Port Elizabeth, 19th January: Yet again on Five Day Test Matches
The Beard Liberation Front banner on display at the Port Elizabeth Test Match
picture: @tmsproducer via @hackneyhaz @marriotti67
The ‘debate’ about whether five day Test Matches are a sustainable format for the future started again at the end of 2019 promoted in part by the former England captain Michael Vaughan who had first raised the issue back in 2017.
The ECB and ICC who run world cricket are apparently due to take a decision in the next couple of years and opinion is divided.
According to the Daily Telegraph back in 2017, the ECB were keen to push for a change to 4 day Test Matches not least it would because the 5th day of a match is rarely a money spinner. In 2019 Surrey who host sold out Tests at the Oval suggested otherwise:
While appreciating that in a market capitalist society nothing including sport happens without money, if cricket is only about money the best way to address this would be to sell off all First Class cricket grounds and build housing on them.
Perhaps it would be better to have a debate about how long Test Matches should sensibly be in the 2020s, taking into account, results, audiences, schedules and players views and then work it out from there.
You can find a debate on the original issues here:
http://www.thecricketer.com/the-debate-should-tests-be-played-over-four-days-not-five-.aspx
Suffice to say that when the 4th day of the South Africa v England Test at Port Elizabeth ended with England needing 4 wickets for a potentially series clinching victory on 19th January, there didn’t seem to be anyone suggesting that the Test should just end in 4 days and be called a draw…
Leave a Reply