Ponting urges focus on pitches
2008-06-12 15:43
Bridgetown, Barbados - Ricky Ponting feels cricket authorities should focus their energies on improving the standard of pitches rather than tinkering with the format of Test cricket.
The Australia captain believes that the docile pitches like the strip used for the second Test against West Indies in Antigua a fortnight ago make Test cricket less fashionable than the crash, bang, wallop of a Twenty20 or One-day International fixture.
"I just think Test cricket is probably not as exciting any more because of the pitches that we're playing on," he told reporters.
"I can't see why people are not coming to watch the game as they once did. For the person that enjoys the traditions of Test cricket, they are still probably enjoying it, as they did 10 or 15 years ago.
"The game right now is pretty exciting. The way Test cricket is being played, there are more results, and 300 or 350 runs in a day is not impossible any more, so it's actually a better spectacle to watch."
More exciting matches
Ponting acknowledges that people have other entertainment packages, and Twenty20 cricket is having an impact, as 50 overs-a-side matches did when they were first introduced, but he still believes better pitches will lead to more exciting matches.
"People would rather watch a game in Perth than they would in Antigua," he said.
"There's much more happening. There are more bouncers, more batsmen ducking and weaving and sometimes falling on their backsides, more catches behind the wicket, more hook shots.
"That's the sort of Test cricket that we all grew up watching and enjoying."
Ponting emphasised that some of the pitches which his Australia side have encountered in recent years around the World are just "too flat, too placid".
"Batsmen would prefer a lot of the time to have a little bit more pace and bounce anyway because it's much easier for you as a batsman to play your strokes," he said.
"That's what I would be saying to all the authorities around the world: Let's just try and do something with the pitches. If it means digging them up and relaying them, then let's try it. It's obviously not working too well at the moment."
Small attendances
IS Bindra, a special advisor to the International Cricket Council, has indicated that the sport's world governing body was looking at ways to make Test matches more attractive.
Bindra told an Indian magazine that the ICC was concerned about the small attendances at Tests, and they were examining ways to increase scoring-rates, and have a World Championship of Test cricket.
The proposed championship would see teams gain points for each match, with a trophy to be presented to the top-ranked side at the end of each four-year-cycle.
"You're playing for a trophy every series you play," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's at the end of two or three or four years, there are trophies on the line every series.
"We've got to look at other smaller ways, I think. But let's just see how this all works out and pans out. Hopefully, something very good comes of all the discussions that they have."
Australia face West Indies in the third and final Test, starting on Thursday at Kensington Oval. They lead the three-match series 1-0, after winning the opening Test at Sabina Park in the Jamaica capital of Kingston by 95 runs.
They have already retained their hold on the Frank Worrell Trophy - symbol of Test supremacy between the two sides - and have not lost a Test series in the Caribbean since 1991.