With as many as 21 wholesome victories under her belt from 37 appearances, Sri Lanka was subjected to one of the worst defeats and its worst ever setback at the hands of Australia in the first Test in Galle on Friday as the host team’s kingdom by the sea crumbled like nine pins leaving some experts to wonder if the old Egnlish game is doomed.
What was bitterest to swallow for the team was that the 15-session match ended inside just six sessions as an entire batting side was crushed in 22.5 overs, the least number of overs that an opposing team needed to pluck 10 Sri Lankan wickets in an innings.
But onetime godfathers and campaigners of Test cricket in Sri Lanka contend that it is time to put up with change if Test cricket is to survive into the future as the commercial stakes keep rising in T20 business and players no longer keen on any iconic status like in the past.
“Our era is over. Money is the name of the game and nobody is interested in prestige,” said S. Skandakumar former First Class cricketer, commentator and secretary of what was then the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.
“But we have to see how Test cricket can be made attractive and one way is to reduce the number of days from five to four.”
Some of the shots played by the home team’s batters in the Galle Test suited T20 showbiz cricket that was nowhere near the intellectual format of Test cricket that has been further exalted by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) declaration of a World Test Championship that both Australia and Sri Lanka are also playing for.
Only two players from the present team, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews can boast of any Test match pedigree while the rest of the batters constitute mere commercial-value gallery exhibits with little or no clue to the what the traditional format of the game demands echoing the fact that nearly 90 percent of the players found in the island see the white ball more attractive than the red cherry.
The scenario was proved beyond doubt when team selectors refused to see schoolboy player Dunith Wellalage as Test match material and threw him among the men in the preceding T20 and ODI series as if Sri Lanka did not have enough players to field or choose from.
“Test cricket will find it difficult to survive against the astronomical gains available in T20 cricket,” said Skandakumar. “It is a good sign that the ICC is trying to balance the prestige and identity of Test cricket (with the World Test Championship) for teams that want to reach the pinnacle,” said Skandakumar.
But while the debate over commercial and traditional cricket will move on, a factor that is expected to haunt the Sri Lankan establishment will be what some called a “pitch-fix” before the start of the Galle Test that completely backfired on the home team as the veteran Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon grabbed nine scalps and a bolt from the blues Travis Head sneaked in from nowhere to turn the ball almost square and bag four wickets.