SSC track is poor advertisement for Test match cricket

In a previous blog post we mentioned how India needed to strategise better for the second Test match against Sri Lanka. However, that was an advice based on an assumption that the track for the game would be a fairly sporting one – not like the one which was on display for the second game.

If ever one needed to hammer the coffin nails on Test cricket, and then advertise for it, this was where the marketing professionals needed to be. Sri Lanka scored a 600-plus score and India replied with more than 700 before the game was drawn – with the result known well before the start of the final day’s play.

There were barely a handful of spectators, and most of them had had to stifle a yawn through most part of the game. But as importantly, the bowlers were out of the game as early as on the first day, and had nothing going for them till the final day of the Test match.

It is quite clear that the apex cricket body, the ICC, needs to rethink the manner in which pitches are prepared in this day and age. For ever exciting game that gets played in England or Australia, there are a couple of boring, and rather high-scoring Tests in the sub-continent, that not only plays its part in killing Test cricket off, but also making life difficult for the bowlers.

On the one hand, the ICC is experimenting with the pink ball, day and night Test matches and other innovations, but on the other, allowing the tracks like these to get away without a reprimand. This can hardly augur well for Test match cricket.

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Tags: ICC, India, Sri Lanka, Test Cricket, Test match