Test or Twenty20

Chris Gayle’s comment the other day, “To hell with Test cricket, I love Twenty20”, has reopened the debate on Test cricket getting marginalized by Twenty20. Okay, these weren’t his exact words, but they nevertheless raise some important questions on how a contemporary cricketer views Test and Twenty20 cricket. Chris Gayle is not the only one with such views. His teammate Dwayne Bravo is unfit for Test matches, but surprisingly fit for Twenty20. Going forward, I think more and more cricketers will get these kinds of mysterious injuries which rule them out of (only) Test cricket.

Where does the problem lie? Does it lie with the cricketers because they prefer money over playing for their country? Or does it lie with the ICC, which is still in denial about the impact of Twenty20 cricket and refuses to create a window for a tournament like IPL, which though a domestic event, has become the number one tournament in world cricket?

Let’s see this from a cricketer’s perspective. Chris Gayle will potentially earn $800,000 annually playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, and that too by playing only for a few weeks. Should he be chastised for thinking he should be left alone for this period to earn some decent money? Moreover, the West Indies-England test series was not even in the FTP, it was a hastily arranged series to justify television deals. Isn’t he entitled to be a tad angry? Many former cricketers and experts are making condescending remarks about how playing for the country is the ultimate glory for a sportsman and that money can never buy it. I wonder how many of them would have made that choice if IPL had started in their playing days. Besides, cricketers play in IPL for only a month, the remaining time they are free to play for their country.

This brings us to the role ICC can play to fix the problem. First they must understand how big IPL is - both in terms of money and popularity - and create a window for the event. This will spare the players from making a choice between their country and franchisee. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them.

Secondly, the ICC has to look into the issue of player burn out. As it is, the international cricket calendar is so crammed that players hardly get any breathing space. Now with IPL and possibly some more twenty20 tournaments, it will become virtually impossible for cricketers to play all forms of game throughout the year. And the form of cricket that gives sufficient rest with least financial loss is Test cricket. Naturally, cricketers will skip Test cricket to be injury free for the more lucrativeTwenty20 and ODIs – as Mahendra Singh Dhoni did last year by skipping the Test tour to Sri Lanka.

Something has to go and the most feasible candidate is the one day cricket. Test cricket cannot go and the cricketers (and administrators) will not let Twenty20 go. ICC has to slowly decrease the number of ODIs, which anyway have become largely uninteresting and predictable. In fact, the main reason for the arrival and popularity of Twenty20 was the monotonous nature of one day cricket.

Its high time ICC prioritizes the different forms of cricket and finds a way which preserves the importance of test cricket as well as takes care of player’s interest. Otherwise it won’t be long before players are dropped onto the field by a private jet on a Test match morning - that is, only if they decide to play.