Test cricket’s future looks “completely alien” says award-winning author Nicholas Brookes
Outside of the ‘Big Three,’ Test cricket is in a perilous position. The author of Wisden cricket’s book of the year 2023 discusses what the future of the format might look like.
It’s become a recurrent query of contemporary cricketing acolytes to ponder the condition and health of the sport's oldest format, Test cricket. In the 21st century, where attention spans are shrinking by the day and instant gratification beats the slow burn of everyday life; where does Test cricket sit in the sport’s hierarchy looking into the future?
Outside of the so-called ‘Big Three’ of England, Australia, and India – who, together, in the ICC proposed finance model (2024-27), make up approximately 52% of world cricket’s revenue share – the oldest format looks in a precarious position. Take the recent low attendance figures at Test matches in Pakistan and South Africa. Or South Africa’s decision earlier this year to name a second string squad for their series against New Zealand. This was so their regular Test players could play in their domestic T20 league which was happening concurrently. So, it’s become all too obvious that the majority of Test playing nations are clinging on for dear life, hoping for a miracle.
Sitting down to talk with Nicholas Brookes, over what must be said was a crackily zoom line, I was greeted by his usual buoyant persona. It was obvious to me that the author and journalist sitting before me, known for An Island’s Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket – winner of Wisden’s book of the year 2023 – was someone passionate about the future of Test cricket.
“What’s positive is we’ve seen so many upsets over the past six months. Those have kind of altered the way people think about Test cricket, or [at least] the way people think about the pecking order,” he says.
Brookes continued by recounting the recent Test upsets we’ve seen: Sri Lanka beating New Zealand at home, New Zealand beating India 3-0 away, and Pakistan coming from behind to beat Ben Stokes’ England 2-1 in October. “It opens people’s eyes to the fact that teams can still do well, [even] the teams who aren’t considered the juggernauts [the ‘Big Three’].
Still, however, the author admits the question of how financially sustainable Test cricket is for nations like the West Indies and Sri Lanka, who both struggled on their tours of England earlier this year, is a pertinent one. “It’s a struggle to encourage players to want to commit to playing Test cricket. The reality is, being a first class cricketer in those countries isn’t necessarily a sustainable life choice.”
Anyone who watched Pakistan’s triumphant 2-1 series win over England, or South Africa’s recent win over Sri Lanka will have noticed the near empty stadiums. Stadiums which once upon a time were less sparse for similar fixtures. Brookes thinks the reason for the mass of empty seats is to do with the “changing tastes of cricket consumers.” He rejects the claim, however, that people aren’t interested in Test cricket anymore. “I do think the love for Test cricket is still there. I’ve certainly spoken to people in India who say, ‘just because the grounds aren’t full, doesn’t mean people arent following it.’”
How did we get here, though, into a place where Test match cricket is poorly attended and thought of as unsustainable? “It’s hard to put your finger on exactly when it happened,” Brookes says while deep in thought, “I think you can’t deny that it’s tied to the rise of franchise cricket.”
Brookes likened the mass of franchise leagues which have sprung up around the world since the birth of the Indian Premier League (IPL), to the dominance of the English Premier League in football. “Franchise cricket is basically domestic Premier League football,” he says. “There’s pretty much a full calendar all year round. I can see why it’s incredibly tempting to become a franchise mercenary. They’re very well recompensed and it’s probably easier to play franchise cricket than slog away for a season in domestic first class cricket.”
The remedy to all these problems, problems nations who don’t get the lucrative TV deals or advertising money of the ‘Big Three,’ has been one which many a cricketing doctor has tried to prescribe.
“What needs to happen is the big nations need to come together and realise that for Test cricket to have a sustainable long term future, it can’t just be three or four teams playing it.” He continues: “I’m not sure there is sympathy from the big boards for the little boards, but I think they need to realise that cricket needs the smaller nations.”
Never in Test cricket’s long history, then, has the future looked so bleak – this coming from a sport which has thought it was dying from the moment its first ball was bowled, the ultimate sporting hypochondriac. The future for not just nations outside of the ‘Big Three’, but the trio itself, looks ominous.
“It’s completely alien [the future] to what we’ve been used to,” Brookes says looking down the camera.
Brookes went back to his comparison with English football. “The likeliest path of travel [for cricket’s future] is more akin to what we see in football now, where the Premier League dominates the calendar and then you have international windows.”
Is there a way of stopping this scenario from taking shape, a way of preventing a dozen or so franchise owners from controling the the whims of every cricketing nation? Brookes thinks the cricketing world needs to put on its creative hat if it is to stop such a scenario.
The author, though, agreed with the recent comments of former England captain, Sir Alastair Cook. Who stated: "I think all international cricket, T20, one day and Test matches, should be put into a table for two years and see how that looks, because then it’s not a Test Championship, it’s a World Championship.” Brookes said, along with, perhaps, a bump in the prize money for the winner, this sort of idea “gives Test cricket a shot in the arm.”
For many Test cricket traditionalists, the emergence of franchise T20 cricket does not anger them, but what does is its master’s strive for hegemonic control over the cricketing sphere. Brookes’ message is clear: time is running out to save Test cricket. If more is not done to help those with the weakest shoulders, those with the broadest will crumble too.
Brookes had one final point: “The powers that be can’t simply rest on their laurels and say ‘everything will turn out okay in the long run.’ They need carrots [on a stick] to make players want to play Test cricket.”