Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Test Cricket 140 years Old Today!!!

140 years ago first test match played today at MCG!!! 2253 Tests later, Test Cricket health, is it good??? I wonder??? 

Except #ASHES, many rivalries have become stale or meaningless!! Tests going in to 5th day is now a rare event...

My first active test series followed was 1971 Tony Lewis tour of India. India won 2-1!! Spin magic, Tony Grieg cradling Vishy at Bombay!!


100 years on 1877, centenary test 1977 at MCG cracker, Rick McCosker Broken jaw Innings, Derek Randall played almost match winning 174!!! Same margin of loss 45 runs 100 years later!!

Test Cricket in my time not complete without mentioning Clive Lloyd the great leader!! Did they sledge, indulge in verbal duel etc? Just went on delivering results!!!! That's how the game is played!! 

Test Cricket grace not complete without mentioning, David Gower, Lawrence Rowe, Kim Hughes, Martin Crowe!! What an entertainers!! Bowlers who terrorised batsman like, Holding, Croft, Lilee... Who can forget Imran, Kapil the fighters from ever underdogs of Asia. Also great commentators who described the game in Radio, Alan McGilvray, Tony Cozier, Jim Maxwell, CMJ, Johnners, Suresh Saraiya, V Ramamurthy IAS, etc!! It was a pleasure!! 

I hope test cricket does turn around for good and health is better when 150 years of celebration is done! One thing I am sure even then is over hyped INDIA wouldn't have won a test series in Australia for sure (84 years and counting) and possibly not also in South Africa.

Karthik.
15/3/17 0800am.


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