Fourth Test

Weather seems to be playing up for tomorrow's non-decisive final Test at the Oval. I think it would be a shame to lose the Test as Test Cricket is a gift from God, and anything that causes there to be less of it is evil. Why is Test Cricket wonderful?

1) It is played out over a nominal 5 days, allowing for the game to be the focus of ruthless tussles for dominance over an extended period.

2)It brings together the best players in the world under rules which are more equally balanced than ODI cricket, which is biased against good fast bowling.

3)It is sapping, emotionally exhausting stuff for the players. That's why it's called "Test" cricket.

4)The possibility of redemption (the second innings) after initial failure. Stepping up and saving the team after getting them into dire trouble a couple of days earlier.

5) It is a team game, to be sure; but the individuals concerned know there is nowhere to hide. You bat alone and bowl alone and if you are, say, Mohammad Yousuf or Panesar, however good you are at your chosen discipline, often you field alone too.

6) A single moment can change a series like a butterfly...you know the rest. And it could be something so totally minor, like Angus Fraser keeping out a Donald yorker. In that sense almost every delivery has the potential to be the equivalent of a penalty kick. No wonder Ramprakash was always so nervous.

7)The match can be all but won after five days of dominance...only for the something to go wrong at the very end - a wicket falls, or doesn't fall, a dodgy decision, a dropped catch. I can't think of many sports where unrelenting dominance can be, in the end, so pointless (if you compare effort to result I mean -for example Old Trafford 2005). Obviously football matches can change with 90+mins on the clock but it is 90 minutes, not five days of effort.

8)Test cricket is where the best players play their best. Yes, Ponting hit a 100 in the WC Final of 2003. But Tests are where the great players most often step up to the mark and the ones who don't quite cut the mustard, don't. Think of Shoaib this winter, or Vaughan and Trescothick, two players with average county records, both excellent Test players. Or think of Ramps, again creaming county bowling, but just not quite good enough at the highest level.

9) Test cricket is an extended human test of the crowd and umpires too. Who would have been Billy Bowden on that final day at Edgbaston? What a momentous decision to have to give after such a wonderful, sapping game.

10)As if all that weren't enough we have the random element too - weather and the toss.


What other sport could be more like life itself?