Rahul Dravid
has made a spirited call for nurturing first-class and Test cricket,
saying the longer and more traditional formats provided players with the
grounding needed to prosper in the newer, shorter versions. The steps
Dravid suggested for bolstering Tests included a more serious
consideration of day-night Tests, increasing pay for long-form
specialists, a streamlined and regularised cricket calendar, and
providing more context to matches through competitions like the Test
championship.
Perhaps the most radical idea Dravid proposed was for the less
successful countries to find a way to involve some of their teams in the
first-class structures of more robust cricketing nations, such as a
Bangladesh side participating in the Indian domestic season.
Dravid was speaking at the ESPNcricinfo for Cricket event held in London on Monday, part of a series of events held to celebrate the website's 20th anniversary.
While highlighting the primacy of Tests, he acknowledged the benefits
provided by Twenty20s, not just financially but with the innovations in
cricket it has spurred. Dravid urged people to think beyond pat
metaphors like "fast food v fine dining" when comparing the two formats,
and, putting forth a more nuanced explanation of the difference between
them, said he believed they could exist alongside each other.
"Test cricket, an older, larger entity is the trunk of a tree and the
shorter game - be it T20 or ODIs - is its branches, its off-shoots," he
said. "Now to be fair, it is the branches that carry the fruit, earn the
benefits of the larger garden in which they stand and so catch the eye.
The trunk though is the old, massive, larger thing which took a very
long time to reach height and bulk. But it is actually a life source:
chip away at the trunk or cut it down and the branches will fall off,
the fruit will dry up."
Dravid elaborated that the sustained examination cricketers faced in the
longer version helped them, especially youngsters, better understand
their basic game. "The fundamental core of every cricketer's game is
enriched by playing four- and five-day cricket," he said. "By using
those well-trained powers of adaptability, discipline, resilience and
focus as a T20 cricketer, you will have double the advantage than the
player possessed only of talent and timing.
"The skill of learning how to think clearly under pressure is required
in T20, but it is built through having to endure pressure for a session,
two sessions, an entire day, a series of spells."
Most of the biggest stars today honed their game over years of
first-class cricket, but with the ever-increasing focus on Twenty20,
Dravid sounded a note of caution for the future. "We are, I believe,
maybe one generation away from reaching the point where our entire youth
structures could cater only to T20 without any emphasis on the longer
form of the game. By not giving young players a chance to explore their
versatility, endurance or even improvisational skills, we will be
selling ourselves and our sport well short."
He then elaborated on measures to prop up the long form. "If that means
reworking how first-class and Test players can be out on more lucrative
contracts, let's get the accountants on this," he said. "If it means
playing day-night cricket, we must give it a try, keep an open mind. The
game's traditions aren't under threat if we play Test cricket under
lights. I know there have been concerns about the durability of the pink
ball, but I have had some experience of it having played for the MCC,
and it seemed to hold up okay."
A regularised itinerary was another of Dravid's ideas. "We can start by
sorting out the scheduling around Test cricket, to ensure that teams can
complete their home-and-away cycles against each other over a four-year
period. This will mean balancing and creating context for all the three
formats." He argued that the Ashes didn't lose its lustre over the
years partly because of its fixed place in the calendar, allowing a
sense of anticipation to build up.
"If we can answer that question - what's this for? - with something
other than the words 'television rights' we will have done well." One
way to address the lack of context, he felt, was to have marquee
tournaments like the Test championship and the Champions Trophy.
The most important step was to shore up first-class structures,
especially in the smaller cricketing countries. "Bangladesh is a good
example of a country with a great passion for the game and they don't
lack in talent. But they are still struggling to find their feet,
literally and figuratively, in Test cricket because of the lack of a
strong first-class structure," he said. "Test cricket is not the place
to start trying to learn new skills."
He argued that more established nations should help out the
less-resourced countries, by integrating overseas teams in their
domestic competitions, suggesting pairs of "India for Bangladesh, South
Africa for Zimbabwe, England for West Indies, Australia for New
Zealand." The way ahead was to put aside short-term profit and work
collaboratively, he contended, since "we are a very small community and
we can't afford to lose the members of our family".
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