I love Test match cricket…
When I was thirteen I remember lying in bed watching the Ashes live on Channel 9, it would have been just a bit after midnight local time when Shane Warne announced his arrival on the international scene.
He went on to change the face of Test cricket, with the sport coming out of a period dominated by fast bowling, Warne single-handledly revived the art of leg-spin and with deliveries like the eight in the video below, leading the Australian Test team through a period in which they dominated both the Test and 50-over game.
A couple of years later I was at the Boxing Day Test at the MCG in 1995 when this famous incident took place.
Darrell Hair calls Muttiah Muralitharan a chucker
I was sitting with a Sri-Lankan friend in an area just back from Bay 13 where it was mostly Sri-Lankan fans, the conversations that got louder and angrier as it became clear that Umpire Darrell Hair was calling Muralitharan for throwing only added to the drama of what was one of the most memorable cricket controversies in the recent history of the game. It’s the drama that can only come from an incident that happens in a split-second across a five-day game and is irrevocably written into the history of the sport.
So it was with some surprise that I read Greg Baum’s article in The Age today where he’s quoted as saying, in regards to today’s Boxing Day Test…
Australia, though fragile, has taken some hesitant steps – in every way baby – towards recovery. But it is playing this match and series for the first time in the shadow of its own IPL, the massively over-hyped Big Bash League. Its only indisputable effect yet is to isolate this Test series in the program, meaning a man is either playing five-day cricket or five-minute cricket. Still Cricket Australia has the cheek to call it a system.
It’s a fair call, the timing of the games themselves is questionable. Pretty much an hour after the end of tomorrows second day’s play at the MCG the first match of the third round of BBL games will kick off. Nevertheless, I don’t think having a T20 League in Australia detracts from the longer version of the game… the sort of Test match moments I’ve described above are all the more unique and exciting because of the history of Test match cricket and the length of each game, with a controversial no-ball call able to change the course of a five-day match.
In the twenty-over game, it’s pretty much a three-hour slogfest where, like in the 50-over version most of the excitement comes down to the last quarter of the match.
What does any of this have to do with me? Well because I’ve spent the last three months working on the three-hour slogfest form of the game.
More promotion for the “massively over-hyped Big Bash League”
Check out the KFC T20 Big Bash League and the eight team sites:
- Adelaide Strikers
- Brisbane Heat
- Hobart Hurricanes
- Melbourne Renegades
- Melbourne Stars
- Perth Sandgropers
- Sydney Sixers
- Sydney Thunder.
Also, it would be amiss of me not to mention:
- the iPhone App written by Byron and
- the Android App written by Drew and Charlie (please do check them out and rate them!)
More hype
Also big thanks to Sam W for writing the API for the mobile apps.
Anyway, that’s enough hype (don’t forget to download the app!). If anything I think the critics should be happy the BBL is on again Tuesday night, given Australia’s recent form, there’s probably a good chance the Test match will be finished by then anyway. In the meantime, you should download and rate the app. :D
