Tests in India can no longer be referred to as the five-day game. We have the fantastic (please note sarcasm) pitch curators to thank for that.
Just like the first Test in Mohali, and the three Tests in India before that - last test to go for more than three days was the third test in the Border-Gavaskar series - the Nagpur Test was done and dusted with before the end of the third day. India won the match and series comfortably as South Africans were caught unawares on a treacherous track.
Indian spinners bundled out South Africa yet again with ease in Nagpur. AFP
It is one thing to have pitches that favor the home side and another that mock the sport in itself. I fear that this is what the test series between India and South Africa has become- a mockery of test cricket.
There is no use in glorifying India’s victory beyond a point because it is happening on dusted surfaces that take the fun out of the game. Some might argue that both teams play on the same pitch, while that may be true it doesn’t make the pitch a good one for test cricket.
In a continued attempt to make changes in a well-established game one must examine the sport regularly.
Every sport favors the home team. Familiarity, being at home rather than travelling, weather conditions and of course the home crowd. But cricket is the one of the few sports where conditions not only differ from country to country but even from city to city within a country. It is of course based primarily on the differences of the pitch. Hard or soft, a green top or grassless, a bouncy wicket or a turner.
In most other sports things are pretty universal and conditions rarely, if at all, become a factor in deciding the outcome of a match A football field is more or less the same across the board. Minor changes in the grass may exist but the field conditions are never really discussed before or post a match and very rarely determine the result. Basketball, Badminton, American Football, have more or less similar conditions across venues. Formula One tracks are naturally different but that is the nature of the sport. Most sports are pretty universal
The only other sport where conditions matter as much is probably tennis where the speed, bounce and surface conditions vary. Tennis however has leveled the playing field (to an extent) by having periods in the year which are divided in to a clay court, hard court, indoor and a (short) grass court season. While one surface may favor one played over the other there are opportunities to win big tournaments on all surfaces.
Cricket is the one sport where the pitch has the most impact on the result of the game. The impact has lessened in the ODI game,which is now pretty much a batsmen’s game and so flat tracks are the norm. T20 is just a 40 over match and so how much does a surface really matter.
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The Test match wicket is the perplexing one and making test cricket a bit of a joke. This is because a huge impact on the outcome of the game depends on whether the captain correctly calls “heads or tails.” When the flip of a coin plays such a crucial aspect in determining the outcome of a sporting event then you know that a revision in the sport is required. In a lot of cases in test cricket it is boiling down to the toss. While I am not belittling the impact of skill and eventually players do have to perform, how often do we talk about how the toss is critical?
So how do we take out the coin flip from the sport and yet at the same time allow home teams to take advantage of their strengths?
A suggestion has been floated and supported by a few former players that the toss shouldn’t exist at all. The logic is that since the home team determines the pitch condition the visiting team should have the right to choose whether they wish to bat or bowl first. This is easily implementable, logical and to a large extent evens the playing field. I for one would implement this starting tomorrow.
The urgency to come to a decision on this can’t be overstated. Whether the ICC removes the toss all together or comes up with another alternative, Test cricket must not be held hostage to the flip of the coin or the turn of the turf.
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