Addressing a session at the 14th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, Sachin Tendulkar drew a fine correlation between the growing imbalance in Test cricket and the surfaces employed in Test matches.
“I don’t think Test cricket is dying,” began Tendulkar when asked if the format had come to be a dying breed. “The mind-set of the people is changing. I think the introduction of Twenty20 and also above all, technology has changed the mind-set,” he went on to add.
In terms of the pitch factor that made Test matches predictable by way of huge batting scores, Tendulkar specified, “There’s nothing wrong in making big totals. We all want to do the same. But, also at the same time, the surfaces were bowler-friendly earlier.”
According to Tendulkar, this one-sidedness towards the batsmen in Tests has allowed the attention of the crowds to slacken. Even as such batsmen oriented game in Twenty20 has created a difference between cricket’s audiences as a whole, causing fewer attention to be diverted towards Tests. “In T20s, batters dominate. They have made such innovations that the best of bowlers get reverse-swept. This is what the current generation is watching. We want them to watch something else. There’s no connect, I feel.”
And, the only way to address this problem, Tendulkar believes is by making surfaces that bring out an even competition between batsmen and bowlers. “We need to prepare kind of surfaces, which are evenly balanced where we get to see four or five maiden overs upfront when the seamers are bowling. In order to bring back interest levels and engagement of the crowds inside the stadium, what you do inside the stadium is important. And the heart of cricket is the surface. Surface decides what happens. Surface allows fair competition between bat and ball.”