It is a welcome change to see Test match cricket returning to being the real priority of the Indian cricket establishment. With India having scaled the peak in the world Test rankings, it is now in the BCCI?s interest to try and reschedule the South Africa series in a way which helps accommodate two Test matches along with the slew of One Day Internationals already scheduled. A tour of one day internationals only, beyond a point, means nothing. These matches will hardly register in people?s radar unless someone like Sachin plays an innings of 175 and in the process India will soon lose the number one Test ranking, achieved after much hard work and toil.
In fact, as I have argued earlier, the very prudence in scheduling a series of One Day Internationals in the first place should be questioned. Why should it take the number one ranking to convince our Board that scheduling Test matches is the real priority and a series of Two test matches and three One Day Internationals are much more than real thing than what was being done? Is ranking then the only thing that matters? Had India not become the number one team in the world, the proposal to play two Test matches come February would not have been mooted in the first place!
And this is where I come to the issue of players? responsibility. Most, if not all, of our players have repeatedly emphasised the point that they wish to play more Test matches than what they are doing now, especially when India has played some fantastic Test match cricket over the last two years. These comments have come when journalists have prodded them at press conferences or in the course of one-on-one interviews. Why can?t Mahendra Singh Dhoni and some of his senior players speak directly to the board and emphasise their priorities? Their saying will go a long way to saving India the embarrassment that we are currently facing in the world media. In fact, a senior BCCI functionary tells me on condition of anonymity that it was at Sachin Tendulkar?s suggestion (on the last day of the MumbaiTest) that the rescheduling was undertaken as priority. The BCCI President, then in Mumbai, was spoken to and the plan to play two Tests in place of two one day internationals gathered momentum.
This is essential because, among others, the Australian sports press have already portrayed us as money hungry and lacking social responsibility and the British media surely will follow. And the truth is they are right. While Australia is scheduled to play eight Test matches over the next 12 months, we are due to play only two.
Men in positions of authority like Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri also need to play their part. Their voice matters more than most in Indian cricket. Using their positions of credibility, if they suggest a rescheduling of priorities, it is only a matter of time before we see more test matches being played on Indian soil.
Finally, it is imperative that we talk about cricket?s biggest stakeholders, the spectators. It was refreshing to see a very good crowd at the Green Park in Kanpur during the second Test. Mumbai too was largely well attended. With the crowds coming back to grace the Test match grounds, this is our only opportunity to stand up to taking more responsibility, essential for the country considered the financial nerve center of world cricket.
It is well known that in the UK all of the Ashes Tests are played to packed houses. AustralianTest grounds too continue to be well attended. Perhaps our best opportunity to rise to the occasion will come when South Africa tours India in February. A Test match between the top two teams in world cricket will generate enough hype to encourage the public to grace the grounds. And it is time to realise that only if that happens can we claim to be the real arbiter of world cricket. Anything else and India will fail to shirk off the label of the new moneyed elite that lacks class and pedigree.
The writer is a cricket historian