Among cricket fans, the debate between test and limited overs cricket fans can be a contentious one – and that was before the introduction of twenty20 cricket in 2003.
So-called ‘traditional’ cricket fans will always point to test matches as being the pinnacle for any cricketer. Test cricket, otherwise known as first-class cricket, is the oldest form of the sport with the earliest recorded international test match being played between the United States and Canada on 24 and 26 September 1844 (with poor weather inhibiting play on the 25th).
One-day cricket dates back to 1951 at the All India Pooja Cricket Tournament, with the first limited overs one-day matches played between first-class English teams taking place in 1962 (65-over innings). Those matches, played as part of the Midlands Knockout Cup, were a commercial success in terms of television coverage, sponsorship, and attendance.
Without the success of one-day cricket, there almost certainly wouldn’t have been T20 cricket, which was created to attract a new audience to the sport in 2003. The short format of the game condenses cricket down to 20 overs (120 balls) apiece with games generally lasting around two-and-a-half hours.
Test Match Cricket
At county/domestic level, test matches are played over four days while international test cricket is played over a maximum of five days. First-class cricket is a term that is used to refer to any match that lasts for three or more days.
A standard day of test cricket consists of three two-hour long sessions (morning, afternoon, and evening) with two breaks in between – 40 minutes at lunch and 20 minutes for tea. Depending on circumstances, these times may vary at the umpire’s discretion.
In the early days of cricket, international test matches would last usually three or four days until 1979 when five days was made the standard. Ashes series between England and Australia had been playing five-days test matches since 1948. Test matches had been known to go on for many more days, such as the 1939 test between England and South Africa that went into a 12th day before a draw was declared.
Test matches are considered a complete examination of a team’s playing ability and endurance, testing the strengths of the players on both sides – hence the name. England legend Geoffrey Boycott has been one of the most vocal in terms of his support for test cricket, saying that the format will always be regarded as the pinnacle of the sport.
One-Day Cricket
One-day matches are the format played in the Cricket World Cup; the sport’s quadrennial tournament played every four years since 1975. As English teams started playing limited-over cricket in 1962, seeing its popularity grow in doing so, more nations had begun to adopt the format domestically and the first one-day international (ODI) was played between England and Australia in 1971 on the fifth day of test match that has been aborted due to rain in Melbourne.
A big difference between test and limited-over cricket is the use of coloured kits. In test cricket, players wear traditional whites whereas in one-day and T20 teams wear colours in the same way as other team sports. This first happened at the World Series Cricket (WSC) in 1979 – the competition was also the first to introduce day/night matches and multiple camera angles for broadcasters.
Part of the original appeal of limited overs cricket to casual fans is that a game will reach a conclusion on the same day it begins, unlike test cricket. Due to the limited-overs, the style of cricket tends to be much more aggressive with batsmen and bowlers taking more risks.
Twenty20 Cricket
T20 is a much more recent addition to the sport and is the cause for great debate amongst fans. The criticism of T20 is that the format is geared around showcasing big-hitting batsmen and not testing all areas of the game, such as test and one-day cricket might.
The format gives teams 20 overs (120 balls) to score as many runs as possible, which means that not only do batsmen have fewer balls from which to score runs, but bowlers have fewer opportunities to get them out. T20 also places restrictions on where fielders can be placed – during the first six overs, a maximum of two fielders may stand outside of the 30-yard circle, increasing to a maximum of five for the remaining 14 overs. Additionally, the fielding team may have no more than fielders on the leg side at any time.
All test-playing nations have a domestic T20 competition and despite the game’s commercial success, opinion is split with many voicing concerns over T20’s impact on test cricket. As the T20 format differs so much from playing a test match, batsmen and bowlers must adapt their game to the format. This leads to many players choosing to specialise in one format or another and, with T20 offering more commercial value (particularly through the Indian Premier League), traditionalists worry that test matches will suffer consequently.
Choosing Which Cricket is for You
Whether you are a player or spectator, there is no right or wrong answer when choosing which of the three formats is for you. There is nothing to say that you must choose just one or two formats, either. All that matters is that you are enjoying your cricket.
In all forms, cricket trophies are up for grabs and an experience like no other. Regardless of whether you prefer the endurance and mental examination of a test match or the aggression that comes with T20 cricket, there is plenty to enjoy.