Emergence of windies and Sri Lanka needed for test cricket

TEST CRICKET IS THE REAL TEST

The game of cricket which was played between Australia and England in 1876-77 were the first ones to be given official status and thereafter, In 1882, The series was named as "ASHES" and Futher, South Africa became Third Test playing Nation in 1888-89 started playing what today is known as "GENTLEMEN'S GAME"

"Test cricket is the real cricket" this quote is often used by the cricket pundits who knows that the test cricket provides for real test of skills; the mental strength; the character; the leadership, it takes everything a individual offers individually as well as collectively as a team.

The last three months have really shown why ICC and the respective boards needs to focus on Test cricket.

It all started from New Zealand's test series win against Pakistan in Middle East after 49 years,

India beating Australia in their backyard;

Windies' resurgence by defeating England;

Windies after 2-1 series win against England

Sri Lanka giving equally tough competition to South Africa and beating them ,2-0,

Sri Lanka series win against South Africa

Test Cricket provides the best and give pleasure to watch who follows the game because of love. The drama unfolded session by session; the bowlers having edge over batsmen and batsmen showing patience and the fielding in tense situations is a treat to watch. With test championship starting later this year will make more people attract towards the original and the best cricket. The pitches are playing huge part as there is something for every person to show their skillset. With no india-pakistan series ashes is probably the only crowd puller series. The way T20 cricket is promoted we need the same promotion for test cricket. As most of the legends of the game are those who perform well in test cricket. With the resurgence of windies and Sri Lanka along with India Pakistan Australia England newzealand and South Africa; there should be at least 4-5 test match series and should be promoted in the first place. Test cricket is reaching to the quality now with promotion and encouragement it can reach the heights where it was and can go further. The real cricket is here to stay for long.

Efforts by ICC

GLOBALISING CRICKET

ICC is doing everything possible to globalise the game of cricket in the European,American and African countries. But the question that comes to mind is that whether  the current playing nations are providing enough to keep cricket interesting? The level of competition between some teams is not even matchable. There are 12 test playing nations two of those got test status in 2018. The other 10 are playing regular test cricket but not able to keep audience interesting; with Zimbabwe in crisis; Sri Lanka unable to find combination after the retirements of stalwarts like sangakara and jayawardne; windies recently beaten England but is also emerging; Australia is not looking that composed either; Pakistan not playing at home are few of the problems that current test playing nations are facing and icc needs to intervene and bail these out so that there should be competition to show to the genuine cricket audience. With the emergence of T20 cricket the commercial market and new crowd has come to the party but they need entertainment for 3 hours that will not help the cause of promoting real cricket that is test cricket that produces legends and are renowned names in the world. To globalise cricket ICC is taking great initiatives but in my opinion instead of promoting cricket in new countries ICC should focus on improving infrastructure and providing opportunities in the already playing countries to make the cricket great again.