Windies’ revival crucial to test cricket’s longevity

Against the perpetual backdrop of debate over the future of Test cricket, the West Indies start a series against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane on Thursday that the doomsayers expect will accelerate its demise.

The prospect of another one-sided clean sweep by the home team, to follow those on the two previous contests in Australia, has so diminished interest that the emptiness of the stands will echo around the vast, modern stadium that the Gabba has become.

The struggles in the opening match of the tour, the only one prior to the Test, against a Queensland team comprised of anonymous tyros, along with the misfortune that has taken Chris Gayle, the captain and absolutely vital player, back to Jamaica to be with his ill mother heighten the pessimism.

Greg Chappell, former captain, batsman supreme and member of Australia’s most prominent cricketing family, is the latest of the many to express his fears over the survival of Test cricket.

His thesis was that, given the instant popularity of the Twenty20 format and the gap between the strong and the weak, there could come a time when only four or five teams play Test cricket with the others confined to 20-overs and 50-overs an innings matches.

“There are only probably four or five countries that have the critical mass and have the infrastructure that will allow them to produce competitive Test match teams on a regular basis,” he argued. “That is a problem. That’s been exacerbated by the success of 20-overs cricket.”

There is no doubt into which category the West Indies would fall.

His address, at the annual Bradman Oration on the state of the game in Melbourne on Thursday night, coincided with the results of a survey of fans, conducted by the MCC in India, New Zealand and South Africa, that, perhaps not surprisingly, showed a heavy bias in favour of the newer, shorter forms (ODIs and Twenty20s) over Tests.

While such figures make gloomy reading, Chappell, unlike some others, believes the revival of the West Indies is crucial if the game as a whole is to flourish.

He, like his brothers, Ian, also former captain, and Trevor, played in the era when West Indies dominated the game and when they were even more popular in Australia than even the Australians themselves.

He could recognise, from first-hand experience, the importance of the West Indies, even now in this period of deep decline.

“The region of the West Indies has been one of the great cricket-playing regions and it would be an absolute tragedy in my view if we lost the West Indian region to cricket,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that some of the work that’s being done to help West Indian cricket become strong again is successful because I think they’re a very important member of the cricket family,” he added. “It’s not going to be easy but I think if the will is there hopefully we can help it.”

He did not mention any other struggling cricketing country in that regard – not New Zealand,  not Bangladesh and not Zimbabwe. According to him, a born-again West Indies is what is needed.

Others, like Peter Roebuck, the one-time captain of Somerset, now prolific commentator on the game in the international media, have repeatedly declared that its present chaotic state has made West Indies cricket irrelevant and advocated that it be disbanded. That would surely accelerate its demise through these territories.

Chappell’s view is widely shared among his contemporaries.

His critical words are “if the will is there”. The lack of it, by weak and often self-serving administrators, is the most obvious reason for the woes of the recent past.

Clearly, as he points out, “it’s not going to be easy”. It certainly won’t happen over the next few weeks in Australia and no one should expect it to, especially given the upheavals through which it has been carried by board and players. But the talent and the interest remain. It can surely happen over time, “if the will is there”.
The problem is time.

“I think the format that is under most pressure with 20-overs cricket coming in is Test cricket,” Chappell said. “It has been struggling for some time. Economically, some countries find it very difficult to be competitive and therefore it affects economically the viability of Tests between some countries.”

A quarter-century ago such worries were unthinkable for the most powerful entity in world cricket. The degeneration has been that fast. Regeneration could take a lot longer but it is possible “if the will is there”.