Test Cricket is a Day Game, says Tony Greig

 by Trevor Chesterfield

     Tony Greig is one of your laconic types whose life has been wrapped around cricket from a young age. Tall and imposing, it is all too often forgotten how the former England captain is also someone who was at the forefront of the greatest revolution in the game’s history.  
      This is the Kerry Packer upheaval in the late 1970s; one where cricket administrators around the world were challenged by the players over their desire to earn a decent living wage while boards thrived on fattening their bank accounts on the proceeds of tours and Test series. It saw the rise, among other factors, the question of player empowerment.
     The aftermath of that revolt engineered by the media tycoon had a widespread affect on the game and gave the players a chance to be paid what they were worth.
      Or, as the South African-born Greig points out in an interview, it was all a matter of television rights in Australia and had nothing at all to do with England, although there were those in establishment prone English administrative types who poked their nose in areas not of their concern. This was World Series Cricket.  
        It catapulted the game and how it was run into the 20the Century and while the marketing era suddenly took on a new methods to sell the sport and profile the day/night game, it also created an awareness of how important to the game were the two main ingredients: the players and the spectators. It is why the challenge to the die-hard establishment administrator was seen as challenge to bring the game to the people and with this, create not just a new identity but also a following.
     It is why Greig, now in Sri Lanka as part of the commentary team, feels that Test cricket is not only holding its own but that there is an untapped audience out there that is realising just how the game is reinventing itself.
      What he is suggesting, and here is the need to examine his reasons, is that Test cricket is not in danger at all, and there is too much fiddling around with ideas. One is day/night Tests. He is opposed to the plan of staging day night Tests, and no one can fault his reasons behind his remarks. 
       “There is a lot of spooking that goes on about Test cricket at present and I am pleased to say that my information in Australia is that Test cricket is maintaining its position,” he confirmed. “The bigger concern, as I see it, is what to do with twenty/twenty and one day international games.
       “Those two formats, being limited-overs formats, are encroaching on each other’s demographics and it is here where the identities of the two systems and how they are programmed that there needs to be a better co-ordination between the two types of game,” he argues. “This is where the administrations need to think how best to market the game.”
       This is where Greig the traditionalist expresses his strong views. To his way of thinking, and that of others of his era, Test cricket as a “day game”, with emphasis on the term “day”. It is one where children are able to go along and sit with their parents, have a picnic and watch the cricket unfold. His concern here is that day/night Tests will create other problem areas. Children being introduced to Test cricket at day/night level created certain social issues. 
       Incursion into areas such as schoolwork and exams would be taking away the objectivity of Test cricket being a family game and day game.
      “This to me is what Test matches are about family, lunches and teas, players dressed in whites and the game being played with the red ball,” he commented when remarking on issues such as the type of ball being used.
       “They will be playing with a ball that hasn’t been perfected, and if you play it with a white ball is means changing to coloured clothing, and here it becomes a mass-marketing type game. I don’t like this as a concept.
      “We are so fortunate that we have a game which attracts the connoisseurs and where people watching it have gravitated, over the years, from the day/night game to Test cricket. This to me is the captured market and it is a growing one.
      “We also have the magic associated with the one day international, and there is a need to do a little refining, but it is the day/night game and it is also a game where a team can come from behind in fifty overs.
       “Then there is the twenty/twenty overs, which is the high-powered type of game, and you are going to get a lot of people coming into the game for the first time, who will get their initial taste as well as indoctrination,” he remarked, thinking back on how the day/night ODI developed from the World Series Cricket phenomena of the Packer era.
       “It is where there is the hope that such spectators will eventually graduate to the Test game as part of the longer-term scenario. That is the challenge that we face,” he argues, adding, “It just worries me about how they are balancing the game. This twenty/twenty is very early and the fifty over game needs just a little manipulation to make the game work to fit in with the format it has been designed for.
       “After that we can go to day/night Tests, but only when they gave perfected the ball,” he said. “I must say that it does surprise me that it is the Marylebone Cricket Club that are pushing this particular change in the game.”
       Greig agreed with the comments of how impressive were number of spectators at Lord’s for the neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia. It displayed there is a public willing to go an watch Test cricket, especially as a number were not Pakistan or Australian supporters.
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