{"id":4621,"date":"2019-11-30T08:15:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T22:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2023-06-20T14:33:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T04:33:36","slug":"test-cricket-is-becoming-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4621","title":{"rendered":"Test cricket is becoming a joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan look like they will lose by an innings again to Australia, meaning that the two-Test series will end in a wipeout.<\/p>\n<p>The question is: why are so many weak teams coming to Australia and playing matches that end up being hopelessly one-sided, resulting in very few people going to watch them?<\/p>\n<p>Or is it the case that there is no other option given that India cannot come to Australia every year and play?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nPakistan has not played international cricket at home since 2009 when Sri Lanka toured. During that tour, terrorists attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Pakistan has played all its international games in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi. The stadiums are grand but there are only a handful of expats who turn up to watch.<\/p>\n<p>Worse, the fans at home are unable to see their heroes in action and interest in the game has plummetted. This means less and less kids turning to cricket and a system which once produced world-class players by the score now hardly produces any.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan has to make do with what it has. And since it has no choice, what happens in washouts like it will soon experience in Australia.<br \/>\n<!-- Start of StatCounter Code for Default Guide --><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\nvar sc_project=2720500; \nvar sc_invisible=1; \nvar sc_security=\"d25d8712\"; \nvar scJsHost = ((\"https:\" == document.location.protocol) ?\n\"https:\/\/secure.\" : \"http:\/\/www.\");\ndocument.write(\"<sc\"+\"ript type='text\/javascript' src='\" + scJsHost+ \"statcounter.com\/counter\/counter.js'><\/\"+\"script>\");\n<\/script><br \/>\n<noscript><\/p>\n<div class=\"statcounter\"><a title=\"Web Analytics\" href=\"http:\/\/statcounter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"statcounter\" src=\"\/\/c.statcounter.com\/2720500\/0\/d25d8712\/1\/\" alt=\"Web Analytics\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/noscript><br \/>\n<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan look like they will lose by an innings again to Australia, meaning that the two-Test series will end in a wipeout. The question is: why are so many weak teams coming to Australia and playing matches that end up being hopelessly one-sided, resulting in very few people going to watch them? Or is it &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4621\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Test cricket is becoming a joke&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-cricket","category-pakistan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3440,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=3440","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":0},"title":"One-sided cricket matches are here to stay. Why would you attend?","date":"November 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"World cricket is in a parlous state, not in terms of the money it makes, but in terms of the contests it provides. The games are one-sided to the extent that patrons at the grounds are few and far-between. There is no better illustration of this than in the ongoing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ashes&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=66","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":1},"title":"History tells us: the ICC must take the blame for match-fixing","date":"September 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"IT WOULD be amusing to read all about the apportioning of blame by various people in the wake of the recent revelations about match-fixing, were it not for the fact that the whole thing is so damn serious. But then one should not be surprised about all the breast-beating that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Australia&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3732,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=3732","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":2},"title":"Bangladesh should never have got Test status","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After Monday's loss to India in a one-off Test, Bangladesh has now played 98 Tests and won just eight, after being given full Test status in the year 2000. That is a rather dismal record for any team. They have only beaten Zimbabwe (five times), the West Indies (twice) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cricket&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":372,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=372","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":3},"title":"Hosts to fight for honours","date":"March 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"INDIA went into the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan depending on its batting. Pakistan, on the other hand, was banking on its bowling. On the day, things came out in reverse. For the first time since 1983, the final of the World Cup cricket tournament will be contested by non-white\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cricket&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=60","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":4},"title":"Cricket is all about politics","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"SPORT and politics should not mix. How often have you heard that meaningless line? It is untrue of any sport - and most of all cricket. Following the humiliation meted out to former Australian prime minister John Howard - the man was roundly snubbed by Asian and African cricketing nations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Australia&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=35","url_meta":{"origin":4621,"position":5},"title":"Cricket is no longer a team game","date":"December 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"THERE was a time when cricket was a team game, when individual performances were all geared towards the collective good of the team. That era has long gone. But despite that, it's only occasionally that the degree to which selfishness has come to dominate the game is on naked display.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Australia&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5426,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/5426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}