If Test Cricket is fine wine then T20 is cheap plonk!

I recently posted an article by Sir Geoffrey Boycott and had a mixed reaction from my cricket contacts. Some in total agreement, others praising the Lord that T20 cricket and pay per view TV are crickets saviours. Here's the article which was published this week in New Zealand:

One of my local cricket contacts responded:

He genuinely cares about the format and type of game he played (and was good at) and doesn't want it to fade away because with it so does his relevance.

"We are not planning and preparing for the cricketing future. It is all about the here and now and money. When the county season is shoved into early April and late summer, and the prime-time weeks are given over to one-day cricket, is it any wonder we do not have quality test players coming through and keep losing"

Of the 12/13 thousand who go to Trent Bridge for T20s how many care that we've lost test series away from home? Prime time T20 (summer holidays, no football, free to air) that gets people watching the game (who wouldn't otherwise) is the only way to make sure cricket doesn't drift into complete and total irrelevance in this country.

I responded with:

You probably need to read the article again which starts with:

“Money and self-interest are the guiding principles of those who run our wonderful game, not what is best for cricket”.

Boycott is referring to the red ball game, more specifically, Test Cricket. In regard to your comment, “he doesn't want it to fade away because with it so does his relevance.” That shocks me from someone who I thought loved the game? If Boycott becomes irrelevant then so does Sobers, Hutton, Lara, Botham* etc.. Is that what you really think is the driving force behind Boycotts comments? Wow!

I think Boycs is a man who rambles a bit, labours a point but his cricket heart is definitely in the right place and in this respect he is on the right track. Money is taking precedence over cricket. The point he is making is that the people who run the game are more concerned about money than the true game. We need to get a balance and the current balance is wrong.

I love T20 for what it is: great for a family night out or a night out with the lads from the club, great for engaging kids and sparking interest, great for giving football fans something to do in the summer, great for TV and great for giving County players a taste of the limelight.

However, I’m not sure how relevant T20 will be in a few years. How many games or match winning performances can you recollect? To me, it all merges in to one big - bowl what you like and swing your ring off.

However, it’s as far away from proper Test cricket as a bottle of cheap wine is from a fine wine.

In my opinion :-)

* Kallis, Tendulkar, Border, Waugh, etc. etc....