“T-20 cricket is so exciting, but is it the new Test cricket?”

Apr 07, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Oh, how the scenario in international cricket has changed.  T-20 cricket is not only here to stay, which is pleasant, most times anyway, but it is leading the way some tours are being planned!
No longer does Test cricket dominate the façade.  Now, it is about making time for T-20’s!
In the seemingly ancient past, but as recently as twenty years ago, young cricketers world-wide would have been thinking that the only level and games that they would want to get to, in the future, would have been Test cricket for their respective countries.
Test cricket was always the pinnacle!
Nowadays, that is not so true or obvious anymore.
Yes, every young player continues to say the obvious caveat:  “I would like to play Test cricket, since that is still the highest form of the game”.
But going practices do not always match rhetoric.  In the real sense of the game these days, Test cricket is not really needed at all by many players.  Even some cricket authorities too are shunning the format!
Case in point is Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies and Mumbai Indians T-20 super-star Kieron Pollard.
At 25, he has the one-day cricket world fully at his feet, having taken the short forms by powerful storm, lashing deliveries around the world with great aplomb!  Man, is he big, strong and dynamic!
Since making his 1st Class debut in 2007, a scant six years ago, he has already played 220 T-20’s, for clubs, country and region, and 75 ODI’s, but, surprise, no Tests yet.
Indeed, one would have thought that Pollard may have even gotten a look-in in Tests recently against Zimbabwe.  Nothing doing!
While “Polly” always says that he wants to prove himself in Tests, to try to emulate what he has done in shorter games, the truth is that he does not, at all, need to play Test cricket to continue to make his name internationally, and along the way, to ensure a very positive relationship with his bank manager!
That may be just an individual situation, but not so entirely isolated at all!
What is much more interesting is that the world’s premier T-20 cricket competition, Indian Premier League 2013, has, unwittingly, discombobulated ICC’s Future Tours Program by having that set envelope – April and May 2013 – in which to operate.  That has already caused all sorts of potential confusions.
Get this straight.  I like all forms of cricket, including T-20’s, and I really do like IPL.  I think that this season, IPL has become more organized, slick and very streamlined, with better planning and viewing.
But fitting IPL 2013 in this specific envelope has also already seriously compromised the cricket that West Indies will play this year, especially Test cricket.
There simply is not enough time left to fit in Test matches, especially with West Indies itself staging its own primary, initial T-20 tournament – Caribbean Premier League – in August!
Last week, I was having a serious conversation with one of my former West Indian fast bowling team-mates, whose last name is still “Death”, about the merits and demerits of all formats of the game, including T-20 cricket, a format that one gets the impression he does not at all like very much.
I suggested that good cricketers, especially batsmen, be it Test, ODI or T-20, should be able to adjust his cricket sufficiently well to be successful, ala Jamaica, West Indies and Pune Warriors Marlon Samuels.
While grudgingly agreeing, “Death” made a great point too; that very few good cricketers who started their careers initially as T-20 stars have become really good Test cricketers; but it does work vice-verse!
He even argued that no emerging batsman wants to be patient anymore and to try to build innings.  Most of them simply try to be flashy, endeavoring to always score at 100 or more, percentile, hoping desperately to catch someone’s eye, and check-book, to secure his future.
What worries most is what happens to players like Kieran Powell.
The young; 23; talented Nevis, Leeward Islands and West Indies opener has shown that he has goods to be successful, at least in Test cricket.  He has a fair Test record – 15 games, 819 runs, 30.33 avg., and three centuries.
But, if things go as recently published, he will have already played his last Test for West Indies in 2013, v Zimbabwe, since it is very possible that Pakistan will not, now, be touring West Indies later in 2013.
What is Powell to do if he wants to continue his positive international cricket?  Play more T-20’s?  Really!
One of the immediate concerns of the new West Indies administration must be that West Indies, as a cricket nation, regardless of what is suggested in places, has become ‘small fry” in the run of cricket things internationally.  We must simply understand reality and not be sycophantic!
For time allocated, Pakistan has already suggested that they will probably defer to India touring their country, making monies, then play against Zimbabwe rather than West Indies, which makes no sense.
So, overall, T-20’s have already affected schedules and output of our cricket.  Enjoy!

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