Cricket's Omnishambles

Rod Lyall on the fiasco at the MCG

Rod Lyall, recently historian of the International Cricket Council, intended to spend yesterday enjoying the Boxing Day Test. Instead he wrote this. I’m not sure I agree with all his conclusions, but feel free to have at it in the comments. GH

That two of the current series of Ashes Tests have lasted less than two days, comprising a total of 283.1 overs between them – barely three days’ worth of ‘normal’ Test cricket – is not the aberration it may appear to be: it is the logical end-point, the reductio ad absurdum, of decisions made by coaches, players, and above all administrators over the past quarter-century.

That Cricket Australia stands to lose a reported $10 million from the Melbourne debacle, on top of its losses from the almost-uncannily similar farce in Perth, may cause those of us who care about the game’s longest format to give a Schadenfreude-filled smile, but there is a real danger that all these catastrophes will achieve is to provide the Hobgoblins of Jolimont with another argument that Test cricket is well past its use-by date.

After all, it’s not that long ago that CEO Todd Greenberg was bloviating about how Tests weren’t for everybody, and maybe the lesser mortals (everyone, perhaps, except Australia, England and India) should pack it in and focus on shorter formats. And one way or another, Australia and England have conspired to turn even the Ashes, the icon of cricket icons, into a laughing-stock.