Worrying trend of 2 Test series

[Skater]

Anyone else worried about the amount of Test series these days which consist of just 2 matches? It is ridiculous, these series have little competition because if a side wins the first one the other has no chance of winning the series and that's that. Test sereis should be a minimum of 3 games.

 

[.Mob]

Yeah, the ICC should set the rule to be a minimum of 3 matches in a series.

 

[Sureshot]

I believe series between specific teams have a certain status by the ICC which define how many matches they can have. Eg, special series can have 5 tests, Ashes, RSA vs Aus, etc.

 

[KBC]

I do think so.

I was a little surprised at the schedule of the England in india tour. Anyone hearing that 7 ODis, 2 tests are the matches for the tour (disregarding the Practice-matches) would probably feel there's a lot empty. Say at least 5 ODis, 3-4 tests, One/Two twenty20 would give pure satisfaction.

It's certainly not good for test cricket if less tests are played. It's sophisticating and the right result won't come out. Say in 2006, India VS south.africa test series in south africa. India won the first test and could have been more dominant but SA Took the series away.

I believe this short test match trend will take another higher step. Certainly, if not Now, in the upcoming years. We can see a lot of interest will lie in 50/50 and the shorter games and even only One test match can be added into the schedule! Believe me. But it can. Also, with the domestic dominance of ICL, IPL, EPL, Stanford 20-20, Pro 40, they all add up pressure to the already pressurized test cricket condition.

Yet, Test cricket is test cricket. We cannot let it go down. It's always the top version of the game as said a million times before and to stabilize Test cricket, Some ideas can be worked on taking the past year tours success and preventing it to lose it's importance.

 

[sohum]

The only trend that is being started here is the India-England series, which is indeed worrying. We usually play 3 or 4 Tests. Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have typically always played in 2-Test series, which I've always thought to be pretty silly.

I think 3-Tests should be a minimum while competitions between the top 4 sides should comprise of 4- and 5-test series. But at the moment, it is really all up to the involved cricket boards and the fans to show up.

 

[CortezTheKiller]

I don't think India/England test series will consist of only two tests in future; the (ridiculously) shortened series this time was a result of an impasse between the ECB & the BCCI. The latter were unwilling to forgo any of their 7 ODIs (of course tragic circumstances dictated otherwise) & the former (at the behest of their players) did not want to spend Xmas in India.

 

[Skater]

I don't think India/England test series will consist of only two tests in future; the (ridiculously) shortened series this time was a result of an impasse between the ECB & the BCCI. The latter were unwilling to forgo any of their 7 ODIs (of course tragic circumstances dictated otherwise) & the former (at the behest of their players) did not want to spend Xmas in India.

Still cutting in fine. I think the second Test finishes on December the 23rd if it goes all the way so they would get the plane home on the 24th. Imagine if there was a delay or something, they might not make it.

 

[Raj_Aryan]

Its really crap idea of 2 test match series,it should be min 3 and max 5 (earlier there were 7 test match series,but 5 is ok like Ashes),in 2 test match series,the home team has more adv and they normally win the 1st,and 2nd one gets drawn (normally that is what happens),according to me,it should be 3 test +5 ODI's+1 T20 in a tour +few warm up matches

 

[Deleted member 11215]

India's Fault, play real cricket bitches...

 

[aditya123]

Anyone else worried about the amount of Test series these days which consist of just 2 matches? It is ridiculous, these series have little competition because if a side wins the first one the other has no chance of winning the series and that's that. Test sereis should be a minimum of 3 games.

It is absolutely disgusting for boards to agree to play a 2 test match series and also in a series involving 2 very high profile series which has the potential to be a cracker.I felt that the India-England test series in England last year should`ve been a 4-test series at least. 7-ODIs make no sense because most of the times they are decided by the 5th ODI itself.

On the one hand the BCCI makes tall claims about reviving test cricket with ideas like the World Test Championship and on the other they are doing things which could just kill the game.

aditya123 added 3 Minutes and 31 Seconds later...

I believe series between specific teams have a certain status by the ICC which define how many matches they can have. Eg, special series can have 5 tests, Ashes, RSA vs Aus, etc.

RSA-Aus series have never ever been special.They`ve very rarely been close contests.

 

[irottev]

I'm starting to think it's a good thing. Too much cricket is played these days. The game's all about ODI's and T20's now and they won't back off these. 3 test series would be ok. I think they should ditch 4and5 test series and leave only the Ashes as an exception.

The 7ODI series are absurd though, they should cut 2 of them and add a test to any series that large. 2 Twenty/20's in 1 series is also over the top.

 

[adyhorn]

I think that if you are playing a long ODI series (e.g. the seven India and England were meant to play), if a team wins the series 4-0 (like India did), they should cancel the remaining ODIs, and add a Test to the series. I know that in the example I am showing this was not possible, but feel there is no point in playing dud matches that only the fans of the team that is winning cares about.

 

[Cricketman]

I'm starting to think it's a good thing. Too much cricket is played these days. The game's all about ODI's and T20's now and they won't back off these. 3 test series would be ok. I think they should ditch 4and5 test series and leave only the Ashes as an exception.

Why would you want to kill tests?!

I love 4 test series, like against Australia. It's special because each match the excitement builds and it usually goes down to the wire. With two match series all we see are one match one and another dead rubber or something, there's only an interest if the first match is drawn. It sucks, really does.

Absolute maximum should be 5 ODI's a series and it should go with 3 tests. That should be the most common combination. On occasion we should have a tri series along with a 4 match series. 1T20 MAX, I personally would like to see T20 be exiled into domestic cricket (which will raise interest) only to be brought to the international scene for the World T20.

 

[mattfb]

I agree with Cricketman here. No more then 5 ODI's and no less then 3 Tests. Either 3 ODI's and 4-5 Tests or 5 ODI's 3 tests. I guess we can have one twenty20 at the end or start of the tour, depends when the ODI's are. I think they should have the Twenty20 before the ODI's if its the start of the tour, or if the ODI's are at the end they should play the twenty20 after it.

 

[angryangy]

I think it depends on the teams. I don't want to see Bangladesh playing 3 Tests against Australia, that's more farcical than the current tour of India. I don't even think I really need to see NZ given 3 against Australia, not the way they're playing right now. NZ vs WI though, that should be longer, they are very closely matched.

Probably, extremely long ODIs series and extremely short Test series should be impossible unless certain conditions are met. For a long ODI series, maybe the two teams should be very closely ranked. Even then, I don't know if there's a legitimate cause; for one, 6th placed England thrashed 2nd placed South Africa and secondly, it would still have been a thrashing in a 7 match series. In fact, the only long series that has come down to the wire in recent times was a demonstration of who India needed to drop from their ODI side. Taking all that into account, 5 should be the maximum allowed unless it is a tournament.

The worst 2 match Test series are the ones like Sri Lanka vs Pakistan or NZ vs New Zealand. These series should be more interesting than the respective boards seem to think they are. The Test rankings appear to be a fairly good representation, Sri Lanka holding the 4th spot and England behind them, Pakistan hovering in the middle due to a lack of matches, but NZ and WI down the bottom are evenly matched. Maybe the rankings could be used to prevent a two match series happening between two potentially competitive teams, but allowing the option of shortening the series in the event that the two teams are quite distantly ranked.