There appears to be something of an existential crisis unfolding in Test cricket: the quest to preserve the idea of the five-day Test match, with its attendant plot twists and uncertainty, while at the same time confronting the modern realities of aggressive tactics, commercial imperatives and pitches that seem to conspire against the format they are meant to serve.
But there is something unbalanced about the idea of engineering a five-day contest. Sport should be gloriously uncertain; and anyway, that’s what insurance is for. David Beckham once insured his legs for £100 million; surely there’s a market for insuring against losses triggered by two-day Tests.
But this isn’t merely about the bottom line. It’s about the soul of Test cricket: the intertwining of skill and strategy and the meandering arc of uncertainty that sustains suspense. Yet the very conditions that should nurture that uncertainty – the pitch, the central stage upon which bat and ball do battle – fall victim to blame like never before.
Read the rest of Darren Kane’s column here.
SCG ground staff prepare the wicket for the fifth Ashes Test.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer