Test cricket is the best cricket or the best form of cricket, as many say. And what is also commonly said and perhaps rightly so is that the level of excellence and competitiveness that Test cricket demands of its practitioners is second to none. After all, the red ball version of the game is the highest annals in the sporting competition that Cricket presents and stands for not just a contest of nerves, but also of patience, temerity and rigour. You can be an excellent batter in the other white ball forms of the sport but if you can’t excel in the five day version of the game, perhaps there’s still work to do and a certain job to attend to. Isn’t it?
All of this perhaps explains why where it comes to the Test match contests between Australia and England, then the Ashes is considered the pinnacle of cricketing battles and rivalries. Perhaps the highest form of competitiveness and skill ever seen in the long version of the sport at the international level.
Now, purely from a historical standpoint the Ashes contests have been held either in England or in Australia. It’s either Australia’s tour to England or vice versa. A third or neutral country has never before been a third venue other than the two participating teams that have carried forward the historical legacy of a contest that’s second to none.
But believe it or not, in what comes across as a refreshingly baffling piece of news, it turns out that if this indeed does happen, then India could well be the venue for an Australia and England Test match.
You read that right and this is not a news piece that’s a product of someone’s wild imagination.
As it turns out and surprising that it may sound, it is according to the word of Cricket Australia CEO that India could be considered a venue to an Ashes Test match and while the chances of that happening this time around as England and Australia men’s team lock horns in cricket’s ultimate battleground seem far from true, it could well be a thing for the future.
This leaves us speculating what could have possibly led to this decision? If the Cricket Australia body that governs the sport in the country is in fact mulling the option of the hosting a game in India, which traditionally has nothing to do with an Ashes test, then could the same be thought of as a step to further popularise the five day game? Is this a step to revitalise the standing of Test match cricket at a time where the format stands threatened especially by the rapidly rising entourage that T20 cricket brings about? Several questions but no certain answers as of now.
