The players are ruining test cricket, not the administrators

Well, the administrators aren't helping, but the captains these days really are gutless and in general too scared of losing in order to go for a win. It's turning people off, and it's making test cricket dull and predictable.

Not enough is being done to encourage teams to try and win test matches. Risks aren't being taken anymore, and the draw is played for, whilst a win is seen as a bonus.

And let's be honest- If you didn't know better, you'd think the players and umpires would rather do anything in the world other than have to play a game of test cricket. It always seems like they're so keen to get off the field at the first opportunity. A few drops of rain? Right, let's get off quickly, and wait around for an hour of inspections and concerns about a little puddle of water before play is resumed. Oh what? It's sunny? I don't care, I want to have tea. How many people in the ground? 25,000? And how much did they pay? $100 each? Haha, what a bunch of suckers!

Bad light? Get them off. The batsman can't pick up the ball well enough in order to smash it to the boundary, and the floodlights are creating shadows, heaven forbid! Let's get out of here now......

Test not necessarily heading for a result? Right, that's it...quick, let's give up on this ordeal, shake hands, and go and film some TV commercials. Phew! Glad we got out of that one!

And yet on the surface, they're all saying, "Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game rah rah rah...."

Well, show it, quick.

The end to the just completed Test in the WIndies verges on the unbelievable. 86 runs needed off 90 balls, with 7 wickets in hand, and India gives up on the chase? If I was the West Indies skipper, I'd be delighted to have escaped the loss.

If I was an Indian cricket fan, I'd be lining up the effigies to burn around the clock for a week. What a pissweak performance.

Aye. A sad day for Test cricket when the No 1 side in the world whimps out on a run chase.

There are run chases and run chases. I mean, if it was 200 needed in the last session, that's a bit different from needing 86, off 15 overs, WITH 7 WICKETS IN HAND. FFS...

Zat wrote:The end to the just completed Test in the WIndies verges on the unbelievable. 86 runs needed off 90 balls, with 7 wickets in hand, and India gives up on the chase? If I was the West Indies skipper, I'd be delighted to have escaped the loss.

If I was an Indian cricket fan, I'd be lining up the effigies to burn around the clock for a week. What a pissweak performance.

Wow, I had no idea it was that p!ss weak. I assumed rain had intervened or summat.

our game has reached a truly dismal state

Probably only an hour until TO turns up to explain how such an outcome is great for the game.

Clearly it was a moral victory for the Bannies.

it is always a moral victory for banindi

Yeah, I said on the thread that it was a damned attrocity. Happy to get away with a 1-niller. Woeful. If I was Murali Vijay or Suresh Raina, I'd be asking myself what I gave my wicket away for. He could've sent Bhajji in, himself. F*ck me, the more I think about it, I don't even think Cap'n Negs would've shook hands at that point. Pathhheticccccc.

The Bannies must have a T20 series coming up. Emma was saving his strength for that, surely?

I heard that the 1st Test v England starts 'Thursday week'. Was shocked. May as well have not attempted to chase down those runs, in that case

No defense for it and it's something that the India team has really lacked - that bit of ruthlessness, plenty of times there could have been big series wins if they had a bit of balls to pull the trigger in the last test of a series.

If you look at Dravid's SR you know just how defensive the mindset was but I for one am glad that the Windies have held out.

There have been other occasions though when teams have wimped out of the chase. Even in 1974/5 under Chappelli who was meant to have been an attacking captain, Lillian Marsh blocked out for a draw in a game that was winnable.

i think the game was pretty much 'lost' as soon as mukund was out first ball and dravid walked in. with just 47 overs to get the runs in india showed their intent was to first make sure a loss is not possible for them. a change-up in the batting order with the strikers first up and then dravid and laxman at 6 or lower to save the match would have been a strategy a more positive mindset would have taken. they just seemed too scared to lose the test

Meh, Dravid to sure up the possible loss, Vijay and Raina to do what they did, then Toni and Bhajji to have a tonk. VVS if the sh!t hit the fan. Plain and simple.

India have history for this kind of thing though, pretty much played for the draw at the Oval in their last series here despite being well on top in the match...

Yeah, true, although it wasn't as clear cut as this one. You could aruge that playing like this had made them number one, because they're scraping series without too much need to risk anything.

Zat wrote:Probably only an hour until TO turns up to explain how such an outcome is great for the game.

The One wrote:i think the game was pretty much 'lost' as soon as mukund was out first ball and dravid walked in. with just 47 overs to get the runs in india showed their intent was to first make sure a loss is not possible for them. a change-up in the batting order with the strikers first up and then dravid and laxman at 6 or lower to save the match would have been a strategy a more positive mindset would have taken. they just seemed too scared to lose the test

7 hours 15 minutes.

When was the last 5 test series that India played (or won) out of interest? Did they have one against Aus in the last few years?

played - 2002 vs windies (lost 2-1)

won - 1981 vs england (won 1-0 in a 6 test series)

our series vs the aussies nowadays are 4 test series. we won 2-0 in 2008

The One wrote:i think the game was pretty much 'lost' as soon as mukund was out first ball and dravid walked in. with just 47 overs to get the runs in india showed their intent was to first make sure a loss is not possible for them. a change-up in the batting order with the strikers first up and then dravid and laxman at 6 or lower to save the match would have been a strategy a more positive mindset would have taken. they just seemed too scared to lose the test

I sincerely hope that India play the forthcoming series against England with the same mindset.

I forgot that they're coached by Duncan Fletcher now.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-india-2011/content/current/story/522606.html

He has history for negativity. I remember England's awful tours of India (Giles bowling a foot outside leg stump, the seamers bowling a foot wide of off stump) and SL where they only played for draws - and lost both series 1-0. Awful, it was.

Depends if you call our at-the-time limited bowlers the equivalent of India's batsmen, for an hour or two's play. As I've mentioned earlier, there were a couple of tonk players left in the hutch and a couple of limpets there if the sh!t hit the fan. IMO, it was the height of weirdness that they shut up shop. The chance of them getting gunned if it went a bit wrong was pretty low. One wonders how much input Felcher would've had in the decision, as others have alluded to Toni's not the most attacking of captains...

The One wrote:played - 2002 vs windies (lost 2-1)

won - 1981 vs england (won 1-0 in a 6 test series)

our series vs the aussies nowadays are 4 test series. we won 2-0 in 2008

Cheers TO.

Feel sorry for test cricket fans from India in that case, 5 matches are the shiznit.