2013 - A year of ‘Home’ team domination in Test cricket

A picture from the final day of the gripping New Zealand – England Test at Auckland in March 2013

“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.” – Confucius

As fans and followers of sport in general, you must have observed that teams generally perform better at home than away due to various reasons:

• A close acquaintance with local conditions
• Crowd support
• Comparatively less travel fatigue
• Referee/official bias etc.

According to ‘The in?uence of crowd noise and experience upon refereeing decisions’, a study by Neville and Balmer (1999), crowd may force the match officials in being biased, subconsciously or otherwise, towards the home side. But it is far less significant in cricket because of the fact that an average cricket stadium is much more polite than a typical football stadium. Moreover, the officiating umpires belong to neutral nations, and the presence of the Decision Review System (DRS) gives teams an opportunity to question any howlers.

This leaves us with ‘familiarity with local conditions’ as a major factor. As a disciple of cricket, I don’t think there’s any other sport which gets as heavily influenced by conditions as cricket. 2013 further strengthened this argument, a year where ‘home’ teams stamped their authority in the Test format. The following table depicts an overview of all the Test match series played in 2013:

Series	Winner	Margin
Sri Lanka in Australia	Australia	3-0 (3)
New Zealand in South Africa	South Africa	2-0 (2)
Pakistan in South Africa	South Africa	3-0 (3)
Bangladesh in Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1-0 (2)
Zimbabwe in West Indies	West Indies	2-0 (2)
Australia in India	India	4-0 (4)
England in New Zealand	Drawn	0-0 (3)
Bangladesh in Zimbabwe	Drawn	1-1 (2)
New Zealand in England	England	2-0 (2)
The Ashes- Australia in England	England	3-0 (5)
Pakistan in Zimbabwe	Drawn	1-1 (2)
New Zealand in Bangladesh	Drawn	0-0 (2)
Pakistan v/s South Africa in UAE	Drawn	1-1 (2)
West Indies in India	India	2-0 (2)
West Indies in New Zealand	New Zealand	2-0 (2)
The Ashes- England in Australia	Australia	4-0 * (5)
India in South Africa	South Africa	1-0 (2)

* indicates still in progress

Based on the above data, the percentage of the home matches won by the Test playing nations is a staggering 73%.

Moreover, no team out of the 10 Test playing nations won a series overseas. The reason attributed to the above facts is the variation in conditions across cricket playing nations, be it the stark difference in the nature of pitches or the weather conditions.

Domination at home – worldwide phenomenon

In the beginning of the year, the Asian stalwarts Sri Lanka and Pakistan toured Australia and South Africa respectively and suffered whitewashes. England didn’t win even a single away Test this year. They struggled to draw level with the Kiwis in New Zealand, but defeated them 2-0 in their own backyard.

The same story continued with The Ashes, where they conquered Australia 3-0 in England, but have succumbed to four losses in as many Tests in Australia, and are on the verge of a whitewash.

Australia are no different from their arch rivals. They won 7 Tests this year, all at home in as many matches, losing an equal amount of Tests overseas to India and England respectively.

India whitewashed Australia 4-0 in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and West Indies 2-0 in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series at home, hence remaining unbeaten in Tests in 2013 till December. But they lost the second Test to the Proteas in South Africa and hence the two match series 1-0, undoing the hard work of the first Test at Johannesburg.

Pakistan, who are regarded as the most unpredictable team, didn’t harm their reputation at all. They lost to the number 10 ranked side Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club, but surprised the world number one ranked side South Africa in UAE, their home venue, defeating them in the first Test.

Also, Bangladesh capitalized fully on their home conditions, playing competitively against New Zealand at home and forcing two batsman-dominated draws.

South Africa, the number one ranked Test team, won 6 out of their 7 home Tests, against New Zealand, Pakistan and India respectively. Their only away series was against Pakistan in the UAE, whom they whitewashed 3-0 at home earlier in the year. As mentioned earlier, Pakistan shocked them in the first Test, but South Africa won the second Test, with skipper Graeme Smith leading from the front, hence managing to draw the two match series.

West Indies, the World T20 champions, struggled in the Test format throughout the year, winning only 2 matches at home against the minnows Zimbabwe. They lost all of their overseas Tests in India and New Zealand respectively.

What does home domination mean for Test cricket?

To sum up, Test cricket has become very predictable. The evolution of T20 cricket hasn’t helped its cause. The turnout for Test matches has reduced significantly over the years. The empty seats at Kingsmead in the farewell Test of perhaps the greatest all rounder ever, Jacques Kallis, are indicative of this fact.

Test cricket urgently requires an ‘undisputed’ world number one team, the one like the mighty Australian side lead by Steve Waugh and later Ricky Ponting, consisting of greats like Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, who were equipped and potent to succeed in all playing conditions.

Who’ll be the one? India? South Africa? Perhaps the resurgent Aussies? We’ll have to wait.