Dear Editor,
Ian Chappell’s silly comments about Pakistan’s performance and his suggestion that maybe they should not be invited to Australia in future, are very similar to those made by himself and others about the West Indies tour of Australia last year. Those comments emanate from the unwillingness of cricket leaders to face up to the most obvious facts about international cricket, namely:
- Home field advantage makes the assessment of the relative strength of teams very unreliable.
- Although the shorter forms of the game were designed to make some games shorter and more spectator friendly, and that good cricketers, with minor exceptions, are good in all forms of the game, the leaders continue to treat so-called Test cricket, the longest format, as if it was much more than the longest form, and was rather like a higher form of the game.
More rationality in the management of international cricket is badly needed.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
