Why Test cricket may be under threat like never before

Former England captain Mike Brearley tells Richard Edwards how he feels the sport is in danger of turning its back on tradition and hurtling too fast in the opposite direction

Test cricket is under pressure (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

As a cricketer, Mike Brearley is generally acknowledged to be among the finest English Test captains ever to toss a coin in anger.

Now the man who won 18 and lost just four of his 31 matches as England skipper, fears that the desire to make quick and substantial sums of money from Twenty20 cricket is placing the game’s longest format under threat like never before.

Speaking shortly before the publication of his latest book, Spirit of Cricket: Reflections on Play and Life, the ex-Middlesex man told The Independent, that the unwritten code which governs the sport – one that’s uniquely associated with cricket – also incorporates the decision making of those who govern it.

Something that those in the corridors of power at the ICC and closer to home, would do well to bear in mind.

“I think the spirit of cricket also extends to administrators, to groundsmen, to media people and umpires as well as the players and even spectators to some extent,” he says.

“I don’t think we’ve been well enough  served by international administrators in ensuring that there are windows for Test cricket. I think it is being challenged by the popularity of quick money, fast turnarounds and instant dramas of short-forms of the game.

“Test cricket is still the pinnacle of the game and I am worried about that.”

He’s far from alone in feeling fearful about the future of a format that was first played between England and Australia way back in 1877. Much has changed since but much has also stayed the same.

Indeed, for years cricket stood accused of sitting on its hands and being too happy to wallow in the past instead of looking towards the future and the challenges that lay in wait.

After a week that could end with confirmation that the conference system in the County Championship is set to be extended in 2021 and perhaps beyond, there are those who are concerned that the sport is in danger of turning its back on tradition and hurtling too fast in the opposite direction.

What this summer has demonstrated, though, is that solidarity between full member nations is alive and well, with the decision of the West Indies, Pakistan and Australia to tour here, despite the enormous hurdles they’ve had to do surmount, perhaps one of the best illustrations of what the Spirit of Cricket entails.

Brearley also holds up the example of New Zealand’s impeccable behaviour after last year’s World Cup final at Lords and the improved relations between England and Australia in the Ashes series that followed as an indication that cricket is back on the right path.

“These things are catching,” he says. “There is bound to be some unsettling of the opposition, some tough talk, some kind of pointed humour. Those things are part of the game.

“You look at the great West Indies sides of the 1980s and 90s or the great Australian side from 1996 to 2010. They’re very tough, there was a sort of strut about them – you knew that they rated themselves and that you trod on their ground with due temerity or anxiousness.

“That can easily spill into something too ruthless, too unpleasant, too boorish, too cynical. There probably was a bit of that but the sandpaper affair (when three Australian cricketers were banned for ball tampering in Cape Town in 2018), and the New Zealanders (in the World Cup final) has led to some kind of reflection of what we played the game for. I think that has led to a slight shift. I think we saw that with the West Indies this summer as well. The lengths that everyone went to to make it possible - the first international matches in any sport played under Covid-19 regulations – was incredible.”

Tim Paine, the Australian Test captain has been widely lauded for the impact he has had on the side since he assumed the captaincy from Steve Smith.

Brearley, who famously led England to perhaps the most astonishing Ashes series triumph in history back in 1981, acknowledges Australia’s reputation for being the toughest and most uncompromising cricketers in the global game. But he’s adamant that Australia’s own take on the spirit of cricket is every bit as valid as interpretations elsewhere in the cricket world.

“There was a pretty good relationship with the Australians (in 1981), but they were Australians,” he says. “You played it hard, you knew you weren’t going to get a friendly reception on the field, but they would certainly share a beer with you after. Immediately after the Headingley Test, I went straight into their dressing room and invited them for a glass of champagne. I got a rather stony silence but that was quite understandable.

“They play it their way and it’s a perfectly good way of playing the game. They don’t walk but neither did we when we played against them or in Tests elsewhere in general.

“There are different ways of behaving but that doesn’t mean they’re not within the spirit of the game. They have strong ethical values, as we do. They’re not always identical in content but the important thing is the attitude, not everyone has to agree on every detail.”  

What cricket lovers in both hemispheres will agree on, is that Test cricket is something that needs to be protected and cherished. Anyone who witnessed Ian Botham’s Brearley engineered heroics in the 1981 Ashes series or Ben Stokes’ astonishing rescue act at Headingley in 2019, will raise a glass to that.  

Spirit of Cricket: Reflections on Play and Life, by Mike Brearley, is published by Constable and available now