How to make Test Cricket more interesting?

[Cricketman]

-No limits on number of bouncers in an over. Batsman need to grow a pair.
-Better pitches. Groundstaff that prepare shoddy tracks (IE - pancakes that produce 700 runs and no result) should get their license removed by the ICC. Home teams and boards should be fined.
-There should be set manuals or something to prepare pitches. They should produce some seam early on and then crumble to help the spinners in the sub continent, etc. Pitches should be imported from other nations for differences in conditions (such as a fast south african pitch in Sri Lanka) which adds spice to the game.
-Remove the referral system. It's crap. At least refine it, umpires should refer amongst each other, without a player calling it, or something like that. Stanford T20 was a good example I think.
-Get some progressive people in the ICC. It's crap too.

 

[SaiSrini]

What's wrong with over helpful wickets for bowlers?

The pitch doesn't change (dramatically); it's the same game for everyone, and it produces a result. Besides, those are so rare, it's not worth discussing.

If we use your formula (penalizing teams who have more than 25% of their games as draws):

England 37.2%
South Africa 26.3%
West Indies 42.23%
India 47.0%
Pakistan 48.3%
New Zealand 43.3%
Sri Lanka 33.0%
Zimbabwe 36.4%

Now, are we REALLY going to penalize all those teams Sai?

Something else will have to be done. The only reason Australia isn't in that list is because they were so good for so long; I expect in a few years that percentage to increase.

You might have to. Just because all teams are on the wrong end doesnt mean you cant penalise them. Maybe keep it to 30% and penalise teams above it. What they could do is, introduce the rule, let test cricket played for a year (or a season or something) and then evaluate the results in each countries and then take decisions. Not too tough rite?

 

[Ari]

Keep the rules the same and just make pitches better.

 

[McLOVIN]

sorry! my brain is in 'sleep' mood still. so thats the best i could come up with! dont scream at me!

'hit atleast one 6 per 5 overs'

MacLovin added 4 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

OH OH! another one! make ICE TEST cricket version and make that 3 day long

 

[sifter132]

If only it was that easy. It would be very difficult to create those types of pitches, plus you don't want to make it to easy for the bowlers.

I wonder if the quality of pitches is in anyway related to the packed calender we now have. So groundsmen are perhaps being asked to prepare pitches when the weather is not ideal, just to fit more cricket in.

I'm guessing it's easier to prepare a pitch for a T20/ODI so these games should be held in the 'off season' if you like when the climate doesn't matter to the pitch. Then play the Tests at a time when the groundsman thinks he can make the best pitches.

Would work better once they (hopefully) streamline Test cricket by having a top division and a 2nd division. Less Test matches should allow for a quality gain.

 

[Owzat]

Ummmm, no. Most of the test cricket I have seen lately has been fine, although some games can be ruined by dead tracks.

A wider variety of pitches would be better, the problem is the game is about ???? and they want Tests to last five days. I did an analysis of the number of drawn Tests and found it hasn't increased that much, might be more to do with the quality of sides participating as much as the pitches being condusive to results.

ENGLAND TESTS

2009 vs West Indies : P2 W2 D0 L0
08/09 vs West Indies : P5 W0 D4* L1
08/09 vs India : P2 W0 D1 L1
2008 vs South Africa : P4 W1 D1 L2
2008 vs New Zealand : P3 W2 D1 L0
07/08 vs New Zealand : P3 W2 D0 L1
2007 vs India : P3 W0 D2 L1
2007 vs West Indies : P4 W3 D1 L0
06/07 vs Australia : P5 W0 D0 L5
2006 vs Pakistan : P4 W2 D2 L0
2006 vs Sri Lanka : P3 W1 D1 L1
05/06 vs India : P3 W1 D1 L1
05/06 vs Pakistan : P3 W0 D1 L2

*one Test abandoned

P47 W14 D18 L15 (Draw = 38.30%)

Too many really, for West Indies to be drawing it needs flat tracks. I much prefer a contest between bat and ball, the batsman having to decide between survival or taking the odd risk and trying to make some runs. Maybe the bowler then gets a bit of an advantage, but they have to make most of it and the fielders take their catches. Why should batsmen get easy 50s and 100s, why should sides be posting 400 easily and the only way results come about is if one sides bats poorly or crumbles under pressure. Two of the best Tests came with relatively hard scoring, good tailend batting and were totally gripping - both at Headingley in the good ol' days

1991 1st Test England vs West Indies. (Headingley)

Toss : West Indies, Result : England won by 115 runs.

ENG 1st Inns 64/4 > 198 all out : England lost Atherton, Gooch, Hick and Lamb early on before Ramprakash and Smith. top scoring with 54, doubled the score. Pringle and DeFreitas added a few useful runs, the rpo 2.50

WIN 1st Inns 58/3 > 173 all out : West Indies also lost early wickets before Richardson and Richards added 44. Richards top scored with 73, second last out while none of 6-11 in the order made more than 6.

ENG 2nd Inns 38/3 > 252 all out : again the batting side lost early wickets, this time Gooch played a fantastic innings in carrying his bat for 154no off 331 balls with 18 fours. Ramprakash and Pringle both added 27 to set West Indies 278 to win.

WIN 2nd Inns 88/5 > 162 all out : after a couple of early wickets, Watkin took the wickets of Hooper, Richards and Logie in 11 runs and only 68 from Richardson and 33 from Dujon offered much resistance.


785 runs in the Test, 40 wickets and only one hundred in the match - double the next highest score. In fact there were only four scores of 50+ and only in England's 1st innings did more batsmen make double figures than single figures.

HowSTAT! Match Scorecard

1981 3rd Test England vs Australia. (Headingley)

Toss : Australia, Result : England won by 18 runs.

AUS 1st Inns 401/9d : Australia made steady progress with 102 from opener Dyson, 89 from captain Hughes and 58 from Yallop before declaring.

ENG 1st Inns 87/5 > 174 : England lost Gooch, Boycott, Brearley, Gower and Gatting before reaching 100. Botham steered England to a modest total with a 50, twice the next highest score

ENG 2nd Inns 135/7 > 356 : England were all but beaten at 135/7 when the infamous partnership between Botham and Dilley began. 117 runs later the aussies were in disarray, Botham added another 67 with Old before being left stranded on 149no

AUS 2nd Inns 56/1 > 111 : the aussies were cruising at 56/1 when Willis ripped them to pieces with awesome figures of 8/43. There was no room for error, Dyson was top scorer with 34 which was near double the next highest score.

A few more runs at 1042, but WHAT A TEST! To come from the brink of an innings defeat to must just over 100 runs to bowl at then complete the miracle by actually bowling the opposition out. You couldn't have scripted it better, it could have only been better had Botham taken 8/43 and pretty much single handedly turned it around.

HowSTAT! Match Scorecard

I'd take both those relative low scorers over some of the fare on offer these days. How many times has the Test record been broken in the last 15 years? Lara in 94, then Hayden against the zimmers, then Lara again. Triples used to be a rarity and for the very best batsmen, these days almost anyone is getting them. The balance needs to be restored, let's have a contest between bat and ball.

 

[DME786]

There is nothing wrong with test cricket. Why change it?

 

[max_dillon2007]

I know , but the Dickheads at ICC think that it should be changed to increase interest. I agree test match sometime can be boring to a T20 fan or a new fan of the game but for the purist Test match will always be Test match. ICC should have officials who have played some international cricket, otherwise they would continue making these embarrassing announcements. Have you ever seen FIFA announcing that there are lesser goals being scored in football match lets increase the size of net to attract the more people. After all what can replace sunday morning on he couch with chips in one hand and watching the match leisurely.

 

[rockyrakster]

I feel current form on tests with referral systems will be very intresting.I fell a match can be intresting only when teams to play to win not draws that is the best way to get thumbs up for test cricket

 

[w3lshrugby]

Something needs to be done to improve attendances at Tests around the world...but its great as it is. Perhaps a decrease in extortionate ticket prices would help elsewhere.

 

[DME786]

Something needs to be done to improve attendances at Tests around the world...but its great as it is. Perhaps a decrease in extortionate ticket prices would help elsewhere.

Maybe make tickets cheaper for those who are unable to afford the ridiculous priceses at the moment. Poeple want to go watch test cricket but poeple are unable afford the amount tickets are sold for.

Just look at the first test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, It's been refreshing to see the ground full for the first three days.

 

[w3lshrugby]

Has the ground been full? Haven't seen any coverage. Brilliant if that's the case. Did they reduce ticket prices or something?

 

[pcfan123]

Test cricket is brilliant. No need to tamper with the basics, just make the pitches more bowler friendly. If 7-9 wickets fall each day, its usually a close result.

 

[Kev]

Message to the ICC:

Stop even thinking about messing with Test cricket. Yes people are loving T20, but the sort of people who like T20 but not Test cricket will not like Test Cricket no matter what you do to it, they like T20 and Test Cricket is not T20!

Leave it the hell alone

Message Ends!

 

[Raj_Aryan]

Making it 4 day game wont help,that is my personal opinion...