Pros and Cons of the Four Day Test Matches

The final stages of the exciting Day/Night Test match between Australia and New Zealand – is another change around the corner for Test cricket?

The strident din is growing every day. Suggestions on tinkering with the Test format have always been delivered in a hush-hush manner. It was the purest part of cricket, some said. There was reluctance and disinclination to discuss alterations to the traditional format of cricket. It was sacrosanct.

But dwindling crowds, a new breed of T20 freelancers and increasing ever-enthusiastic, insatiable crowds for the shortest form of the game meant something had to be done to prevent the game’s oldest format from perishing.

Just as in everything else in life, the prospect of demise puts things into perspective. Talks of adulterating its sanctity began to get underway, for the greater good. The generation that played ODI cricket in their prime became the game’s biggest voices and modernity wasn’t scorned upon anymore.

Just a few days back, the unthinkable happened – a Day/Night Test match was played with pink balls. It was fun. The crowd numbers broke records. The game was aesthetically pleasing. There was something about whites and bright lights in the chill of the evening, like Mark Nicholas said. And now that the major threshold has been crossed, changes will definitely inundate the world of Test cricket. 4 Day Test matches could be one of them.

Cricketers supporting the 4 Day format

Shane Warne recently brought the focus back on 4-Day Tests with a Facebook post that spoke about two paradigm shifts – 4 day cricket and doing away with the toss, thereby allowing the visiting captain to choose whether he would bat or bowl. He has supporters in former greats like Ricky Ponting.

Mark Taylor had a few pertinent points too. He made sense when he said that ODI and T20 are popular because they are audience-friendly, usually organised during weekends and in the evenings when people want to relax and have some fun. Tests, on the other hand, are a day long avocation generally including a lot of weekdays leading to the obvious consequence of dwindling crowds as young audiences have started to look for more and more instant gratification.

There are others in support from surprising corners. From the traditional fortress of cricket, Colin Graves, the ECB chairman had some interesting suggestions midway through this year. He batted for 4 day Test matches with the use of lights and with 105 overs a day. That would mean more action in one day without the classic start and end timings that at times seem ridiculous when tested by the vagaries of weather. It would allow some segments of the audience to catch up with one session or two during their busy days.

It is not a new discussion considering how David Morgan, the ICC President in 2009, suggested a format change mooting the idea of a shortened Test match. Greg Chappell and the Australian coach Darren Lehmann have also supported the idea of four day Tests along with abolishing of the toss, in recent times.

Advantages of four day Test matches

If sport needs to be commercially profitable to survive, there is no doubt that a nimbler, leaner Test match would bring in more crowds. Although purists would scoff at the idea of a four day Test, it makes sense considering how the pace of the game has drastically picked up in the last 10 years. T20 has made the game exciting with batsmen and bowlers honing their aggression and skills. More risks are being taken while batting and players like Virender Sehwag and David Warner have changed the way the game is played.

Interestingly, middle order batsmen like Joe Root, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, the game’s next generation, play at a great clip, egged on by the stylish batsmanship of legends like AB de Villiers.

Stats clearly show that there are more results coming out of Tests now than they did before ODIs were played. The shorter games have gotten shorter too.

Given how many Test matches are yielding results in less than four days, it will help broadcasters to have a four-day Test than lose out on revenues. The recent Test matches between India and South Africa, the Day Night match between Australia and New Zealand and one between Sri Lanka and West Indies are examples of matches that got over very quickly. In fact, the number of matches in which the cumulative total of a team has been less than 300 in the last half a decade is alarming, indicating a shift in the way batsmen take up to the grind of Test cricket.

At 100 overs per day with a 4-day Test, it could be ensured that at least half of every Test is played during weekends to bring in more crowds without losing on too many overs.

A longer day could probably open other innovations like allowing the audience to buy tickets for the last session of the day, for those who have finished their work day and would want to enjoy the hardest format of cricket.

Coupled with abolition of toss, 4 day Test matches can egg teams to be more attacking in their approach and hence, do away with time wasting, conservative safety-first tactics.

Any change is good publicity for Test cricket like the Day Night match attendance at Adelaide showed.

Problems with 4 Day Test cricket

One of the biggest disadvantages with 4-day Tests will be the ineffectiveness of spinners, who outside the sub-continent are already a dying breed. The pitch might not break enough in four days and curators have to put in extra efforts to make sure spinners are in the game from Day 3.

The classic Test batsman who would battle without worrying about time would be discouraged by the idea of 4-day Tests. However, if the number of overs is increased to 100 or 105 overs a day, solid Test batsmen in the mould of Rahul Dravid, Alastair Cook and Jacques Kallis can dig in and play their long innings.

Rain could play spoilsport in 4 day Tests because there is that much less opportunity to make up for lost overs later. However, a reserve day could be a good solution for this problem.

The leisurely build-up and the tradition around it will become irrelevant. It is a massive shift in mindset and probably the biggest roadblock to experimenting with 4-Day Tests.

Conclusion

In this millennium, the batting averages have come down a wee bit but the strike-rates have increased drastically. The number of batsmen who bat at a strike-rate of over 60 has gone up too. Bats are bigger, outfields are lusher and batsmen are more innovative and reckless.

All this means that Tests have become more unpredictable than they were before. So, it is not such a bad idea to turn that unpredictability into a strength and actually tinker with a format that has remained stagnant for too long and in T20 and ODI, finds lethal opponents!