Cricket has to establish a healthy relationship with the younger audience

All three formats can co-exist

Since the advent of Twenty20 cricket, there has been a lot of talk about whether Test cricket will survive in the longer run or not. Indeed, the longer format is respected but with a greater part of the audience preferring T20 cricket, there were few questions about the longer format’s future.

It has been eight years since the first Twenty20 World Cup was played, but Test cricket has still been able to survive. But the question is will it attract the younger people in the future? For that to happen, T20 cricket will have to exist.

A vast majority of the people who follow cricket do not have knowledge of how the game functions. They have very less knowledge about the pitches and conditions across the world, and how they play a key role in deciding the outcome of the match. Of course, Test cricket teaches you the basics of the game, but how many people understand it? How many people can sit and analyse the conditions when a batsman keeps leaving deliveries?

Will people realise the effect of reverse swing? Will they applaud a bowler’s effort on a lifeless wicket?

The current generation who follow cricket, have very little idea of how good the longer format is as they are brought up in an era where they enjoy run feasts. They do not have an idea about how good Zaheer Khan, and Ashish Nehra were in their younger days. They do not have an idea of how the pitches will behave in England and Australia, as we usually get good batting surfaces across the world these days.

They generally know in England it will swing, and in Australia we will get quick wickets. But how far is it true in the modern game? The surfaces that India got in England in 2002 is nowhere closer to the surfaces we got in 2014. They lack the knowledge to understand it.

The future of cricket looks bleak. With more and more people interested in domestic T20 cricket, what will be the status of international cricket? Is it right to give up T20 for Test cricket to continue? Will that fetch in a larger amount of audience?

T20 is here to stay

Certainly no. With the current generation fans preferring new things, T20 cricket will have to exist for cricket to survive on the longer run. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have T20 cricket just at the domestic level, and not at the international level. T20 at the domestic level will attract huge amount of audiences, and with cricket increasingly being driven by money these days, it will also generate more revenue.

People would certainly love to watch the likes of MS Dhoni and Brendon McCullum or Chris Gayle and AB de Villers bat together. Also, those who are interested in following cricket on the longer run will certainly keep an eye on some of the younger cricketers who make a name in the domestic T20 tournament. Indeed, those people would like to see how the young cricketers perform at the international level, and thereby the viewership of cricket will rise, and they will also gain the knowledge of how the sport functions at different levels.

Another benefit of having T20 only at the club level would give the players a much-needed break to regroup and come back for tougher assignments. These days, players rarely get a break because of a packed calendar with both international and domestic cricket, and hence, if international T20 cricket can be taken away, it would be beneficial for both players and the audience.