No need for day-night Tests: Tony Greig

Tony greig doesn't see the need for a day-night experiment in the five-day game. according to the former england captain, test cricket is not in danger at all

Tony Greig is one of your laconic types whose life has been wrapped around cricket from a young age. Tall and imposing, it is all too often forgotten how the former England captain is also someone who was at the forefront of the greatest revolution in the game's history.

This is the Kerry Packer upheaval in the late 1970s; one where cricket administrators around the world were challenged by the players over their desire to earn a decent living. It saw the rise, among other factors, the question of player empowerment.

This was World Series Cricket.
It catapulted the game and how it was run into the 20th century. It also created an awareness of how important to the game were the two main ingredients: the players and the spectators. It is why the challenge to the die-hard establishment administrator was seen as challenge to bring the game to the people and with this, create not just a new identity but also a following.

It is why Greig, now in Sri Lanka as part of the commentary team, feels that Test cricket is not only holding its own but that there is an untapped audience out there that is realising just how the game is reinventing itself.
What he is suggesting is that Test cricket is not in danger at all, and there is too much fiddling around with ideas. One is day-night Tests. He is opposed to the plan of staging day-night Tests.u00a0

Still No 1
"There is a lot of spooking that goes on about Test cricket at present and I am pleased to say that my information in Australia is that Test cricket is maintaining its position," he confirmed. "The bigger concern, as I see it, is what to do with 20-20 and one-day international games.

"Those two formats, being limited-overs formats, are encroaching on each other's demographics and it is here where the identities of the two systems. There needs to be a better co-ordination between the two types of game," he argued. "This is where the administrations need to think how best to market the game."

To his way of thinking, and that of others of his era, Test cricket is a "day game", with emphasis on the term "day". It is one where children are able to go along and sit with their parents, have a picnic and watch the cricket unfold. His concern here is that day-night Tests will create other problem areas. Children being introduced to Test cricket at day-night level will create certain social issues. Incursion into areas such as schoolwork and exams would be taking away the objectivity of Test cricket being a family game and day game.
"Test matches are about family, lunches and teas, players dressed in whites and the game being played with the red ball," he commented when remarking on issues such as the type of ball being used.

Ball problem
"They will be playing with a ball that hasn't been perfected, and if you play it with a white ball it means changing to coloured clothing, and here it becomes a mass-marketing type game. I don't like this as a concept.
"We are so fortunate that we have a game which attracts the connoisseurs and where people watching it have gravitated, over the years, from the day-night game to Test cricket. This to me is the captured market and it is a growing one.

"We also have the magic associated with the one-day international, and there is a need to do a little refining. Then there is the twenty20 overs, and you are going to get a lot of people coming into the game for the first time, who will get their initial taste as well as indoctrination," he remarked, thinking back on how the day-night ODI developed from the World Series Cricket phenomena of the Packer era.

"It is where there is the hope that such spectators will eventually graduate to the Test game as part of the longer-term scenario. That is the challenge that we face," he added.

Greig agreed with the comments of how impressive were number of spectators at Lord's for the neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia. It displayed there is a public willing to go and watch Test cricket.