overs punctually delivered. Strict rules will ensure that fairer lines are bowled and more aggressive fields set. And, as several cricketers have only half-jokingly explained in the past, the relentless pace will ensure that the time and energy that would normally be devoted to belligerence is much diminished. No wonder casual observers prefer to watch the hit and giggle.
Test cricket is at its greatest when a fierce and even battle between bat and ball is occurring. Test cricket is at its worst when nothing is occurring. One can only hope that the powers that be, having observed the Australia-India series that was played before empty stands, take decisive action to ensure that everything that is wonderful about test cricket is promoted and everything unwholesome banished forever. That means devising legislation to eradicate unsporting fields, to penalise disreputable bowling, and to improve over rates.
But (to borrow the words of Jack Gibson) waiting for the ICC to take decisive action on anything is like leaving the porch lamp on for Harold Holt. Consequently, the only way that this summer’s action is going to be more enlivening is if the hosts (and their guests) take a pro-active decision to make it so. It is too much to hope that Ricky Ponting will seize the initiative; as an inherently cautious captain, with a mandate to win, the odds of him suddenly becoming bolder are remote. Therefore, someone from Cricket Australia needs to sit down with the Tasmanian and tell him that things need to change.
James Sutherland has already indicated that he is going to question Ponting about the bowling choices he made on day four of the fourth test (when, ironically, his commitment to improving the over rate caused him to employ part-timers, thereby ceding the advantage to India). “I’m always interested in the approach that they [captain and coach] take,” he reasoned. “It’s not something I do every day but at various stages I see that it’s part of my responsibility as chief executive to get a feel for that.”
If Sutherland believes that he has a responsibility to speak to his captain about something as minor as bowling choices, he surely has a responsibility to speak to him about something as vital as the integrity of test cricket. Indeed, he hinted as much, declaring that he felt “major concerns about over rates in international cricket”, and that it was something he would “be taking up with the ICC.” Getting “more overs in”, he added, would be “a good thing for test cricket.”
While discussing the issue with the ICC would be no bad thing, history suggests that if it leads to anything at all, it will only be self-righteous press releases from the governing body. For progress to be made- at least in the short term- Sutherland will have to instruct Ponting to adopt a more positive approach. The chief executive would have closely followed the Border-Gavaskar series, and he could not have been impressed with what he saw. For the sake of the domestic cricketing community that he represents, he must take action to ensure that Australian crowds are not short-changed this summer in the same way that India’s just were.
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