Russell Degnan
LightNews LightNews
banner
idlesummers.bsky.social
Russell Degnan
@idlesummers.bsky.social
300 followers 160 following 37 posts
Mostly cricket, stats, associate, affiliate and women's, unless I am watching cycling, tennis, basketball or something else. @knottedpaths for non-sport.
Posts Replies Media Videos
idlesummers.bsky.social
The CEO of one of the three biggest boards and one of three people appointed to a panel to consider the future of Test cricket is not really just an opinion.
The reason I can point to 12 y/o articles about it is that it has been a common view for many for a long time that fewer teams should play.
August 14, 2025 at 11:22 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
The Ashes will only matter, and therefore make money, while it remains the oldest and biggest of Test's many series. Take away that context and it is an anachronism. That's a weird choice for an Australian cricket administrator to make
Test cricket might be threatened, but to the extent it is, it is not T20 doing the threatening, but the actions of the members apparently most supportive of the form. Sportsmen are driven by status. They want to be paid what they feel they deserve, given the pay of comparable players. In a world where financially weak members can't match what the market offers for their best players, but the financially successful boards can shower riches on second rate cricketers, it is a grave injustice not to let cricketers from poor countries achieve better pay. But there is a second aspect to status seeking, and that is to perform on the highest stage, to draw plaudits from the public and fellow players, to be compared favourably with greats from past and present. Test cricket remains the avenue by which that status must be achieved. But access to it is being steadily eroded, and that, more than anything, hurts test cricket. Cricket is slowly globalising, the game spreading gradually, with as many players outside the test nations now as play in any individual non-subcontinental nation. Greats players of the future will increasingly emerge from outside test cricket's current boundaries, and they'll continue to be produced in the smaller test nations - even though, by and large, the biggest, strongest teams will remain what they are now: India, England, Australia and South Africa. Yet, in the very near future, it will be T20 with the largest, most inclusive world championship, T20 that offers the highest pay, and the best opportunities for professional advancement. Unless it quickly changes, test cricket will offer no, or only a small world championship, will continue to be barred to the vast minority of playing nations, will continue to offer to its weaker full members short series seen as warmups at best, and inconveniences to be avoided at worst. If test cricket is to be the pinnacle of the sport it must be the pinnacle of achievement for all its players, not only those in England, Australia and India. And test cricket is not; it was, perhaps 20 years ago, but it is not now. There is a widely held belief that test cricket might, soon, be reduced only to "those teams that care for it", meaning those same three, if not those two. This is true, but back to front, test cricket is slowly being eroded back to those three teams, in the pursuit of profit that only playing your fellow rich nations can bring. When there are at least a dozen nations worth of cricketers who would saw off their right arm to play test cricket in the sort of tournament I outlined here, that is not the inevitable result of change, it is wilful destruction.
August 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
Most relevantly, if the Big 3 dont want to support Test cricket outside a limited number of teams, then it will die. Not because it isn't viable, but because you cannot maintain primacy if Test cricket is a secondary priority for the majority of players.
web.archive.org/web/20160401...
Idle Summers - The true threat to test cricket is inequality
web.archive.org
August 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
That structure hasn't changed since I wrote about it 12 years ago. Most markets don't make money from their games regardless of format. If CA wants to play international cricket, and it is 80% if their remit, then they need to support those teams.
web.archive.org/web/20160401...
Idle Summers - Observations on Cricket Finance
web.archive.org
August 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
Unfortunate but if Pat had taken his it would have ended earlier.
November 22, 2024 at 7:11 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
As someone who has watched cricket deal with this for 30 years, US sports are laughably naive about the level of risk and factors that make it worse. Notably low paid or unpaid players but many other things. Play the Game has had a number of good studies on this.
August 14, 2024 at 7:56 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
Any optimism I had earlier in the season was tempered by their percentage being about 15th Unsustainable good fortune in close games.
August 11, 2024 at 9:25 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
So while I really liked the whole T20 WC and the format delivered in terms of exciting finishes; we didn't commentate the last few (dead) group games, there was the possibility of shenanigans, and there remains a gap between "scheduled if" and "guaranteed" jeopardy that the ICC often misses on.
June 29, 2024 at 9:41 AM
idlesummers.bsky.social
And while the nominal number of matches between top 8 and top 12 teams is much higher in the format the ICC have used, because Pakistan and Sri Lanka missed out, it ended up being very similar (or exactly the same if SL beat SCO and PAK beat BAN):
16 vs 12 between top 8 teams
23 vs 26 for 8 vs 12
Table showing games against top 8 and top 12 teams across the two formats. Conclusion in text.
June 29, 2024 at 9:36 AM