500th Match Test Cricket: Tricky Wicket

Until the 1983 World Cup, India had been perpetual alsorans in the one-day game. Sunil Gavaskar’s notorious 36 in 60 overs in the 1975 World Cup was what people remembered of India’s limited-overs effort, rather than the—rather occasional—victories against other teams in one-day internationals. But the 1983 World Cup changed all that. As the editor of Wisden wrote in his notes, “They brought warmth and excitement in the place of dampness and depression.” India had not even reached the semi-finals before 1983, and now they won the title. This sparked a massive interest in the limited-overs format in India, and began what seems today like a terminal decline in interests in Test cricket on the subcontinent.

- Neeru Bhatia

The fears of Test cricket’s decline, with India being at the centre of an impending doom, started way back in 1983, when Kapil’s Devils won the World Cup. Twenty-five years later, when the Indian Premier League came about in 2008, similar fears were echoed.

“I am fearful for Test cricket.... It is difficult to see where it is going, although I don’t think Twenty20 would exist without Test cricket. It could all change in the next 30-40 years, long after I have gone,” late Tony Cozier, the respected West Indian broadcaster and journalist, was quoted in Wisden on India.

As doomsayers sound the death knell of Test cricket time and again, the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur hosts its 22nd Test match, and India’s 500th. The Journey from June 25, 1932, when India played its first official Test match at Lord’s and lost by 158 runs to the hosts, to September 22, 2016 has been filled with much excitement, drama and design. Defying the doom and gloom, the 500th Test looks to reassure Test cricket and its shrinking followers that it has survived lots.

Between 1932 and 1983, India played 210 Test matches—roughly four matches a year. From 1983 to 2008, when 50-over matches and coloured clothing turned India into a cricket-mad nation, it played 208 Tests—about 8 matches a year. From 2008 to 2016, after Twenty20 came and changed the economics of the sport, it played 81 Test matches—roughly 10 a year. (Stats courtesy: Rajneesh Gupta)