“Test Cricket Summed Up”: England Great gives verdict on the reality of Test Cricket

Former captain Nasser Hussain said England’s quick victory over the West Indies in the first Test at Lord’s summed up the problems facing the longest format of the game. England beat the West Indies by an innings and 114 runs in the first hour of the third day, now leading 1-0 in the three-match series. While England had some preparation for the red ball in the form of county championship games, the West Indies only played a three-day red ball game against the Counties First Class XI in preparation.

Furthermore, most members of the West Indies team have not played cricket since the wonderful eight-run victory over Australia in Brisbane in January. “Those two days summed up for me where we are with Test cricket. You talk about all the hits they could have had, but they’re in a white-ball sunset, you’ve got bowlers who haven’t bowled, you’ve got we have poorly prepared cricketers, and then you lose the toss and you have the worst conditions, and everyone says ‘Test cricket is dying’.”

“But if you prepare for a Test match like that you will get exactly what England will get when they go away. It frustrates me because you have to give Test matches the preparation they deserve, which is a very easy thing to do. say, but it’s a very difficult thing to do in modern times,” Hussain said on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

There is curiosity as to whether the second Test between England and the West Indies at Trent Bridge will be more competitive. “The other story is that ‘West Indies are in terminal decline’ – England haven’t won in the Caribbean for two decades and (West Indies) hold the Richard-Botham Trophy.”

“England travel to India or Australia and don’t do very well, so it shouldn’t just be a West Indies story. All it does is add to the fact that Test cricket is in a difficult situation, and it’s kind of self-perpetuating.”

“If you don’t look after it, sides turn up and put on a performance like that, and everyone says, ‘I told you, Test cricket is dying’. Listening to you talking to Jimmy Anderson after 188 Test matches on the podium, I’d like to think we’d try to look after Test cricket.”

Michael Atherton, the former England captain, spoke about how Anderson spoke passionately about his love of Test cricket following his retirement from international cricket at Lord’s and will now take on the role of fast bowling mentor in the red-ball team.

“Anderson said, ‘Test cricket literally made me the person I am’. So all the lessons he took away from Test cricket – the highs, the lows, the highs, the lows, the return to that third period at six o’clock at night and having to dig deep inside yourself.”

“All the things that have made him the mature person that he is, Test cricket has helped him along the way. I wanted to ask him about this because we are in a fragile moment, he will move into a mentoring role and you hope because there are young players coming up now who will have career choices to make.”

“You’d like to feel like Jimmy would tell them ‘sometimes the easiest choices aren’t always the most fulfilling or fulfilling’…while everyone needs to pay the bills, that’s understandable.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)