Rally 'round an unravelling West Indies?

Contributed by Anoop Vijaykumar

Ok, so my Windies skipper has certainly created perhaps the final shit-storm that Test cricket shall experience (barring an on-pitch brawl during the upcoming Ashes).

This all of course bodes horribly for tomorrow's critical Test match start against England but with this current lot drunk with IPL, 20/20 and Test match fee compensations, was such a public blurt that far away?

He's right of course about what particular format of the game has captured the imagination of the young but the larger issue is whether it was the right thing to consider out loud knowing the significant history of cricket and its significant evolution and successful and unsuccessful challenges to date.

But I'm bringing up the subject of cricket history to a team which once boasted several members who did not know who Wes Hall, Clyde Walcott or Everton Weeks were when they individually visited the Kensington nets a few years ago.

The cat is now out of the bag and public debate shall roar on for the next few weeks. I believe the Ashes shall provide a few interesting matches and once again return Tests to the forefront of the game but as summer passes, I foresee a genuine winter of discontent over the game's future.

Clear, no-nonsense administration is now needed by the WICB and, by extension, the ICC, whose ass-backwards conduct regarding the use of unencumbered technology and appeals in Test matches has done it no favours in appearing confusing and doddering in the eyes of the young (a recent BBC commentary team noted in the last Test of no longer being able to keep up or understand some of the once-simple-but-now-re-re-revised rules of the game - a telling and honest confession).

To end on a bright note, if anything, those annual Wisden doorstop editions stand to benefit from all of the above both as a nostalgic valentine to the format of Test cricket and the remaining vessel of the game's ever changing regulations:)

(Click here to know more about Jonathan)

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Rally 'round an unravelling West Indies?

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