The murder of Test cricket has begun
Sri Lanka will play only two Test matches next year
Sri Lankan cricket authorities have created a Test drought next year, when Sri Lanka will play only two Test matches.
This is a direct result of the Lankan authorities cancelling/postponing its Future Tours Programme listed Test matches to make way for T-20 windows.
In the 2012 fixtures the Lankans in spite of hosting the T-20 World Championships played or are billed to play ten Test matches — two against England in April, three against Pakistan, two against New Zealand and three against Australia (the third Test overlapping to January next year).
The forthcoming two-Test tour against Bangladesh in February will go on as scheduled and this would be the only Test engagement for next year, besides the Australian overlapped Test match.
The drought starts in April-May next year in the Caribbean where Sri Lanka was scheduled play Two Test matches. Owing to their haste to keep the IPL window opened, the Lankans and the host have agreed to do away with the two scheduled Test matches.
Then in July-August next year, Sri Lanka is down to play high riding South Africa in a full series of three Test matches, five ODIs and 3 T-20s, but ironically the Test part of the tour has been done away with to open the window for the Sri Lanka Premier League T-20 tournament which will follow directly after the series against the Proteas.
The Lankan Test cricketers celebrate after beating the high-riding Englishmen early this year. But, these sorts of occurrences are becoming a rarity, owing to the short term policies of our cricket authorities.
In September next year, the cricketing world converges in England to take part in the Champions League 50-over tournament.
Following the English excursion the Lankans were billed to take on Zimbabwe where they were to play them in a two-Test, three-ODI series. However that tour has been replaced with the tri-nation series in the West Indies – the Indian pay off to the Caribbean for keeping the IPL window opened. The tri-series will see the West Indies, India and Sri Lanka taking part.
New Zealand will be back in Sri Lanka in November next year for a short limited overs series.In December, Sri Lanka is down to play Pakistan away in another full series, but the Test leg of that will be played in early 2014.
On the whole Sri Lanka will miss upto seven Test matches for the year.
When asked about this impeding situation, Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said the Test matches were not scrapped but were being rescheduled for future dates. But, when the Sunday Times pointed out that in the future besides the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, Sri Lanka would have to keep windows for the IPL — one and a half months in April/May and one month for the SLPL in August– whether SLC would be able to fit in all these postponed tours into the schedule, the answer was negative.
As a matter of fact more postponements of Test series even after 2013 cannot be ruled out.
Then the next question that comes up is: How could the ICC – the governing body of the game — condone such moves? For instance the whole Zimbabwe tour is taken out of the schedule to accommodate a BCCI bribe to the West Indies.
Even the inaugural Test championship mooted by the ICC next year was put off for 2017 for some spurious reason.
What is the ICC doing to preserve Test cricket or is it willingly turning blind eye to the murder of Test cricket because TV cartels are not interested in Test cricket?
A former Sri Lanka cricketer who opted to be anonymous lamented “Indeed it is very sad situation. Just imagine the plight of players in the calibre of Thilan Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardena who are lebelled as Test players. Have they been given yearly contracts to play only two Tests? Even to play two Test matches they have to train the whole year around. I am not blaming the ICC. Our own board should know what is good for our cricket”.
Follow @timesonlinelk
Related Posts:
Player contracts still a subject of debateNow Dilshan wants to quit Test cricket.
Hey! Mommy they are murdering Test cricket[caption id="attachment_12801" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Malinga and Gayle – would the IPL be the same without the services of these two ...
Can Sri Lanka clinch their first post-Murali series win?Can Sri Lanka register their first Test series win in their cricket history’s post Murali era? During the present series ...
Should Malinga make a Test comeback?Test cricket is considered the ultimate proving ground for any team looking to attach its name to immortality. Yet Sri ...
Aging larder; the Aussie ironyThis summer will tell us if we have any chance of regaining the Ashes. It will also tell us how ...