Why T20 can never kill Test Cricket?

Twenty Twenty or T20 as we call it is the latest form of cricket that has captured the imagination of fans across the world. Thanks to the IPL and the T20 world cup, the whole world of cricket had changed, fans and administrators have started chanting T20 as if it is a new mantra, newspapers and channels have praised T20 as if it is the new Messiah of cricket. The rise of T20 has come with a cost, the decline of Test Cricket, the greatest form of the game.

Writing premature obituaries: It is sad to see even past and present cricketers writing off test cricket. Even the most devoted fans of Test cricket have given up. Administrators mention that Test cricket:
Is a long game, 5 days of meaningless cricket, doesn’t assure a result
Does not attract much crowds (As if IPL did, many people know that the stadiums were half-empty)
Has a low entertainment quota compared to T20

Well, being an avid fan of cricket, I can easily say that Test cricket is never going to die, at least not now. People need to understand that a format that has withstood 120 years, survived many administration problems, and yet proved to be timeless, is not going to die just like that. Comparing T20 and test cricket is like comparing a BURGER with a fully balanced meal. Burgers may seem delicious, but will spoil your appetite when overeaten.

Let us analyze the reasons for the so-called demise of tests:
They say that no crowds come to watch tests. Why? Because nowadays, the world has become so hectic that people prefer to catch up with test cricket via internet or TV. This is very obvious.
90% of revenue from Cricket comes only via the Internet and Television, not from Full Stadiums. So, the administrators need to find innovative ways to bring in revenues.

T20 is a new phenomenon, hardly a few years old. People are always curious about new things; they run after T20 because it offers them “unlimited entertainment”, meaning lots of fours and sixes within 40 overs.
But for how long?
After a certain period of time, people will be used to T20 and then they will loathe it for the same reason they started loving it.

Administrators say that test cricket doesn’t produce results, only boring draws. Well, it doesn’t help when the brainless ICC prepares flat placid tracks for test matches around the world. Let them prepare sporting pitches and we’ll see how Test Cricket fares.
You cannot ask bowlers to bowl out teams by giving them tracks as dead as dodos.
As Michael Slater once put it sweetly, “You can even find life in Mars, but not in this pitch”.

As they say, ‘Change is the only permanent thing.” Like every sport, Cricket also undergoes changes. The administrators of the game should be responsible enough to ensure that Test cricket does not lose popularity. They should changed it according to modern trends. The ICC can try out conducting test series on a points-basis manner.
For example:
If a Test match is drawn, the winner is decided by the points gained by each team:
Team which gained first innings lead: 1 point
Team which scored maximum runs with minimum wickets: 1 point
If a team is closing victory (Say target is either within reach or the batting team has lost more than 7 wickets): 1 point
Team that scored runs at a faster run rate: 1 point

The ICC should try some innovations in test cricket by consulting with some cricket experts, without spoiling the sanctity of the game.
And for once, the ICC should try not to be greedy and prepare even pitches that provide assistance to both batsmen and bowlers alike.
Test cricket has its own devoted group of fans, the ICC should try not to disappoint these fans. After all, test cricket is the mother of all forms of cricket. It deserves better respect.

T20 is exciting, but it has limited number of overs, depends too much on luck, and provides very little chance of error. Test cricket on the other side, is grueling, tests your patience and character, improves your game and gives you a sense of satisfaction.

Test cricket has provided fans with many memorable incidents, a few of them are given below:
The immortal contest between Michael Atherton and Allan Donald at Trent Bridge in 1993.

Sachin playing one of his greatest innings, a back-breaking 136 against Pakistan at MAC stadium, Chennai, in 1999.

Shane Warne bowling Mike Gatting with a delivery termed as the ball of the century in 1992 Ashes.

Lara scoring 152 not out against an Aussie attack comprising of Mcgrath, Gillespie, and Warne, and leading West Indies to an improbable victory.

Anil Kumble taking 10 wickets against Pakistan at Feroshah Kotla, Delhi in 1999.

West Indies chasing an improbable target of 418 against Aussies and winning by 8 wickets.

Nathan Astle hammering 222 off just 155 deliveries against England.

Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis bowling dozens of batsmen with their reverse swinging Yorkers and toe crushers.

1980's Ashes series, when Ian Botham almost single-handedly won the Ashes for England

Brian Lara scoring 375, and 400 not out(ten years later) against England at St. Johns, Antigua.

Can Twenty-Twenty cricket provide us such moments. Of course not!

Let us praise Twenty-Twenty, but never neglect Test Cricket. Hope sense prevails.

IPL 2009 has not been a great season for the Kolkata Knight Riders team, now known as Knight Riders. They have become the perfect example of Murphy’s law. First, their coach pulled off a Multiple-Captain theory that held no sense. After much hungama, their team owner SRK doused the flames temporarily by supporting Dada “Ganguly”, only to dump him as captain and replace him with Brendon Mccullum immediately on reaching South Africa. Then, Brendon Mccullum, a wicketkeeper with no captainship experience, lead his sides to tremendous defeats, some actually self-inflicted by some poor bowling and pathetic fielding. Well, as they say, ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth”. A team whose coaches outnumbered the players is deemed to perform no good. And if these were not enough, there was one irritating blogger who claimed that he was an INSIDER, one playing for KKR. The blog seemed to add insult to injury everytime the team got defeated. Nobody was spared, everybody was given some very bad nicknames like Appam Chuttiya and Paedophile priest, while some were just vaguely referred, ex: Phoren Babas, Captain, Bhooka Naan, Lordie, Aila, and Shengara Patan etc.

The best example of Yellow Journalism ever: There is a belief in the press, “Controversy is king”. Our Fake IPL player is the perfect epitome of this saying.
For all those who don’t know about Fake IPL player or FIP. He is a blogger who claims to be a member of the Knight Riders cricket team in the IPL. He says he is a Bengali and can bowl and bat a bit. He claims that his blog is solely aimed to provide INSIDE STORIES of his team members. He started his blog from April and is continuing till date updating us on the SPICY events happening inside and around the team.
For example: He claims that a famous commentator has slept with a popular TV anchor and an upcoming Indian fast bowler had scored over a girl, and the captain of his team and his coach were not even in speaking terms, and issues like racism inside the dressing room etc. Some of these stuff turned out to be true indeed.

Whether he is writing the truth or not, but he sure seems to understand that people love to read controversial stuff, and that too about popular people. For instance, FIP continues to call a popular Bollywood star a DILDO and maim him at every possible opportunity. He even foresights that DILDO would sell out his team to somebody else and move on. Although FIP’s English and his sense of humor and sarcasm are impeccable, his motive seems to be dubious.
First, if he is really a KKR cricketer as he claims to be, he doesn’t have the right to criticize his peers using very foul language. Calling somebody a DILDO and CHUTTIYA may sound funny, but it is at best VULGAR. Second, if he is really a cricketer, he should rather be looking to improve his cricketing skills and perform on the field, not off the field. The last and the most important thing is that being a sportsman, you are supposed to be sportive, accept positives and negatives, not badmouth against people.


Who could the IPL player be?

Well, many people have been dying to know the identity of the Fake IPL player. People think he may be a Bengali cricketer who has either represented India or has been trying to represent India without success. From his impeccable language skills, it can be assumed that he is highly educated guy and a good writer too. Considering this information, people have come up with many guesses: Saurav Ganguly, Akash Chopra, Ranadeb Bose, Sanjay Bangar, Ajay Jadeja, Harsha Bhogle and many others. Many people also believe that this person is actually a journalist with inside information on KKR while some believe he is just a great blogger with creativity. Whoever it is, my claim is that nobody would write blog taking such risk just for fun. Whosever doing this surely has a strong motive. I am sure that this FIP is not a single person, but a group of people writing a blog taking turns. For instance, if you see the time of the posts, they are irregular and across various time zones. And morever, with the amount of technology the BCCI has, the blogger would have been easily tracked using his URL. But it is not to be.
So therefore, the person is actually employing a few of his/her friends to share the dirty work. This person may be a journalist who has some past scores to settle with SRK. He may also be a cricketer who knows a bit of Bengali but doesn’t hail from Bengal.
The last and worst case might be that this person could be from the PR team of Lalit Modi or SRK. Afterall, negative publicity is still publicity. This can be proven from the fact that KKR is still the best selling franchise in the IPL inspite of losing many matches.\

The blogger has stated to his fans that he would be revealing his name on Wednesday, 21st of May 2009, after the last KKR match. Hopefully, we get to see an ex-cricketer or a famed journalist. There may be many skeletons coming out of this blog tomorrow. So watchout.