Johannesburg – Mitchell Johnson’s surprising and swift retirement last week made it clear. The “it” is the change in international cricket – a dawning of a new era.
The era of Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Michael Clarke, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene is gone. Their lot – most of them, anyway – lies in 20-over circus matches in American baseball stadiums. We are now entering the era of Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kagiso Rabada and Murali Vijay.
Their greatness is yet to be determined, but what awaits these players?
The legendary players of the “noughties” – the decade from 2001 to 2010 – all defined themselves via their deeds in the Test arena. Of course, they were great limited overs players too, but almost overwhelmingly they were outstanding Test players.
Just how important will Test cricket be in the next decade? By the time their careers are complete, will the likes of Williamson, Root, Kohli and Vijay be remembered more for their Test match prowess or what they achieved in T20?
Not only are cricket’s leading names changing but the landscape is changing too. Test cricket – outside of the Ashes – seems to have lost its lustre.
On Thursday we’ll witness the first day/night Test match – an attempt to locate the format more in line with the schedules of a modern age.
It’s quite a drastic move that has split opinion in the game, particularly in Australia, where that first match will be held, in Adelaide. It is seen as a crucial step though, very necessary for a format struggling to put bums on seats in stadiums and attract eyeballs on television
Amid all the administrative acrimony that has arisen in the last four years at ICC level, including the establishment of a “big three” who have sucked up the majority of the sport’s international finances for themselves, the proliferation of T20 leagues has also been poorly managed.
At the moment Test cricket may still be the primary format for players in Australia, England and even South Africa.
Elsewhere, though, that is not the case. Test cricket in the West Indies is virtually on the brink of collapse as their biggest names seek fortune in the many T20 leagues that are now the order of the day around the world.
Pakistan can’t play at home and Sri Lanka and New Zealand have to make do with the crumbs dished out by the England, Australia and India administrations, when those three countries aren’t playing among themselves. Bangladesh isn’t scheduled to tour England at any point in the next 10 years and Zimbabwe has for all intents and purposes fallen apart.
There are nowadays three prominent T20 leagues – the wealthiest being the Indian version, followed by the Big Bash in Australia and the Caribbean League. The English are talking about tinkering with theirs too and the money will flow down to the players and if there is enough of it, then who will be enticed by Test cricket?
The way in which greatness will be measured will change. Bowling spells of the sort produced by Johnson at Centurion in 2014 will be items in cricket history books. Forget about triple hundreds – South Africa may only have the one in its name – as batsmen’s goals will change.
In 2025 when we look back at the era of Williamson, Steve Smith, Kohli, Root and Vijay, how will it be defined?
By their exploits in the IPL perhaps? Rabada would appear to have all the necessary attributes for a lengthy Test career, but will achieving 400 wickets be a goal for him or will it be about maintaining an economy rate of below six runs an over?
There is no doubt the way cricket is assessed will change over the next decade and, along with it, how we view and measure players. With T20 cricket expanding rapidly and money pouring into that format what was important to players in the ‘noughties’ and before that won’t be as much of a priority for the group that will dominate the sport over the next decade.
The way Ponting, Kallis and Tendulkar were defined won’t be how we assess Kohli, Smith, Williamson and Rabada. And if you love Test cricket, that may be awful.