England’s resounding series defeat to India has generated a debate. Is seeing England’s Test team win the most important thing, or does the entertaining style of Bazball counteract the hit and miss results?
Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer puts forward the argument that the importance of winning is vital to Test cricket’s longevity, while Barmy Army member Rich Nicholls believes watching England now is better than ever.
Winning comes first
By Simon Heffer
I sometimes wonder whether the England and Wales Cricket Board and the team management of the England Test side actually realise that the future of Test cricket is hanging by a thread. Although grounds in England are usually full, or relatively full, the same is not true around the world, where first-class cricket is not marketed and the more lucrative, insidious and entirely forgettable white-ball game has become an obsession. It is bad enough that some of the finest players now routinely drop out of Test cricket – it was an under-strength Indian team that just thrashed England 4-1, and the South Africans have recently sent their 2nd XI to New Zealand.
But if anything could accelerate England’s decline as a Test power more than is already the case it would be the perception by a public asked to pay hefty sums to watch Test cricket that winning does not matter and entertainment does. This seemed to be the case in India, where games that once upon a time might have been saved by much Boycott-style batting were chucked away because of the inflexible addiction to Bazball. When conditions permit, entertaining cricket is of course preferable to the sight of a batting side grinding out a survival programme: but no one ever said that Test cricket was all about entertainment. Sometimes the honour of the side and the country has to come first.
If Test audiences increasingly come to believe that England will not play according to the circumstances of each individual match, but according to a one size fits all set of tactics that only fit certain conditions, then they will stop shelling out hundreds of pounds to attend Test matches. Eventually, this will simply disfranchise tens of thousands of people who have gone through life seeing cricket as an epic psychological battle as well as one of skills, and for whom white-ball cricket (and especially T20) is simply a meretricious bore.
‘I am not so sure Bazball will thrive against West Indies or Sri Lanka’
One or two people in the cricket media have, since the humiliation in India, asserted that West Indies and Sri Lanka – this summer’s tourists – should be easy pickings, and that Bazball will thrive again. I am not so sure. The management of those two teams will have studied closely what happened in India and will realise just how vulnerable England could be if they apply the idea come what may: even in familiar home conditions. Were England to lose needlessly this coming summer the slump in enthusiasm for the long game could follow rapidly, and at a time when it is under threat from other forces anyway.
For atavistic reasons it seems that England supporters get really upset about losing only when it happens against the Australians. And therefore, it is perhaps more dangerous for them to win against a succession of weak sides, and be convinced by the rightness of Bazball, than to lose and change tactics. If India repeat their punishment of England in 2025 they are likely to go Down Under demoralised, defeatist and almost without a clue how best to proceed. For the long-term survival of Test cricket, that just cannot be allowed to happen.
We love this style of play
By Rich Nicholls
Rich, known as “Tiny”, is from Keynsham and travels the world watching England with his partner Sophie Davies
We have been together for just over 10 years. Sophie has always loved to travel but I am not a great flyer and had never been further than Benidorm. I said I’d travel if there was a reason to go, and although Sophie wasn’t into cricket then, we realised England were playing in Barbados in 2015 so made a family trip of it, and we’ve had the bug ever since. Now Sophie absolutely loves the game.
I am an HGV driver and get up at 2.15am every day for work, Sophie works for the NHS. The thing that keeps us both going is the thought of booking our next tour to watch England play Test cricket. We try to do at least one each year.
On this tour of India, we came out for the first Test in Hyderabad, then went home and came back for the fifth in Dharamsala. So we saw one of the greatest wins ever, and a really tough loss. In Hyderabad, we paid £6 each for a five-day pass – it was the best £6 we’ve ever spent, especially when compared to home Tests, which we go to less now because we’re being priced out a bit.
‘Regardless of the result we love watching the team play’
We love it when they win, but regardless of the result we love watching the team play, seeing the great friends we’ve made through the game and travelling to amazing places.
This England team are perfect to follow because you never know what is going to happen each day. They have got people talking about Test cricket again. People at Sophie’s work who have not shown interest in the game before are suddenly talking about it, and lots of Indians have been desperate to chat about Bazball with us. We love this style of play.
This team have had times when they’ve made the opposition look terrible, and others where they’ve looked terrible themselves. We’d much rather travel to watch a team like that than one that is safety-first and boring. We were in Grenada two years ago and as much as we love the players involved and supported them through thick and thin, it was terrible cricket.
We love supporting the team, and think they appreciate the Barmy Army following them around the world too. A few defeats would never change that.
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