Will Test Cricket die by 2050????

[Precambrian]

Would you say that the peak of interest of Indian cricket in Tests was when India win in Kolkata ie The Miracle of Kolkata in 2001??? I remember watching it in Australia, pubs were packed with people following the game. LOL. Back then I was the only Indian supporter cheering them on in there. I loved seeing the jam packed ground of the 2nd and 3rd Tests against Australia in 2001. But Indian test cricket has not produced that level of interest since. Mind you we were blessed with bona fide match winners in Test cricket in Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid and Kumble.

Yep, exactly the series what I had in my mind... all the matches were sellouts in that series. The Mumbai one was jampacked, so tto were Calcutta and Chennai ones. I think that was the last "true home series" in terms of level of cricket, crowd following and match situations we had. Post that it started dipping. Not least helped by waning forms of Ganguly and Tendulkar's injury. The 2004 home series vs Australia was largely a drab affair, although crowds picked up again when Tendulkar was back. Test cricket played by India had it's critical number of following only due to presence of Tendulkar in the last decade or so.

[undisputed chap]

Why cry over spilt milk. Test cricket will soon die off.

[sensible-indian]

Test cricket surviving or not has got nothing to do with the quality of teams. Its about revenues. Test cricket is well and truly alive in England and Australia. Rest of the places not so much (India brings in the revenues due to the sheer volume of its audience but they would make a lot more if they arrange an LOI series instead). It will take a while but in a decade or two (maybe 3), Test cricket will be finished. Maybe Ashes might survive but that's also doubtful as the younger generation of Aussie and English fans might not have the same level interest in Test cricket. Comparison with 1970's is not right. Today the world moves at a rapid pace compared to the past.

[sensible-indian]

This is so true, I may follow the Indian team on cricinfo, but I have little interest in seeing Test cricket being played live. If I buy a ticket for one day of a test match I might be lucky to see India bat, conversely I may just only see India bowl for an entire day. How boring would that be. Whereas if I buy a T20/ODI ticket, I get the whole lot, Batting, bowling, exciting fielding and the crowd with a lot of energy and vibe. It makes economical sense for me to spend my $$$$ wisely to get the most bang for my dollar.

Yeah true. If we leave emotions aside and analyze, its hard to see Test cricket surviving. If option B can bring in more revenues in a particular time period than option A, how long will administrators keep fighting off money? Just a matter of time. The time period may be a decade or 2 due to the respect Test cricket has but its still just a matter of time.

[sensible-indian]

The day Test cricket 'dies' everywhere but England and Australia will be the day I stop following the sport. Annual ashes series would be tedious. Heck' date=' it's already getting to that stage now, with just one calendar year (2012) out of the last five containing no ashes cricket whatsoever and another one next year[/quote'] Yeah. Didn't think of that. Ashes would definite be the last man standing in the test arena and tediousness would kill it off.

[King Tendulkar]

Will test cricket die off? Lets see. But right now its alive and kicking and we are playing to win. So dhoni fanatics who want to excuse the pathetic captaincy of mr corrupt by saying who cares its dieing need to take a rain check for 20 years. He needs to go now and if you don't care about tests why do you want him to continue? Don't excuse the losses by saying format is dieing as right now its totally alive!

[Raghav_12]

Yes, if Dhoni manages to remain Indian captain till then. More relevant question would have been if test cricket would survive Dhoni.

[sensible-indian]

Will test cricket die off? Lets see. But right now its alive and kicking and we are playing to win. So dhoni fanatics who want to excuse the pathetic captaincy of mr corrupt by saying who cares its dieing need to take a rain check for 20 years. He needs to go now and if you don't care about tests why do you want him to continue? Don't excuse the losses by saying format is dieing as right now its totally alive!

True.

[King Tendulkar]

I really think dhoni is helping to kill tests in India When India does well the public latch on to it and get interested. India win world cup then india loves it. India wins T20 world cup india loves it. I remember before last tour of enlgand it was billed as battle for number 1. Massive interest and hype. India were flying high, interest was enormous. We got ass raped and carried on being ass raped for 3 years!! Fans down trodden, of course lose interest in team getting spanked under dhoni. Pure torture watching it. Also media loses interest as raped all the time. But if we start winning, doing well overseas, climbing the ranking, reach number 2 and then have big series to get to number 1 say against aussies. Then you will see the interest and excitement in India and fans That idiot is helping to kill tests in india with his pathetic corrupt leadership. Sadly his fantics are more concerned with him retaining captaincy no matter what then worried about test cricket and indian team. In fact they would prefer test cricket to die then see their leader criticised or lose his job!

[adi B]

test cricket will definitely survive,rather more people will gain interest in test matches because t20s and odis are too common nowadays.come 5 years from now,no.of people watching test cricket will be up by manifolds.the strong boards like england,aus wont let that happen even bcci wont do that i am sure all three formats will survive and gain even more popularity at least till i live

[King Tendulkar]

test cricket will definitely survive,rather more people will gain interest in test matches because t20s and odis are too common nowadays.come 5 years from now,no.of people watching test cricket will be up by manifolds.the strong boards like england,aus wont let that happen even bcci wont do that i am sure all three formats will survive and gain even more popularity at least till i live

If we start winning interest in India will jump! Lets get a team winning. That's how to revive test interest in India. Also yes attendance at grounds in tests may be lower in India. But I feel tv audiences and media interest is still high. Also in pure money terms which some from nexus of evil fans seem to think is be all and end all. 5 days of non stop cricket generates big revenue. That's 5 days of tv viewing, 5 days of adverts, 5 days of ticket sales. That's money money money. But sadly dhoni ensures we only get 3 day tests so lose out on revenue:giggle:

[G_B_]

I think attendance at grounds in India is blinkered by the fact that distribution systems of tickets are poor. I am not saying we will have full houses but i think grounds will be 50% full.

[adi B]

crowd attendance havent been poor(though less than odis offcourse) in recent test matches in india.bangalore,chennai,delhi have had decent crowds in the recent past. whenever i went to watch a test match at delhi(at least 4-5 times),the crowd attendance was pretty healthy(especially on weekends) ,even against aus last year,crowd was pretty good on day 2 and 3(west stand was bit empty partly because many were reluctant to sit under the intense heat).the buzz was good as well.its not like its all empty and gloomy,people do come out in numbers to watch intl players play at their best. india have to start playing test matches in venues where people are willing to come out in large numbers especially in non metropolitans.venues like kochi,cuttack,indore,ranchi etc should be encouraged to host test matches.these grounds have the potential to produce good attendance if not fullhouse.at least 1 match per series should be allotted to such venues

[adi B]

I think attendance at grounds in India is blinkered by the fact that distribution systems of tickets are poor. I am not saying we will have full houses but i think grounds will be 50% full.

true.many tickets are distributed as passes(especially test matches) and most of those pass holders dont give two hoots to come out in the heat and watch a match but if its a weekend you'll find more than 50% of the ground being full. in fsk delhi,for example most seats of the west stand remains empty because they primarily belong to the pass holders,the middlemen lobby is pretty strong. its not like the bcci and the state boards aint trying,the ticket rates for 1 day of a test match was just Rs100-200 which i thought was a good initiative compared to IPL where the ticket rates starts from 500 lol

[kubrickian]

Test cricket will always sustain itself in England and Australia because of Ashes. They have a lot of rivalry and pride associated with it and winning the series means a big deal to them. Other than a few die hard fans in India, nobody takes tests that seriously because there is not much tradition, rivalry or history attached with the format for the common fan. Test wins/losses have pretty much the same importance as ODI wins/losses with World Cup being the pinnacle of achievement in cricket. Its only since the last 15 years or so with the emergence of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Ganguly, Kumble, Zaheer has test cricket become more popular. With those cricketers retiring and T20 format getting more popular and attention spans dwindling, test cricket may not find an audience to sustain itself in the coming years. Add to the fact that most test matches in India tend to be dull, one sided affairs with visiting teams getting thrashed and watching those contests may not be too exciting for the average fan. But I suspect because of the importance attached to the format by the players, ex cricketers, media, die hard fans, test cricket will continue to be played albeit not regularly. Other than Eng or Aus, you find mostly empty stadiums for tests in most countries nowadays and they have resorted to playing only 2 tests per series. I think this trend will continue. In India, only time will tell if more people warm up to test format because we have such a huge population that as the economy grows and even if a fraction follow tests, the format will survive. Also lot depends on BCCI making test cricket more appealing and making it interesting in the coming years. Having a regular test series with Pakistan could bring back some importance back into test cricket because of the rivalry.

[beetle]

I think bilateral series like Ashes between popular rivals will survive. Test cricket should be restricted to the best six teams.Rest should play as tier two teams amongst each other ...let the others fight to knock out some one (based on points).Make it day night. Change a few rules to make it more spectator friendly.

[King Tendulkar]

Test cricket will always sustain itself in England and Australia because of Ashes. They have a lot of rivalry and pride associated with it and winning the series means a big deal to them. Other than a few die hard fans in India, nobody takes tests that seriously because there is not much tradition, rivalry or history attached with the format for the common fan. Test wins/losses have pretty much the same importance as ODI wins/losses with World Cup being the pinnacle of achievement in cricket. Its only since the last 15 years or so with the emergence of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Ganguly, Kumble, Zaheer has test cricket become more popular. With those cricketers retiring and T20 format getting more popular and attention spans dwindling, test cricket may not find an audience to sustain itself in the coming years. Add to the fact that most test matches in India tend to be dull, one sided affairs with visiting teams getting thrashed and watching those contests may not be too exciting for the average fan. But I suspect because of the importance attached to the format by the players, ex cricketers, media, die hard fans, test cricket will continue to be played albeit not regularly. Other than Eng or Aus, you find mostly empty stadiums for tests in most countries nowadays and they have resorted to playing only 2 tests per series. I think this trend will continue. In India, only time will tell if more people warm up to test format because we have such a huge population that as the economy grows and even if a fraction follow tests, the format will survive. Also lot depends on BCCI making test cricket more appealing and making it interesting in the coming years. Having a regular test series with Pakistan could bring back some importance back into test cricket because of the rivalry.

WTF!! Dhoni fans are total losers, anything to defend their hero. Rubbish at tests, then trash the format cos he is not good enough

[kubrickian]

WTF!! Dhoni fans are total losers' date=' anything to defend their hero. Rubbish at tests, then trash the format cos he is not good enough[/quote'] Huh ? Where did I trash the format ? Read what I wrote again but then again, I know you don't have the brain cells to read the whole post. Your obsession with Dhoni and repeating the same thing in every post suggest there may be something wrong with you. Get yourself checked in a mental institute.

[sensible-indian]

WTF!! Dhoni fans are total losers' date=' anything to defend their hero. Rubbish at tests, then trash the format cos he is not good enough[/quote'] So anyone having a different view is a Dhoni fan in Tests?

[G_B_]

true.many tickets are distributed as passes(especially test matches) and most of those pass holders dont give two hoots to come out in the heat and watch a match but if its a weekend you'll find more than 50% of the ground being full. in fsk delhi,for example most seats of the west stand remains empty because they primarily belong to the pass holders,the middlemen lobby is pretty strong. its not like the bcci and the state boards aint trying,the ticket rates for 1 day of a test match was just Rs100-200 which i thought was a good initiative compared to IPL where the ticket rates starts from 500 lol

exactly this needs to change. I feel you need to maybe hand in tickets on the day to people.