I wonder if McCullum and Stokes know something we don't!!....

I cannot help but wonder if these two have been tipped the wink that the ECB and the ICC want to reduce test cricket matches to FOUR days. There can be no doubt that these administrators want to cram in as much one day cricket as possible. So our new "Baz-ball" could well become the norm for all test nations.

I really would not be surprised if this were to be the case...sadly.

Ah, nothing like a good conspiracy theory. 5 of Stokes's 10 Tests so far have gone to Day 5. Two were done and dusted in 3 days, thanks to either England or South Africa collapsing twice rather than Bazball scoring rates. OK, one of the five day matches was seriously affected by the weather and some of the other matches were too but that just indicates that in England five often means four.

I suspect that many of us were expecting two or three draws on the Pakistan wickets. Rawalpindi needed almost every minute of its five days; any less and there would have been no time to set up a declaration, no tension or excitement, no positive result. If anything it helped make the case for five day matches as it gives time for a positive team to make something happen.

This is certainly up there with wild takes; Cricket Australia must also be in on it with that pitch served up at the Gabba

Private Eye has a brilliant piece "Is Test cricket wrecking the one-day game?" Not sure whether it is OK to reproduce it - but never fear, you can find it on the White Rose Forum at
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/whiteroseforum/the-long-room-cricket-miscellany-t13261-s510.html

I recommend their historical thread by the way.


Adelaide