Concern takes shape over future of five-dayers

The craze for the Ashes seems to spare no cricket enthusiast. The First Test at Cardiff got off to a slow start as both squads were a little circumspect. Invariably as all Ashes encounters, the match was an extremely close one as Australia had almost wrapped it up in the last hour of the final day. All spectators were entertained to a cliff-hanger of a contest, yet the image of a couple of elder men in the stands having forty winks in the midst of it seems to suggest a broader tale, a cause for concern.

Former England opener Geoff Boycott, among many others, believes Test cricket is dying and that it is time to panic.

“If you're watching England against Australia this summer, we're all seduced into believing Test cricket is fine because you could sell Test match cricket twice over for huge amounts of money because it is the oldest form of Test match cricket and has history and tradition. But every other series around the world there are declining attendances and there have been declining attendances for many years,” he said.

For quite some time now, and more so since the advent of the exciting Twenty20, Test cricket has been losing its audiences. The purest form of the game, synonymous to classical music in the world of entertainment, does not pull in crowds as in the days of Benaud and Gavaskar. After much deliberation on the matter by rule-makers Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the International Cricket Council has finally woken up to realise the gravity of the situation, though for settling on the right steps to take a definite shape the ICC seems confused and still lethargic to panic.

A 19-member committee of the MCC, including former greats such as Alec Stewart and Steve Waugh, had recently put forward a proposal of having a World Test Championship and trial of day/night Tests with pink balls, to add to the anticipation and thrill of the longest version, and enhance its viewership.

“Test cricketers want to be able to say they're the world champions of Test cricket. Most players still believe it is the pinnacle of the game and why not reward that every couple of years with a Test cricket championship or a trophy you've won?” said Waugh, who also reasoned that it would dump the dependence of a mere ranking system.

Five full days of perceived slow cricket without any guarantee of a declared winner at the end of it is a major reason for the huge decline in its popularity in recent years, when a cricket devotee satisfies his interest through one-dayers and T20’s in the fast-paced lifestyle.

Boycott also mentioned that the entire packaging of Test cricket needs a re-look, and marketed better, like T20 tournaments such as the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The MCC has also opined that a proper control on the number of foreign players recruited in the IPL, especially from lower-ranked nations could avoid players being lost in lucrative deals, for cricketers are nowadays shortening their Test careers to concentrate on the shorter versions – Andrew Flintoff and Chaminda Vaas have both announced retirement from Tests, saying they wanted to continue in ODIs and T20s. Captain of West Indies Chris Gayle was in controversy around two months ago for voicing that to him T20 was far more important and exciting than Tests. Future of the original form of the game is there for everyone to see, and it is difficult to fathom ICC’s lack of initiative to rectify the situation, which has gone disastrously out of hands.

In fact, the ICC has taken strange decisions in the past years that have been impossible to comprehend. It awarded Test status to Bangladesh when the standards of Test cricket was already going low; it allowed back-to-back Tests which spelled doom for cricketers for lack of breathing space; it had no say in the wrongly planned itineraries: it is feared that as long as it schedules some tournaments (not involving Tests) and cricket boards of nations organise matches separately, the itinerary would never be coordinated. Needless to say, the ICC lacked inventiveness to analyse and help the condition.

It has come up with an idea of having four-day Tests, a suggestion that has brought criticism from all quarters. It has, however, succumbed to the pressures by the MCC and has accepted the possibility of trial of a day/night Tests scheme in 2010.

The solution to the uphill battle to draw crowds lies in making the ‘boring’ game ‘interesting’. As the purists sigh in despair over the popularity of ‘instinctive’ cricket which is acting like a slow poison for the five-day version, the ICC needs definitive direction and quick, bold decisions to save it from extinction.

Federer breaks Roddick, and record

Roger Federer had to be aided heavily by lady luck for his record-breaking fifteenth Grand Slam title when he scraped through the sternest of tests by the skin of his teeth from Andy Roddick in the men’s singles final here on July 6. It was advantage Roddick from the start of this cliff-hanger of a match as he probably gave it more than his best for his first Wimbledon title, breaking Federer twice in the match and having four set points in the second set for a two-sets-to-love lead, only to be denied by destiny.

The American lost 7-5, 6-7(6-8), 6-7(5-7), 6-3, 14-16 in an epic final that lasted 4 hours and 19 minutes. It was a matter of a single break of serve in the final set, which did not happen till the 30th game of the set. All of Roddick’s shots were more than a match for Federer, who was invariably always saved by his serves – he conjured up 50 aces in the entire match.

The Swiss now holds the record for possessing the most number of grand slam titles in history, breaking Sampras’ record, which stood at fourteen.

“I thought Andy played great,” said a relieved Federer. “It was so different to what I have experienced in the last few years against Rafa. Today it was a serve-and-return game which is more classical for grass. It's frustrating at times because I could not break Andy until the very end. So satisfaction is maybe bigger this time around, the fact that I came through after not being able to control the match at all.”

Sampras, however, had to concede that the man from Basel was the best in the sport. “I have to give it to him,” he said.

For much of his career till 2007, the man they called ‘magician’ stood victorious in almost all the tournaments that came his way, holding the No.1 spot for a record 237 weeks straight. It was the Spaniard Rafael Nadal who proved a thorn in his way thereon.

In the last two years, the Swiss has merely won three grand slams, two without having to play his nemesis.

Just as Nadal started to prove to have conquered all surfaces when he won his first Australian Open title 6 months ago, he lost to an upbeat Robin Soderling in the third round in the French Open this year. The loss was a shocker but it was later found out to have been because of his long term knee-injury, for which he withdrew from Wimbledon. Federer made most of it to claim the title in Paris.

He might not have expected much of a fight in the finals of the Championships Sunday evening, only to be proved wrong by a rejuvenated Roddick.

The big-serving American took the first set and was on the verge of claiming the next one, being 6-2 up in the tiebreak, but did not have the luck to claim the set and eventually the match. The missed backhand volley, which could have given him the set, must have played in his mind a million times after the 4 hour marathon.

It was evident that his game has undergone a huge positive transformation. His forehand was much heavier and effective and his serve bigger and better (they had always been big). His backhand, which was a liability earlier, proved to be a lethal weapon – he was consistently able to invent passing-shot winners from almost any part of the court. It was a delight to see a spring in his step, the desire to win and the self-belief that he could exploit cracks in the champion.

This was his best chance of claiming a grand slam after 6 long years, during which he faced criticism and even despair as he had once thought of giving up his career. In 2004 and ’05, he had faced Federer in the finals here. The Swiss was almost untouchable then, unchallenged and unmatched by anyone – he was completely taken off-guard this time.

“I’m sorry Pete, I couldn’t hold him off,” said Roddick, dignified in defeat and understandably disappointed.

The exhausted 15,000 crowd, which had come to witness history being made by their favourite champion, went home with the idea that the best player did not win. It was Federer’s deep reserves of cunning and stubbornness that allowed him to out-last Roddick. They kept chanting the name of the American after the match.

“It's a crazy match, my head is still spinning,” Federer confessed to them.

Roddick vowed to come back to win the title next time. With the Rafas, Djokovics and now Roddicks breathing down his neck, Roger Federer’s reign has all signs to be short-lived.