Project 1.MP3 (1)

Adarsh and Adam are starting a podcast about cricket. They discuss the decline of Test cricket and how it is struggling outside of India, Australia, and England. They suggest implementing a Test cricket window and making smaller changes like improving over rates and flexibility with weather conditions. They also criticize high ticket prices and the lack of consideration for spectators. They discuss the need for collaborative efforts and revenue sharing among cricket boards to revive Test cricket. They question if it may be too late to save Test cricket due to the changing preferences of spectators and the popularity of T20 cricket. They suggest a radical influx of money and changes to domestic structures as potential solutions. So, I'm Adarsh and this is Adam and we are starting a podcast just talking cricket in general and as I have introduced myself and I'm from India and there's Adam. Yes, I'm just, I'm Adam, I'm from from Wembley in London and just a cricket fan. We just, I suppose we got into this via Twitter really, I got into Twitter, I think I joined in February or March this year and I've been involved in many conversations here and you know we decided to, we sort of got the idea to do a podcast. So I'm also there on Twitter and you can find both of us, me on at Adarsh Izzat and him on at Cricket Ref. So I think we should start the podcast topic now which is, is Test Cricket Dying? So we all know that Test Cricket suffered a lot over the years and right now it's at the worst phase we can say over the 180 years it's been through. So what would you like to say about it right now? Oh, it's an interesting one, I think the first thing is, does everyone agree that it, that this is definitely the case, that it is dying or are we kind of exaggerating things and it's in a good shape? Do you think, do you think the consensus is that it really is in trouble? Well, I guess for most nations it is because if you see for India and Australia and England those three countries can sustain themselves but outside of that I think, well even, even for someone like Pakistan whom you'd imagine to have like fan bases enough to cover but they are not attracting broadcasting rights from England. I'm shocked to see, I guess you'd know that they have not attracted even a broadcast deal till now. No, it's amazing. Yeah, I've heard that. I think someone was saying it could be because Sky are interested in the women's, in the women's World Cup and it's on a similar time but I'm not, I'm not sure that's the reason because I think if that had been England India or England Australia, someone would have got it I think. Oh, that, that could be but I think that around the general members like South Africa, Pakistan they are trying to propose a fund which covers about $10,000 for each player but I don't think that's going to make a difference. I think the West Indies Sports Chairman said that we already pay them more than that, that's $15 in the current World Cup. Yeah I think it's a very, a very small amount isn't it, I don't know how much, how much it can really do with that and I suppose you think of it really just a disparity between the three, I think sometimes called big three or whatever you want to call them India, Australia and England and the rest but so do you think outside of those three it really is dying? Yeah well I guess it is and we can look at the results recently for a, for a start England beat well West Indies 3-0 and Sri Lanka 2-1, last game was a bit of an aberration we can all say that no one expected that to happen, India, India beat Bangladesh and before that also the battle has been continuing that way and I don't see that changing soon. My proposal for changing it as I have elaborated earlier in my Twitter account as well it would be that well have a test window and then and a franchise cricket or a World Cup window and in the test window you would have a specific group of nations like for the World Test Championship with two divisions will have equal number of games home and away which obviously as you said have the runs penalty rule instead of the over rate rule and have it run and have it run for a cycle of four years and then play a five-match series to end it not a one-match game and yes and then have a Champions League running alongside to subsidize that, what do you think of that? So that's a very good idea I think it's like a it's a radical idea but I think it calls for something radical at the moment doesn't it because I wonder is is there any way of of kind of saving it by just doing kind of smaller things at first like when you think about like say the over rate if you if you get more overs in a day maybe more people will watch it so I think some about four or five overs are lost in a day at the moment and if you let that it's like an impenalty one penalty for Rob I don't know maybe giving six six runs for every over not bold or the team's run rate for every over not bold also changing the lights rule at the moment the light rule isn't being used properly so when you look when it was brought in it was about danger now it doesn't really seem to be about danger it seems to be just ensuring the best possible conditions for the the batters and that's not really the same so there's that and there's also maybe they could be maybe they could be a bit more take more risk with the weather as well if it's a bit if it's raining or just drizzle you could start a game in drizzle I think at the moment they can't start a game in drizzle but they can continue to play maybe a bit more flexibility there so I wonder if any of those kind of smaller changes would would be enough to to kind of reverse the decline or are they too small yeah you're correct I guess for now that could be implemented as we've thought I think a pink ball could be used and oh yeah if you saw the India Bangladesh test there were like 20 overs lost in the first that's ridiculous that that just cannot happen I guess yeah and that was nothing to do with the weather or anything was it they just sold really slowly and for that and and for the weather which you say this there can be ping balls used and for rain they could just go on with a slight bit of drizzle it goes on in football just adapt to it cricket's been adapting for the past 150 years it's not something new to us and I think what it is that their onus is more on kind of what's convenient for them rather than to get play at all costs so I think they don't really think about the spectator as much so someone would suggest do you want a pink ball and I say oh no what if it swings too much or oh no and it's like well so what yeah exactly you should just deal with it do people watch yeah and as most English fans are complaining now the ticket prices are too high and how will people that cannot get interest in the game if you're going to keep it to a paywall of such elitism the normal people cannot join with that with those prices oh not at all I think what was it Lord 185 pound I think for the England yeah 175 quid yeah I mean even this year for the Sri Lanka series Lords on the oval it was really expensive it was like 160 pounds roughly but at Old I got into like 29 pounds 30 of pound 30 went to four three or four days and it was like 30 of pound 30 of pound and 29 pounds and that was that was really reasonable compared to Lords in the oval so I don't know which it goes to although I think next year for India the other ground are charging a lot more as well because it's India I suppose and I think they are just banking on the fact that Indian fans will go and like I'm going next year so they know that we will be willing to splurge for the home of cricket tag and for that we are just charging overpriced but they're telling the main people who are going to watch English cricket that's English people living in England yeah and if you're going to charge 200 quid no one's going to turn up I wonder if it may be mainly Indian fans buying the tickets then um yeah um my dad is buying the ticket I guess so I'm going yes I don't know about others but I'm sure that there are people in England who would be willing to go um so that's not a concern and um what other changes can we suggest I think there are many little things in test tickets which are there we can suggest like um what can there be I think do you have any yeah I suppose your idea about the window is very good even if even if you didn't do all of your plan I think there does need to be a window because it's it's it's too ad hoc and and the calendar at the moment is too ad hoc and it's a lot of clashes a lot of overlap and it doesn't really feel um it's like the test series are rushed they're like maybe a two test series in two weeks and that's it and there's no build up there's no momentum or anything and it's so much money yeah I'm sorry yeah you're correct I mean if you if you saw the style podcast with um the with the who was it the west indies critic board chairman he was saying that they are losing around 10 million dollars or something for those that they're playing so um with that they just said that there needs to be a collaborative effort and Jason Holder was there and he said that there needs to be a window as I said and there needs to be a pooling of the like he said that the host board generally keeps all the revenue so what they suppose is that it will be split 50 50 and the ticket sales will also be split 50 50 and I think that for suppose England come into India when England can afford money but if they are coming so India makes a ton of money when England come here so we need to split it 50 50 not just keep it to ourselves because like that then yeah go on do you think in a way maybe maybe it's almost too late that the test of the way we watch tests have changed so much that almost it's impossible to kind of revert back to previously and even if you did share the revenue which is morally right I think maybe people still will be less interested in tests anyway but as a spectator I guess you're correct because the domestic structure I think more than the fans I guess the domestic structure and the people involved are gravitating towards C20 because obviously the offer of the amount of cash with which test cricket cannot travel as of now and unless unless there's a radical influx of money by the BCCI because let's be honest they control cricket right now and unless unless they are the ones who invest not 10 million dollars but 1 billion dollars something like that is invested across the boards and and the domestic structures are changed and incentivized to play test cricket and after that I guess a marketing bit can be looked after because it cannot you can create demand if you've got a good product there will be demand but currently there's there isn't a good product for people to watch and honestly I don't even think people watch meaningless bilaterals or leagues in Dubai I don't think no one anyone's watching that because it used to be the case where people would say I only watch one day cricket at the world cup but they say they say things like um the actual bilateral one day series aren't as important it's the world cups are massive but the bilaterals aren't and it's almost that way in tests now where people kind of pick and choose test series they'd watch um yeah yeah I'm not interested in two test series with you know it seems it's unfashionable uh but I will watch the acid it's almost like that now where I think even just most bilateral test series are kind of devalued or not really considered as interesting now I don't think yeah and that's that's the question to you I'm going to ask the question in that um well for now what I see is that cricket does not have money at least people say that it does not have enough money but 20 years ago from now earlier so I don't think there was a lot of money in cricket but there's some all the boards seem to survive and did really well all people used to want to play that cricket and even when odi cricket used to offer more money than that I presume so what's changed for you at least because I have only witnessed cricket from when it's dying and I'm almost dying I'm from that era so for you what would that be well I suppose I was lucky enough to um to watch it in the 90s and um you know 10s um 90s noughties and maybe 10s you could say but in the 90s it was very strong and everyone was really good it's amazing to look back now but every even Zimbabwe were an excellent side um maybe excellent is overdoing it but they had people like Andy Slower, Grant Slower, Heath Streak etc and they were the lowest ranked team um New Zealand were ranked lowly and they had like Chris Cairns and um you know Chris Cairns uh Nash uh Perore was the keeper that was a good side England were ranked lowly then as well but they had like Thorpe, Stewart, Appleton, Hussain and then you had a lot of top side there's a great Pakistan side at the time of the side sorry side at the time was in that Prem and Wacky Unis um the Indies side wasn't as strong but it was still good you had like Sachin emerging and Dravid and Ganguly and you had the top Australian side and the West Indies side was just kind of tailing off from where it was it was like a really dominant side and you could see it was slightly declining but it was still good like Ambrose, Walsh, Nara etc. South Africa had just come back into it after apartheid so it made it even stronger so I think in the 90s it was as strong as it probably the strongest it's been really um but I suppose there was in those days the series lasted a long time so I'm trying to think in about 98 South Africa came over here it was a five test series and it took the whole summer there were no packs of matches so it was like 10 days in between each test and um it was like it was the whole summer was just this test series in South Africa they played a few one days as well and then yeah it's not like that anymore it's very rushed now and you um it's all done very quickly you can't you don't really build up any kind of um I don't know it's almost a bit like a fast food type of energy you're just eating it very quickly and not really sitting there enjoying it and like you might with um you know like a three course meal or something and so I think it's a bit more rushed now I suppose then also there was no t20 or franchise league um yeah so that's that's the thing but there's nothing for those two there's nothing to to stop people playing test cricket because there is nothing more possible for them to do really I suppose that that's a that's a key issue you know you're correct on that I mean um lasting an entire summer that's like if they have 50 50 series crammed into a summer now so that's important for me I was speaking purely from a financial perspective because I think you alluded to that because there wasn't anything else for them to do in that period I guess now there's I think the main issue here is not the infrastructure or anything of that sort I think that it's the players who charge a lot of money and they want to go business like business which they can get from t20 league but test cricket they just can't pay the same amount to the players and it's ultimately the players who are going to who are charging that much yeah because I think what were the the kind of distractions for the players then I mean early on there was a rebel tour um in the late 80s um was test cricket stopped when the world series cricket was going on and the rebel tours it wasn't stopped no they just um they continued it but um you know some people some people pulled out um all right some some people a lot of English and Australian players just went to play for the Kerry Packer then they faced the ban um and couldn't really come back and play for their country um also then with the rebel tours people like Graham Gooch and were banned for a number of years of going there um so I suppose that that's the kind of these are the only things I can think of that were equivalent now to to players needing just to play t20 but we wasn't as the packer thing got sorted out so that that all ended up okay and and the rebel tour there weren't that many so it wasn't like a franchise league every three weeks yeah so you're correct I mean um so from that point I think we can just put that down to the fact that there is nothing in the sport like right now there's for tennis there is no tennis leagues tennis franchise so they are just playing Wimbledon for now if that crops up then it may change so um putting that aside I think there's another problem in test cricket and cricket as a whole that there is no regulatory body IPC does nothing well they are they are just they are an events management company as of now so that they do and um uh so there is a power vacuum and different leagues are cropping up like if you see the ILT 20 this is related to test cricket in the way that well for test cricket to have a place to survive there needs to be a body which can look after all the boards that exist and if the IPC is not competent enough to well not even go and supervise leagues have swing in the same an island then well how can we expect that they are going to do that and I guess that for that there needs to be a I guess I alluded to a point earlier where I said that all members all players from the current playing pool can elect a uh elect a person or a group of people who will shed the IPC or a new IPC but as of now with the power vacuum and of course the betting thing which I have mentioned to you which is which is rampant in cricket as of now so unless there's some regulatory body which can control that I don't see that this will change soon Jay Shah is going to be elected in November this coming soon and I don't really think he's going to do much it's just a power flex for his future Indian political position and how different do you think he'll be to the the previous guy the New Zealand does it break is it Barclay? Greg Barclay well Greg Barclay I'll be honest and this is no disrespect to Greg Barclay but I if you see the moment when they were presenting the trophy so trophy so they're standing Greg Barclay is there with the trophy and there's Jay Shah and he told Greg to get out get out and you know he told him to go out of there and Jay Shah presented it to him and if you see the last year's world cup Australia represented the trophy not by Barclay but by Modi so he was just a puppet leader who was put in place so I don't think that well there's going to be productive difference I just think that Jay will make some some inroads like he's done to Indian cricket for the show but nothing of substance and I think that he's he's just going to maybe he's going to install a fund and try to convince people to lose more money but I don't see people like Shea Hope or people like what Quinton de Kock or Chen Bolt getting back on their retirement from touchdown I mean I suppose I think the England case is an interesting one where they I think he has sought to kind of he's trying to think one step ahead I think what him and Baz in the sense of thinking if we if we let the players kind of do what they want in a sense that that is one way of keeping them playing test cricket and not going off to play franchise league so that they can play in the manner they want and if they get out there's no there's no stick there's no criticism they can just express themselves and make it as enjoyable for them as possible and then in the hope that that keeps them keeps them involved in test cricket I don't know if that actually works in the long run but it was one it's kind of one idea isn't it to retain these players yeah that's an idea but I guess unless you don't have three million pounds in the bank to give to each player I don't think that's going to work for South Africa so I was thinking of a point in there yeah so I was saying that could test cricket exist as some sort of entity or would it be of some sort of meaning if it was just limited to say India England and Australia and maybe maybe just South Africa or New Zealand would it be of some meaning if that were the case say 10 years from now that's interesting I suppose yes it would just be I suppose we're almost in that situation now because these countries are playing other countries but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in it and it's like what do you see within them I mean they treat every test match as a warm-up for the ashes almost in India that's that's what I mean even India yes it's amazing that yeah even next year with India the talk is still about the ashes which is a few months after you'd think the very least they'd be thinking about you know playing India at home but I think I mean if you saw that last the team for the last test against Sri Lanka he picked they picked Lawrence to open even though he wasn't an opener and it was just because they didn't want to kind of threaten Crawley's place in the side they didn't want someone to come in and give them like a selection headache yeah yeah and then they had Pope as captain who had never really captained before just in that series I know he was vice but he didn't really have any um four-day cricket captaincy they had Wokes at seven which is probably a bit high and then they had Bashir as a spinner who's promising but probably isn't the best spinner in England and they had um Josh Hull playing who'd only played 10 games before and it was like the whole the whole thing was almost like a kind of yeah and it was like it didn't really matter about them at all what matters was that if Hull or Bashir to develop for two you know a year and a half's time it didn't really seem that the match itself mattered you know in itself so in a way tests have kind of devalued already and the games against sides who aren't Australia or India um are kind of seen as like second-tier tests although that's not the pricing they're still charged a lot of money to Washington yeah so that there's still even though it's not official and even though on paper a test series against Sri Lanka is the same as against India it just doesn't seem that way do you know what I mean like um it's like currency but one's devalued and one one's yeah yeah I mean I'm gone no no sorry oh yeah so I was saying that um you miss not being in the squad that's a massive thing to not do yeah so what I was saying was that um like they're like you said Ollie Pope's playing and all that but the thing is that are there people in England interested because in India um Bangladesh is here and there is a lot of hype and people will tune in and watch the series there are millions of people who are watching the series so for here I think that's there and if they're going to go to English cricket and discuss it then I think what I've spoken about earlier as well that they're not they're the only team which I've seen not paying here to the world test championship because if you see Rohit Sharma or Pat Cummins all of them are referring to the world test championship almost every day and it's the goal for them and well like India was treating England and every series is treated except maybe going to Australia every tour is treated the same way here and it's even important and even Australia does that South Africa but I think is it the fans or is it just the administration which is undervaluing the players because if it's the fans then that's the problem you know what it's I think that you have to put it on on T McCollum in a sense because there was a time where a lot of fans didn't value one day cricket but but Strauss and Morgan and Bayliss did and then the fans got into it so it's really up to someone like T McCollum to say we take this test championship seriously it's what we're aiming for and then I think the fans would come on board I think at the moment there's no real talk about it if you look at when someone gets a job there's like they've got a name or a criteria for success and no state have ever seen Stokes McCollum or Keyes say the aim is to win the world test championship they talk about the ashes and talk about being the best side but they never ever mentioned the world test championship and funny enough there was a couple of strange quotes about it when they asked broad when England were deducted the number of points think it was 19 points for a slow over rate and they said well if they're going to take them off you in the world test championship and he said if they're going to do that it's not worth winning anyway and it was like oh great and it was and then and it was like well that's a bit strange you can't just just because you you don't like something it doesn't mean that the tournament doesn't count do you know what I mean and I'm saying something similar like well you can't deduct those points because that will stop that's going to stop players playing in the long run that they'll they'll want to just play franchise cricket then it was just a bit weird but if everyone if you've got the rules here everybody applies to everyone and you have to you have to adjust for those rules to win the trophy and that's the same for any sports or if you're playing fantasy football or whatever you just you go by the rules that are there and try and win it I don't really understand um I don't know thinking they've got a veto over these things it's a bit strange and let's be clear that we both can agree that the world championship is flawed there's no doubt about that but this thing is like England should England cannot just say that we are not valuing the rules they are there for everyone and you can you can play according to that and I guess and I guess as you said their goal is to win the ashes abroad well um I don't personally I don't see a future where that happens but just the world cup championship existing it you cannot ignore the competition it would it would be like India is not going to play a world cup played in India because that the world test championship finals in India so India just does not turn up to play the ODI world cup last year that's that's that's what it's like right and it's strange yeah and we and like you say because the last couple in this one all been held in England have been held and will be held in England and it's like a golden opportunity for England to win it by the time they take it seriously the final might be in India or it's gone it'll be gone from the next time yeah and then it'll be much harder for us to win it then um so we missed a chance there and yeah well I just think because we were talking about the decline of test cricket that the introduction of the world test championship was trying to stop that wasn't it was trying to give meaning yes test series yeah and um in a way the idea should be applauded but obviously it's it's structured a bit weird not everyone plays the same amount of games etc which is annoying but it is it is a it is a trophy well I mean I know it's new but when when the 50th of a world cup came out and when it was 60 originally on the t20 the first few tournaments there people weren't sure how big it was but now they're very big and um and it could be the same for the world test championship so we could have made the mistake of saying this isn't going to last it's rubbish and then like it's still going 20 years later and we haven't won it and it will just look a bit sad yeah you're absolutely correct with that I think that um they should put more focus on it and um I was I was thinking of something when they are trying to uh what was the slogan of key and mccollum we are going to save test cricket but if you just but if you're just going to value one series and not even value the competition which was meant to save it then you're just you're you're doing count you're being counterproductive to what you're trying to save you're just saving english and australian cricket and nothing else that's all you're saving and I guess you're not even saving english cricket because they've put a 30-day tournament in the peak of your season so that's not helping anyone is it no no that's right I think it's weird because I think someone said that they were I think it was george the bell said they that the aim of basball was almost like it was aimed it was cricket aimed at people that don't like cricket it was a bit quite a clever comment in a way but it was just it's like their way of saving test cricket is really to kind of change it in a sense and um it if it changed too much I mean if it's an approach without kind of any nuance you just um come out attacking uh don't don't worry if you get out don't see a ball or off etc and then you get it done in three days is that necessarily saving test cricket it's making it more exciting for the neutral uh for those few days but I wonder if it's actually saving saving the cricket in general um well um well if I if I'm going to speak for myself then I'm just going I'm watching the New Zealand Sri Lanka game as well so if I'm a cricket buff I'll watch any cricket that's on so I don't think it's fair for me to speak well if I'm going to speak from a friend's perspective which I think is the audience with England and most of cricket want to get into the 16 year old who's not really interested in cricket they want to get involved so um well um their main issue is that unless it's a border hours for trophy for Indians or it's a overseas tour to England or maybe South Africa at times they're not going to tune in because they just say that there is not enough and and therefore me to see and everyone was watching the world test championship final all Indians were watching all Indians were new to their screen but if it's a big country in India is not watching you're not going to attract viewers from the Cayman Islands even if there's a tournament being played there so so there needs to be some sort of marketing campaign along with of course increasing the quality of cricket being played so um we were on the topic of English cricket I think um in that my uh my view on that is that they should be more ruthless as everyone's been saying for this long that well there are periods in which you should you can attack and it may excite some people but there are periods in which you should soak some pressure in like in that period where where was it it was in Rajkota or Vizag where Joe Root River scooped and just gave the series away well in that period if you yeah if England would have just consolidated for what 20 overs yeah they would have won the series yes yeah it and also um there was there was a fast test of the ashes last year where they just went too over the top that they did a really silly declaration on the first day and then on the third day um or the third or fourth day I think it was the fourth day because there was a bit of rain on the fourth day they just they just over attacked and Root got stomped in the end um Root got out to a strange shot and it was just too aggressive and if they just tempered it slightly um they would have won that test but it was I I get I think there is something brave about um taking the bowling on dominating that's really good but there's also something a bit lax about it in a sense where you go if you take the Sri Lanka test the last Sri Lanka test when it goes wrong it looks like uh the team doesn't care then that might not be the case but it just looks like I'm gonna play this way and if I get out so what um it's my way or the highway basically that yeah exactly and I think with the Sri Lanka one they thought they were going to make 450 so they came up on the second day and just slogging and kept getting caught and then he got like 350 or something and but they they still kind of went out and bowled as if they had 450 or 500 on the board and if you remember they had all these really attacking fields and Sri Lanka were like 70 70 for no wicked off 10 overs yeah and Nifankar was just smashing smashing them yeah and then um and then the next day when they when they batted again they had like a lead of 60 and it was like they thought they had a lead of 100 plus but they they didn't kind of like they didn't compute in their head they didn't adjust and think well it's only 60 now not 150 lead so we'll have to temper ourselves a bit and they didn't and I suppose that's the downside of it um when it's going well it is very attractive um but when when it goes wrong it looks very casual and um very complacent and then when you and going along with that is like the kind of um interviews afterwards that the players don't make a mistake or whatever they just say well you know so what kind of thing and they're not they don't I don't think their meaning to come across as like arrogant but the meaning to kind of um convey a certain image or but it looks bad it's like a bad look yeah like uh deficit saying I taught Jaswal how to play cricket that's a bit that's a bit too much um shifting from England cricket I think if you see overall like for India there was Virat Kohli who got it like for me I watched Test cricket at the start I got into it because of him I think there needs to be a flag bearer like in India he was created a media icon Virat Kohli is a media icon and he promoted Test cricket and everyone's getting along and there was sledging involved and all of that it was basically a drama for people to watch and I don't think that there's an ambassador like in England maybe it's Joru in Australia till till I think Steve Smith's a bit of a bit of a one and for West Indies who's who's the one like earlier there used to be the quartet then there was Lara then right now who's there Shamar Joseph I don't think millions of people in the Caribbean are going to tune in for Shamar Joseph Pakistan's got Baba Razum and I think he he's going to get in a substantial amount of people watching and Sri Lanka who's there for Sri Lanka again like starting to name Mendes, yeah coming to Mendes could be but the boards aren't aren't giving the PR that the players need for becoming the media icons that they were like for Lara I guess he was there on he used to be there on big shows and he used to be there on the front pages of the newspaper and unless people are going to know that there are there is a guy who we can watch they're not going to get anything. I remember as a rather like a 12 year old or something when he signed for Warwickshire it was on the it was like headline news on a news program you hardly get that about a player signing for a county on English TV but it was headline news because he was such a big such a big player such a big name and like you say that he was that flag bearer as well but yeah I mean you're talking about the promotion of Test cricket it isn't promoted in the way that the franchise leagues are so it's a bit unfair when they say oh it's it's not as popular as franchise league it's because it's not promoted in the same way I mean I don't think I think KB England and Sri Lanka series have really promoted that well when it when it was here the West Indian one wasn't but they were just lucky that a lot of people had a kind of affection and fondness for the West Indies because I remember them being a really great side when they grew up and I think for that reason the tickets still sold whereas the Sri Lankan one wasn't really I saw no adverts for it or promotions for it there might have been but I didn't see it whereas you see adverts for things like 100 all the time you don't see it for these tests and that's another thing they could do I suppose yeah I don't know if that changes the whole if that's enough to change the decline but it would help a bit wouldn't it and let's be honest like do you think there are people actually in England who are tuning in towards the PSL or CPL are there people who I I do not think apart from say the IPL the BBL and the top five leagues franchise leagues I don't think there's an audience there to watch apart from the big nations are there people watching I do not really think so I think it's just the commercial bid and that's where the media presence comes in like um like if you say the 100 it's losing money and then it's mostly put out that shed so it's not as if the 100s making money or it's doing worse than test cricket actually in English cricket in Indian test cricket is the best product for the nation and it and it sustains all of English cricket I think it's it's not the same for Australia I guess for them it's the BBL and partly the test cricket that sustains it in India it's the IPL but I don't think outside of that that the CPL generates a lot of viewership or the PSL is doing enough commercially to do it the LPL certainly isn't so um it's it's the Indian audience wherever the Indian audience is going the leagues being slightly profitable or the bookies are betting why are people not betting on test cricket then I think that's the main issue we need to address because if people want to bet on it or money on this they can even hold a league in the Cayman Islands yeah David Warner played in that league didn't he yeah he did but that's that's an interesting point because the broadcasts in England Sky used to show you basically every tour it doesn't do that anymore so we it doesn't show tours to New Zealand anymore doesn't show tours to the Caribbean anymore it doesn't show tours to India doesn't show tours to Australia and instead just has um it has the big bash has the IPL it has a South African um P20 league and so it's so it's replaced it's replacing international tours itself and then there'll be a program on Sky saying oh why is test cricket in decline well you tell us I mean you're the ones who are showing um showing the franchise leagues around the world they're not showing England, New Zealand or or England and West Indies or something so they're probably to claim as well I think yes there are two facets to it are people going to prefer watch watching a star 20 over say an England tour to Pakistan is that the case because if that's the case then no one can blame Sky or if that's not the case then there surely got to be some commission or something something which incentivizes Sky to show a star 20 over tests that England are playing yeah that's the thing I wonder if they're I wonder if they're reacting purely to demand or they're shaping them as people's kind of view do you think like is there demand for test cricket in England for watching England play test cricket yeah I think so I think there's still a demand for that yeah so I guess it's there then I guess it's just the regulators who are not prioritizing it and Sky who's not doing a good job there it's weird I think some of them are on um I've got a different time zone where it's difficult like New Zealand you can only watch it a couple of hours and you fall asleep but say the West Indies it's great it's like three or four o'clock in the afternoon in England um when it comes on it's like perfect time to watch it but Sky don't show them anymore so it's a bit disappointing yeah and Jared Kimbo was saying this and he said that test cricket is a really good product because he was like uh he was saying he made this interesting point that if test cricket was not making money then it would not exist right now because no one is going to no no broadcaster is going to pay for something which does not like make money so it would not exist as an entity for nations like West Indies or Sri Lanka so he said he had a conversation with the broadcaster and the broadcaster said that the boards do not really know how much potential there is in test cricket we get content for eight hours and people can people who do watch it are tuning in for eight hours and we are showing them ads constantly for eight hours so that's making them money but the boards are not able to convince or make their case in front of the broadcaster so I think it's at the end of the day this is still issue for the regulators it it all boils down to there being a power vacuum in cricket yeah yeah and um no I think that's true I think there isn't leadership and um it's all a bit modeled I think really um and I think that's where your calendar comes into it or a window it would make things a bit a bit easier and give context to things and you'd be able to there'd be some excitement a bit like when there's Wimbledon coming up or whatever obviously you can argue about the length of the calendar and whatever but I think it does need to be brought in because at the moment it's very ad hoc very hickledy-pickledy and it's it's hard for a youngster to watch cricket now and understand what what are the best games um what does the series matter it's all too messed up yeah it's just too messed up if you if you say to a kid now um oh we've just beaten New Zealand in two test series they'll say well what does that mean and um well we thought it was good when you beat someone I don't know West Indies in a five test series wow that was like that was like winning a world cup in a way it sounds strange that must sound strange to youngsters but that was like a that machine is like a pinnacle and now people just say oh but what does that mean so it's like they're not being um um trying to be funny but they just generally think well what does it mean you've won the two match test series against New Zealand and what's the point yeah and um well I think there's another thing to do with it and this this is apart from the incompetence of the broadcasters or anything else I think it's the fact that people have lost attention spans and let's be honest that is that has got to do a lot with this because a lot of people aren't willing to put in eight hours and watch for the entire day that that's a big thing like and there's a lot lot more of football in England like there's a football every time and it's played played in summer as well I think the champion league goes on in the summer so I guess people would prefer 90 minutes over eight hours and um so I guess we've covered enough of cricket right now what would what do you think would WD Grace would do in this situation I think he just think he needs a bit more everyone can go and watch him yeah I don't know um what he'd do to save this I hired a cameraman and just take him take him batting yeah and people will watch so I guess I read a good book with him he him and his brother used to um bring bring other balls onto the pit into their pocket and when when they did like show him to the umpire say look I caught that when the ball went in the air it really was um it became the spirit of the game I think yeah so I guess with that we have covered enough on this podcast about the first topic is that cricket dying I think we can say that it's not there yet but in 10 years if there's not a massive change then we can both see India, England and Australia being the only three teams the big three that the podcast is started is named on are the only three nations that are going to so I would say yeah you would say that in 10 years time if it stays like this it'll be those three playing a very short of a very small amount of test cricket in a window in between loads of franchise leagues that would be my tip um so um we'd like to uh know if there's any questions from anyone you could just send them over to both of our twitter handles and we'll just address them in the next podcast and it's going to come I guess on every Saturday yeah yeah and just as a there was there was one more thing I forgot to cover that Gerard Kimber suggested splitting white and red ball cricket I don't know if anyone is interested in that idea or thinks it's inevitable I'm kind of sympathetic towards it so breaking away like you'd break away from rugby union and league I don't know what people thought on that really that might be something for people to yeah that could that could completely be plausible because right now there seems to be a concerted effort only towards one spectrum which is franchise cricket and white ball cricket and if there is a body which is specifically meant to promote only test cricket then I think that could do a lot more for the game and and um again as I said you cannot have politicians running the ICC you need to have people who are actually people who have played the game say someone like who MS Dhoni if he'd be running the ICC I think he'd do a hundred times better job than what Greg Barkley or Teresa would do so or Eoin Morgan for the sake of it either of those two so I guess that's that's something which we could try and it would be it would be good and I think on that I'll add another point as I said earlier Afghanistan like people are avoiding the tour with them this is not that important but I think that if there's an interest for cricket somewhere in Afghanistan there's a lot of interest for cricket we should not trip them away from the only source of joy which they are getting and even now they're trying talking of removing that from them and the leader of the Taliban saying that he'll not allow test cricket anymore cricket as a whole anymore so I think that that should not happen especially from Australia and England they should allow them to play what do you think yeah I mean it's very interesting if it's a real moral stance that say Australia or England are taking then don't play them in World Cups either if it's something you really believe in then forfeit the points it's very weird to say I'm really against it but I'll play them in the World Cup because I want to get through to the quarterfinals so you can't say all of a sudden women's rights is so important to me it's so important I can't play Afghanistan in test cricket I'm making a stand and then say well it's important to me but not as important as getting to the quarterfinals of the World Cup I'll do it before I draw my line so if you do really believe in it don't pay them ever forfeit your points I accept that I don't like the position now where it's kind of hypocritical yeah it's hypocritical and it's like I'll be moral when it's a bilateral series no one cares about but I won't be moral when it's a World Cup I think that's not a nice way and even if you look at it objectively I mean what are you going to gain from not playing them I guess you're going to put out a point to the world but at the end of the day who's suffering from that that's the Afghan who's common Afghan who's going to suffer because women are already suffering and let's be honest that Taliban don't give one dime for cricket to exist they only care about war so if you're going to remove that then all it's going to do is remove the suffering from the men from the suffering I'm saying the enjoyment a source of enjoyment from the men there and that's going to do no good they're going to get even angrier and maybe suppress women even more so it can be counterproductive in a sense and I don't think it's the right thing to do and also if you look at it Australia didn't play Afghanistan they made a start it won't play them in bilateral series and then and then they're celebrating when Maxwell gets a double hundred against him in the World Cup it was a great double hundred great game but it's like well that's it's just it's just a bit funny to me isn't it yeah um where's your principles now exactly and the Afghans and the yeah and the Afghan refugee team if you have heard of it I don't know that the women's Afghan refugee team they stay in Australia so they were planning to make a team and represent Afghanistan and women's cricket but apparently the ICC and even cricket Australia is not allowing them to do it so I don't see like where is the model line where you're standing and it's very dubious right now yeah because when South Africa were banned they didn't say we won't tell you bilaterals that we'll play you in World Cups they were just banned for like 20 or 30 years that was it so this is a very peculiar situation we have now with Afghanistan so I guess do you have anything else to say or are we wrong but the one one other quick point I read from someone on Twitter um I think three minutes and after that this uh this live session will end so you'll have to yeah is this a quick point someone was suggesting a re the declared test cricket that maybe the top three countries stay as countries and or five and then there's another test site built up about the best of the rest I don't know what anyone would think about that if that's plausible that could be a thing yeah but I don't think but do you see that Pakistan and Sri Lankan fans are going to be excited with not like because you wouldn't feel the same passion you would to your country or anything would you because like the information would be interesting for a viewer but um I don't know yeah for the neutral it would be good but for the fan you're trying to from Pakistan they're not going to be invested in that you could have like you could have both of them in the same place like you could have a rest of the world 11 which does not happen anymore like they used to yes everything is gone the triangular odi series which is so popular in Australia and England and even in India so well they're trying to remove anything and which is which is protecting what cricket was and just changing it to a white ball dominated sport like how we see it in 20 years time 20 being more popular and it being the only format that exists that will be when people think of cricket in 10 years time or something it will just be that they think of like a school kid that to them that's cricket just a 220 and and it's like that now you know in India if you're going to go to like in my school people will watch the IPL but they're not going to watch Test Cricket and for them that's the only appropriate a guy was asking me a few days earlier why do you call Test Cricket the best format I don't see why you call that it's boring it lasts for eight hours I said I said that unless you watch it for five days for eight hours I told him it's a bit arduous to watch five days but if you're going to put the time in you're going to realize the ebb and flow of Test Cricket cannot be replicated by a 20 over circus you need need a lot of it'll be good but you'll have to invest the time so that's the situation in the most followed kind of cricket country India so I don't see it changing soon I guess that's a good note for us to end here yeah no that's that's been great um and yeah we'll do it again next week Saturday