Reports have surfaced this week that the World Test Championship to be held in two year’s time will include a timeless Test to ensure there is an undisputed champion.
Imagine these two plodding along together for days on end...
This idea from the ICC, who are ones for U-turns if the World Cup format is anything to go by, (so don’t hold your breath) is something of a throwback to the early days of Test cricket at a time when the sport has become more fast-paced.
The same fans that are getting bored with too many T20 slug fests could now be treated to the two best teams in the world plodding along for what could be weeks. A timeless Test in the bygone era of the 1930s in Durban between South Africa and England lasted ten days before the teams settled on a draw. This was because England had to leave to catch a boat home.
But the timeless Test final is one of several possibilities to solve a problem that has no standout solution – probably why there has been no World Test Championship before.
For instance, some say if the final does end in a draw the honours should go to the team already ranked top, but that is somewhat of an anti-climax, like going on total runs scored throughout the tournament. Other tie-breaker methods like bowl outs or super overs just don’t fit with the traditions of Test cricket. The ICC could make the World Test Championship a league, but that’s basically what we have already.
With the other options in mind, the timeless Test looks the best shout. However, the best batsmen in the world game will be playing in this match and the measure of the best batsmen is how they adapt to situations. And, can you imagine what Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott could together, free from the constraints of time? It could be beautiful; it could be a cure for insomnia.
If batsmen have an unlimited time to bat, they will try to use it. This means that a championship designed to promote excitement over Test cricket as the game is floundering in some countries, could well provide a boring final.
Over you to you ICC. You can always perform a U-turn if we don’t like it.
By James Toseland
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What a dire idea. No-one is alive now who paricipated in the 1939 timeless test versus South africa. A good few of them would have died before the end of the match if the tourists’ boat hadn’t had to leave!!
To Paul Spencer.
There is still one, and only one, of these players alive and well today. He is a Jeppe Old Boy by the name of Norman Gordon. He is also the first test cricketer to reach a century in living years and is currently the oldest living test cricketer in the world.
Jeppe Boys has recently honoured him by renaming their main oval cricket scoreboard after him.