THE recently concluded Test series between England and New Zealand was a good promotion for Test cricket. While Australia definitely is in a league of its own, England and New Zealand are two sides that have improved by leaps and bounds in recent times. And, both the teams owe much of their rejuvenation to their respective captains.
Nasser Hussain and Stephen Fleming have both shown their true colours while heading a bunch of players who are generally in the middle-of-the-road mould. England have missed several front-line players on its tour to India and New Zealand, while the Kiwis have had quite a few injury-prone players whose services are not always available.
Even then, the two teams have done well in recent times, and in difficult conditions. England did it in Pakistan and India, while the Kiwis did it against Australia where they fared much better than the hapless but largely fancied South Africans.
Going back a couple of years, both England and New Zealand were in the bottom half of Test-playing nations. While I don’t have the latest Test rankings in front of me, I am sure things have changed since then. The credit for this change, however, has to be given to Australia! If you are surprised, which many of you will be, let me explain it briefly.
The Australians, under their captain Steven Waugh, have taken the game to a different height. They have been aggressive, they have been professional, they have been result-oriented, and they have gone for the kill even when a draw appeared to be the sole result. The other teams, as is evident from recent matches, are at least trying to adopt similar techniques even though their cricketing resources in terms of talent are far more limited than the mighty Australians.
All of this together is helping the overall cause of the game, where there are no more easy Tests, and no more boring drawn matches. The batsmen are going for their shots, the bowlers have to learn greater skills in order to contain them, and the fielders are no more shy of throwing their bodies around in order to not just hold a catch, but to save even a single run. All this makes Test cricket a spectacle worth watching. Not that it was a drag earlier, but only the puritans used to have any interest in the text-book nuances of the game, and there was frequent criticism of Test matches losing their following.
All this no more, with elements of One Day cricket fast making inroads into the Test arena, the game is a different entity, so to say. Besides, new rulings by the International Cricket Conference have also added much to the game. First, it was the ninety overs per day rule that made things more result-oriented, and now the clause that allows floodlights to be switched on during Test matches has taken things to their logical conclusion. The third Test between England and New Zealand was a clear testimony to the efficacy of the rule. With so much time having been wasted due to rain so early in the match, England was sitting pretty, assuming that the only possible result would be a drawn game. How wrong they were proved! New Zealand made maximum use of ICC rulings, played for almost an hour, if not more, under floodlights, accumulated runs, and set England a challenging target for the last day. With things changing beyond what the English management had actually planned for, England was caught on the wrong foot, and duly lost the Test match. The ICC and the Waugh-led Australians must be given credit for such positive changes in the game.
THE recently concluded Test series between England and New Zealand was a good promotion for Test cricket. While Australia definitely is in a league of its own, England and New Zealand are two sides that have improved by leaps and bounds in recent times. And, both the teams owe much of their rejuvenation to their respective captains.
