I heard Harsha Bhogle in a trailer for "Death of a gentleman" saying, "Test cricket should have died thirty years ago. It's proved to be a very robust patient." I have been harboring the same thought for a long time in my mind. For once, Harsha and me are thinking along the same line. I can probably make millions of rupees like Harsha if I stick to the same line of thinking and do all of the following:
1. Talk mostly in banalities with occasional Deepak Chora-esque deep sounding philosophical crap.
2. Smile when I need to, smile when I don't need to.
3. Grow fake hair.
4. And probably most importantly, never say anything too bad about any of the superstar Indian cricketers so that I stay friends with all of them and they never deny me an interview. To give an example, one could question Ishant Sharma getting picked without much match practice but never question the selection or fitness of a Zaheer Khan or a Yuvraj Singh.
Well, the readers of this blog already know that I am incapable of doing any of the above. So here goes just my puny blog about why I love test cricket and why it will live.
It's a connect with how the game started. We love our Bradman, Gavaskar, Sobers as much as we love our Tendulkar, Kallis, Warne. Test cricket gives the chance to fans and players alike to compare themselves with the former greats. Without test cricket comparison of Kallis and Sobers or Tendulkar and Bradman will be meaningless. And what will the media ever do if they can't compare players from different eras, no matter how meaningless/boring the comparison would become.
The Poms and The Ashes:
England have struggled with any kind of limited over cricket and don't give me that "They won a T20 World Cup shit". Winning a T20 world cup doesn't really count for much. Players want to do well in T20 World Cup to get higher bids in IPL or Big Bash. As long as England keep doing badly in limited overs cricket, there will always be at least one powerful nation that will keep test cricket alive. And we all know how so many British people love tradition. Test cricket is safe in England. And then of course there is the ashes. It's hard to imagine the interest in the ashes ever going down in either Australia or England. So even if every other form of test cricket dies, the ashes will still live for a thousand more years.
The Indians:
Believe it or not, but test cricket is the form which fits the Indian psyche and the Indian male body the best, except fast bowling of course. But cricket gives you the chance to be good only in limited parts of the game and still be the World Number 1 team somehow. Limited over cricket demands a level of fitness which doesn't come easily to us. We can concentrate for long hours, we can be artists with the bat, we can be wily with our spin, but running and diving around the field? No sir. That's one of the reasons why cricket became popular in India in the first place. So the board may be pushing for T20s as a way of making easy money but our body and mind is so well suited for playing and watching test cricket that it's hard to imagine that test cricket can ever die in India.
Happy Co-existence:
Together is better. Different forms of the games are about addition and not substitution. Kids in a family fight for attention and get different level of attention from the parents at different times. There will be times when test cricket feels ignored, there will be times when its missed, times when it's relished. If it is getting neglected a bit then the consumer of cricket must have a good reason to do so. Music is a great example of co-existence. In my life Rock n roll, Reggae, Rap, Rafi, Rahman and Remix happily live together. And I have heard that some people still go to Carnatic music concerts and the opera, strange as it may sound. To my untrained mind listening to such forms of music is akin to exorcising a ghost, but what do I know. People care and love it much like people continue to love test cricket.
The test cricket season is on us then. It's time to celebrate. Its time to orgasm to long vigils of Kallis and Amla. Time to watch and abuse the players you hate for 5 days at a stretch. Time to get frustrated with that 9th wicket partnership and curse your own bowlers (I bet every fan believes that only the team he supports can't seem to dislodge tailenders while all other teams dismiss all of them for no score). Time to pray for rain or clear skies or cloud cover or wind or any weather condition that may suit your time on a given day. Time to get your whites dirty. Ohh Fuck me. Let the games begin....
Please share your comments on why you love/hate test cricket. Or mail me on rajesh@cricketbakchod.com
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