I can't be botheredbut I would like to see the stats on drawn tests versus result tests in the past 10 years. Non-rain affected matches have tended to produce results in recent years.
I decided to anyway
Period 07/08-11/12
Table (Series of 2-5 Tests only)
1. South Africa P17 W10 D6 L1 (Won 58.82%)
2. England P17 W10 D2 L5 (Won 58.82%)
3. Australia P19 W11 D3 (Won 57.89%)
4. India P18 W10 D4 L4 (Won 55.56%)
5. Sri Lanka P17 W6 D5 L6 (Won 35.29%)
6. Pakistan P14 W4 D5 L5 (Won 28.57%)
7. West Indies P15 W2 D4 L9 (Won 13.33%)
8. New Zealand P15 W2 D3 L10 (Won 13.33%)
9. Bangladesh P12 W1 D0 L11 (Won 8.33%)
Zimbabwe have only played one-off Tests, all one-off Tests from 07/08 onwards have produced a result.
Series results by length (2+ Tests only)
2 Tests : P31 W21 D10 (Drawn 32.25%)
3 Tests : P31 W26 D5 (Drawn 16.13%)
4 Tests : P8 W7 D1 (Drawn 12.50%)
5 Tests : P2 W2 D0 (Drawn 0.00%)
I have adjusted the West Indies series win over England to 4 Tests simply because one was abandoned and rearranged. Only Ashes series have been played over 5 Tests. While Bangladesh, New Zealand and West Indies play 2 Test series, they have played a 4 Test series only once between them in this period.
There's little in those stats to suggest 4 Test series are more likely to end in draws than 3 Test series, and there isn't enough data for a conclusion in 5 Test series. I could and maybe should have noted how many 2 Test series were 0-0 and 1-1, I would imagine more of the latter. Of the 31 instances of 2 Test series, 11 were against Bangladesh and 9 against New Zealand. Remove those from the figures and you get 13 series with 8 draws (Drawn 61.54%)
Pakistan drew most 2 Test series with four, vs Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies and New Zealand.
South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies drew 2 Test series three times each, Australia drawing with Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand. But for me the key thing here is sides are fitting in series of inappropriate length because of schedules.
It is crying out for less series and the best way to that end is to create Test tiers. Three are clearly out of their depth, two others are struggling. Tiers would open up Tests to other countries, it doesn't really matter if it doesn't bring in huge amounts of money, there is more to cricket than just s*y, IPL and $$$$ / ????
