Seasonal Ranting

According to the Future Tours Program (FTP), South Africa are due to tour India later this the season. The question is, why haven't any proposed dates and venues been released? We already know the schedule of the next World Twenty20, and the tentative fixtures for international cricket in just about every other country through June 2010. Apparently, the upcoming visit of the world's number-one test side hasn't registered a blip on the BCCI's radar yet.

I accept that test cricket will never garner the levels of attention it once did. But I find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that similar-minded cricket lovers in the UK and Australia have their seasons of test cricket structurally laid out for them. That they have an annual tradition to savour, and we, in India, aren't sure if there is a "season" any more. That they get to speculate on the nature of surfaces at Headingley in July and Perth in December, while all we get is a stadium rotation system about as transparent as the Duckworth-Lewis method. That they can enjoy weeks of wonderment and debate on the competence of the opposition. That they get to experience the joy of anticipation, while we're trying to get over the excesses of T20 leagues.

That - anticipation - is what it's all about. Organisational indifference aside, it's getting harder to find people to talk old-school cricket with. To me, the impending arrival of a touring party is supposed to set off discussions and predictions among friends and cricket-buddies: How do the current crop of visitors stack up against their predecessors? Have they ever won a series on Indian soil? Who's leading their attack this time? Who will be opening the innings for them? What's their track record against spin like? Which venues are likely to favour them?

Sri Lanka, who begin their tour today, are a worthy test side with much to prove. A first-ever test win in India beckons, but most observers couldn't care less. Where, for example, is the speculation over who will finally step into the shoes of Sanath Jaysuriya and Chaminda Vaas? Will the Mumbai public be ready with a farewell applause for Muttaiah Muralitharan, during what should be his final test appearance in this country? That Ahmedabad and Kanpur should be chosen as test venues at the expense of Eden Gardens speaks for itself. Dileep Premachandran, writing in the Guardian, has described how there's been "no effort to create a genuine cricketing culture" in India. I don't see test cricket being paid such lip-service anywhere else, not even in the Caribbean. It's unfortunate that the spreading of the limited-overs and T20 gospel should go hand-in-hand with the alienation of test cricket's loyal fanbase.

Mercifully, the Lankans are scheduled to play three tests, a rarity in this age of two-test rubbers which get to call themselves "series". I hope more than ever for a set of competitive matches, if only to remind Indian viewers of what they've been missing.