Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of
cricket. It is generally considered the
ultimate test of playing ability in the sport.
The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are
a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved. It
seems to have been used first to describe an English team that
toured Australia in 1861–62, although those matches are not
considered Test matches today.
The first officially recognised test match
commenced on 15 March 1877, contested by
England and Australia at the Melbourne
Cricket Ground
, where Australia won by 45 runs. England won
the second ever match (also at the MCG) by four wickets, thus
drawing the series 1–1. This was not the
first ever international cricket
match however, which was played between
Canada and the
United States, on 24 and
25 of September 1844.
Test status
Test matches are a subset of
first-class cricket. Test matches are
played between national representative teams which have "Test
status", as determined by the
International Cricket Council
(ICC). , ten national teams have been given Test status, the most
recent being Bangladesh in 2000.
A list of matches defined as Tests was first drawn up by Australian
Clarence Moody in the 1890s.
Representative matches played by simultaneous
England touring sides of 1891–92 (in Australia and South Africa)
and 1929-30 (in the West
Indies
and New Zealand) are deemed to have Test
status.
In 1970, a series of five "Test matches" were played in England
between England and a Rest of the World XI. Although initially
given unofficial Test status (and included as Test matches in some
record books, notably
Wisden), this was later
withdrawn and a principle was established which states that
official Test matches can only be between nations. The series of
"Test matches" played in Australia between Australia and a World XI
in 1971/72 do not have Test status. The commercial "
Supertest" organised by
Kerry Packer as part of his
World Series Cricket enterprise and
played between "WSC Australia", "WSC World XI" and "WSC West
Indies" from 1977 to 1979 have never been regarded as having
official Test match status.
In 2005 the ICC ruled that the six-day
Super Series match that took place in
October 2005 between
Australia and a World XI was an
official Test match. This ICC decision was taken despite precedent
(e.g. the ICC's earlier ruling on the 1970 England v Rest of the
World series) that only matches between
nations
should be given Test match status. Many cricket writers and
statisticians, particularly
Bill
Frindall, have decided to ignore the ICC's ruling and have
excluded the 2005 match from their records.
History
See main articles:
Test cricket playing teams
There are
currently ten Test-playing teams, the majority of which are
individual nations (except for England
and The West Indies
).
Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by
the
International Cricket
Council. Teams that do not have Test status can only officially
play a shortened version of cricket, except in events such as the
ICC Intercontinental Cup,
which was specifically designed to allow non-Test teams to play
under
conditions similar to
Tests. The teams are listed below with the date of each team's
Test debut:
In 2003, the ICC announced its intention to confer Test status upon
Kenya in the near
future. Kenyan cricket has been through difficulties since then .
Ireland has stated its
intention to apply for Full Membership of the ICC with the aim
achieving Test status.
Conduct of the game
Playing time
See also: Playing
time
Test cricket is played between two teams of 11 players over a
period of up to a maximum five days (though finishing earlier if a
result is reached before the maximum time). On each day there are
usually three two-hour sessions, with a forty minute break for
"lunch" and a twenty minute break for "tea". For example, in
England, common times of play are as follows:
- First session: 11am – 1 pm
- Second session: 1:40 pm – 3:40 pm
- Third session: 4 pm – 6 pm
In addition, short breaks (5 minutes) may be taken during each
session for "drinks", commonly after an hour of play. A 10 minute
interval is also taken between changes of
innings.
The times of sessions and intervals may be altered in certain
circumstances, for example:
- If bad weather or a change of innings occurs close to a
scheduled break, the break may be taken immediately;
- If there has been a loss of playing time, for example due to
bad weather, the session times may be adjusted to make up for the
lost time;
- If the batting side is nine wickets down, the tea break is delayed
the earlier of 30 minutes or until the team is all
out;
- The final session may be extended by up to 30 minutes if 90 or
more overs have not been bowled in that day's play (subject to any
reduction for adverse weather);
- The final session may also be extended by 30 minutes if the
umpires believe believe the match can be decided within that time
(this is in addition to any time added to complete the prescribed
number of overs).
In the
early days
of the game, Test matches were played over three or four days.
There have also been '
Timeless Tests',
which did not end after a predetermined maximum time. In 2005
Australia played a six-day match against a World XI which the ICC
sanctioned as an official Test match, though the match reached a
conclusion on the fourth day.
Order of play
Test cricket is played in "innings" (the word denotes both the
singular and the plural). In each innings, one team
bats and the other
bowls (or
fields). Ordinarily four innings are
played in a Test match, such that each team bats twice and bowls
twice.
In order to decide which team bats first, prior to the start of
play on the first day, the two team captains and the match referee
meet at the centre of the wicket for a
coin
toss. The home captain will toss the coin, with the visiting
captain calling either "Heads" or "Tails" whilst the coin is in the
air. The captain who wins the toss has the privilege of deciding
whether his team will bat or bowl first.
In the following scenarios, the team which bats first shall be
referred to as "Team A", and their opponents as "Team B".
Usually the teams will alternate at the completion of each innings.
Thus, Team A will bat (and Team B will bowl) until its innings
comes to a close, at which point Team B will commence its first
batting innings and Team A will bowl. At the completion of Team B’s
innings, the same sequence repeats for each team’s second innings.
A team’s score for the match is the combined total of
runs scored in each of its innings.
End of an innings
A team's innings may be completed in one of two ways:
- The team loses all of its wickets (at which time the team is
referred to as being "all out"). Since two batsmen bat simultaneously, this usually
occurs when ten batsmen have been dismissed. However, it may occur with
the loss of fewer wickets if one or more batsmen are unavailable to
bat (for example, because they have been injured in the
match).
- The team's captain elects to cease batting (a declaration).
Law 12.1(b) also makes provision for teams to agree, before the
match, to limit the length of an innings to a prescribed number of
overs or length of time; however, this Law does not apply to test
cricket.
Clearly, a team will also cease batting if the game ends (i.e.: if
a result is achieved, or the maximum time limit is reached).
The follow-on
If, at the completion of its first innings, Team B’s first innings
total falls short of Team A’s first innings total by at least 200
runs, the captain of Team A may (but is not required to) order Team
B to
follow on. If he does so, Team B must
commence its second batting innings immediately, that is, before
Team A commences its second innings. Thus, the usual order of the
third and fourth innings is reversed: Team B will bat in the third
innings, and Team A will bat in the fourth.
It is extremely rare for a team which has been forced to follow on
to win the match.
This has occurred only three times in the
history of Test cricket, and on each occasion Australia has been
the losing side: to England (325 and 437) in 1894, to England (174
and 356) at Headingley
Stadium
in 1981 and to India (171 and 657/7 dec) in
2001.
The new ball
After 80 overs, the captain of the bowling side has the option to
take a
new ball. A new ball, which is
harder than an old ball, generally favours fast bowlers who can
make it bounce at a greater range of (unpredictable) heights and
speeds. Spin bowlers or those using
reverse swing prefer an old ball. The captain
may delay the decision to take the new ball if he wishes to
continue with his spinners (because the pitch favours spin), though
in general the new ball is looked forward to as an opportunity to
introduce new life into the bowling with more chance of taking
wickets.
End of the game
A Test match may end in one of five scenarios:
- If all four innings have been completed. In this case, the
winner is the team with the highest aggregate run total, and the
winning margin is the difference between the two teams’ run totals
(for example, "Team A wins by 140 runs"). It is possible that a
Test match which ends in this fashion may be tied (i.e., if the aggregate run total
of each team is equal). However, such an occurrence is rare; in
over 1,700 Test matches played only two
have been tied.
- If, during the fourth innings, the aggregate run total of the
team batting surpasses that of its opposition (which has already
batted twice). In this case the batting team is the winner, and the
winning margin is the number of wickets remaining in the final
innings (for example, "Team B wins by five wickets").
- If, after completion of the third innings, the aggregate run
total of the team which has batted twice (Team A, or Team B if the
follow-on has been enforced) is less than the first innings total
of the other team. In this case the team which has batted once is
the winner, and the winning margin is "an innings" plus the
difference in aggregate run totals of the teams (for example, "Team
A wins by an innings and 96 runs").
- If a team refuses to take the field of play, in which case the
umpires may award the match to the opposing team. Such an
occurrence has only happened once in Test cricket, in the 2006
Fourth Test between England and Pakistan, when Pakistan refused
to take the field after tea on day four. The umpires awarded the
match to England, in accordance with Law 21.3, a decision which was
ultimately (in 2009) upheld by the ICC.
- If none of the above results have been achieved, but the
maximum allotted time for the match has been reached (usually, the
end of the fifth day). In this scenario, the match is a draw and neither team wins, regardless
of the relative positions of the teams at the time.
Competitions
Test cricket is almost always played as a series of matches between
two countries, with all matches in the series taking place in the
same country (the host). The number of matches in a series varies
from one to six. Often there is a perpetual trophy traded between a
pair of teams when series between them are won or lost. There have
been two exceptions to the bilateral nature of Test cricket: the
1912 Triangular
Tournament, a three-way competition between England, Australia
and South Africa (hosted by England), and the
Asian Test Championship, an event
held in 1998-99 and 2001-02.
Until recently, Test series between international teams were
organized between the two national cricket organizations with
umpires provided by the home team.
However, with the entry of more countries into Test cricket
competition, and a wish by the
ICC to maintain public
interest in Tests (which was flagging in many countries with the
introduction of
one-day cricket), a
new system was added to Test match competition. A rotation system
that sees all ten Test teams playing each other over a six-year
cycle, and an official
ranking system (with
a trophy held by the highest-ranked team) were introduced. It was
hoped by the ICC that the new ranking system would help maintain
interest in Test cricket in nations where one-day cricket is more
popular.
In the new system, umpires are provided by the ICC. An
elite panel of eleven umpires has
been established, and the panel is supplemented by an additional
International Panel
that includes three umpires named by each Test-playing country. The
elite umpires officiate almost all Test matches (usually not a Test
involving their home country); the International Panel is only
employed when the cricketing calendar is filled with activity, or
for one-day internationals (ODIs).
See also
References
- Lifeless pitches should not be accepted, The
Telegraph, Retrieved on 1 August 2009
- Knight's return to proving ground, Independent,
Retrieved on 1 August 2009
- Adam Gilchrist's Cowdrey Lecture, 2009,
Cricinfo, Retrieved on 1 August 2009
- Ashes report
- http://www.cricinfo.com/ireland/content/story/432837.html
- The Laws of Cricket - Law 15.8
- ICC Standard Test Match Playing Conditions
("Playing Conditions") cl 16.1.1
- Playing Conditions cl 16.2
- The Laws of Cricket - Law 12
- Playing Conditions cl 12.2
- The Laws of Cricket - Law 13
-
http://www.howstat.com/cricket/statistics/Matches/MatchWinAfterFollowon.asp
- The Laws of Cricket - Law 5; Playing Conditions cl 5.4
- The Laws of Cricket - Law 21.3
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/01/england-pakistan-oval
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/5268560.stm
Bibliography
- Ground Rules - A Celebration of Test Cricket, Barney
Spender & David Gower, Dakini Books Ltd (Nov 2003), ISBN
0953703266
- The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Sir Donald Bradman
(Foreword), Bill Frindall (Editor), Headline Book Publishing
(1995), ISBN 0747211183
- Marylebone Cricket Club (2003), The Laws of Cricket. Retrieved on
2009-03-30.
- International Cricket Council (2008), Standard Test Match Playing Conditions.
Retrieved on 2009-09-11.
External links
and Bangladesh
.
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