After enjoying the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2010, and watching the reactions of the crowd towards test cricket, I started to wonder: When was the last time I was bored of watching or following (depending on the time zone) a test match? Following a test match for me is not being aware of the final result or the scores, but actually living the drama that is built up over the course of 5 days, each hour, each session working like acts in a play.
As I pondered, I realised that the question I was really putting to myself was the concept of a boring test match? If a survey is done asking people what is a boring test match, 90% would say a ‘drawn test’. Well, according to me they are partially right. I say partially mainly because of two reasons. First; because if you consider a series involving one of top teams against the likes of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe; they are more often than not – boring. Also, matches played on the placid subcontinent pitches esp. Sri Lanka where both teams rake up huge first innings score and that is all that is possible in the 5 days are a bane to cricket. Two; because some drawn test matches are more exciting than the publicly revered Twenty20 matches! I can remember two matches in the South Africa vs. England test series at the turn of this year. The first test at the Centurion resulting in a tense draw left no nails on my fingers even as a neutral fan. And to top it, we had a déjà vu! The third test at Cape Town had all the drama of the first, as if to say, who does not enjoy replays!
A series like this goes a long way to advertise test match cricket to the world. The recently concluded India Australia test series where in each match, as the last day dawned, all three results were a distinct possibility is a spectators delight proven by the fact that it was mostly full house for all 5 days in Bangalore.
Statistically too, in the current year, 29 test matches have been played to date with a staggering 26 giving a positive result! Only 3 matches drawn out of which one is the aforementioned South Africa-England Cape Town test! Who says test cricket is dying? For aficionados like me, it never was.
