Latest news with #TimWigmore
Hindustan Times
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Tim Wigmore: 'India now has a much better idea of how to nurture fast bowlers'
What was the idea behind this book and how is it different from others on the history and growth of Test cricket? Author Tim Wigmore (Courtesy Hachette) The idea was simple: to write a global, narrative history of Test cricket. This book didn't really exist before: there had been lots of brilliant books about individual countries, players and series, but not one that told the story of Test cricket over 148 years. The book is about the players, matches and politics that have shaped the game. I was blown away by the number of legends who agreed to chat and were so generous with their time. In writing the book, I was led by a sense of story. So, what actually shaped the sport? As such, I zoom in a lot on the most influential characters and moments. In an Indian context, for instance, this means Tiger Pataudi gets much more coverage than some batsmen who averaged more, because Tiger was a crucial figure in the story of Indian cricket. 400pp, ₹899; Hachette India You highlight Test cricket's remarkable ability to adapt and endure. In your view, how crucial is it for the format's continued relevance that player development pathways, rule changes, and the adoption of modern equipment and technology evolve in step with the changing nature of the game and its audience? It is odd when people describe Test cricket as a conservative sport. As the book explores, the game has always evolved. Since the first Test in 1877, matches have been scheduled to last three, four, five days or six – or even 'timeless', played to a finish. Overs have been four, five, six or eight balls. Matches have been day or day-night, played with a red ball or pink. Pitches have been covered and uncovered; helmets have transformed the game, as has the Decision Review System. Now, we also have the World Test Championship, which could prove one of the most influential inventions of all -- if it is given the best opportunity to flourish. But it allows teams like New Zealand and South Africa to reach the pinnacle of Test cricket, which is brilliant. You have interviewed legendary players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Pat Cummins, Michael Holding, Muthiah Muralidaran, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Chappell, Dale Steyn, and Rahul Dravid for this book. Was there some unanimous perspective or suggestions from these players on the development and future of Test cricket, especially on how to preserve the Test format given the rapid transformation of the game and the growth of more popular T20 cricket leagues in multiple cricket playing nations? The greatest sense I got from talking to all these legends was their respect for Test cricket – and simply how hard Test cricket is to play. They have a real sense that their careers are part of a much broader story. If this is conveyed to future generations, that gives Test cricket a chance to continue to thrive – as long as administrators give it better support. You write in the introduction that fears about Test cricket's future are not misplaced. How has the emergence of shorter, more commercially attractive T20 tournaments like IPL etc. affected Test cricket and what kind of reforms can help safeguard the future of this longer format? As I show in the book, Test cricket has always felt under threat: people were worried about its future before World War One. But T20's emergence means the need to provide more context and narrative to Tests is greater than ever. The World Test Championship should be central to plans to make Test cricket more vibrant. The points system is far too confusing. I would advocate some simple tweaks. While each team continues to play 6 series – 3 home and 3 away – each two-year cycle, they should all play the same number of games. The way to do this is to make each series 3 Tests of four days each. You could then have three points for a win, and one point for a draw – everyone could then understand the league table, and a much greater sense of narrative would develop. I'd also like to see more knockout Test cricket. Perhaps the top team on the league table could go to the WTC final, with the teams second and third in the league table playing off in a semi-final. Or you could even have two semi-finals, and a real sense of a festival of Test cricket. More knockout Tests could be the latest aspect of the format's continued evolution. Before anyone asks, you could continue playing five-match series – but only the first three Tests in a series would count towards the WTC. Since BCCI has emerged as the richest board in the world, and given how IPL generates billions for the Indian cricket board every year, how do you see such economic dominance impacting the future of Test cricket beyond India? How can Test cricket be prioritized in an era dominated by lucrative T20 cricket leagues? India, just like Australia and England, need attractive opponents to play against. This will attract more spectators to grounds, and most importantly more people to watch on TV, making broadcasting rights worth more. A strong South Africa and New Zealand is good for other countries too. To ensure the Test game is as strong as possible throughout the world, revenue needs to be shared more equally. When West Indies tour England or India they don't receive any money; touring sides should receive, say, 25% of revenue. The ICC's distribution of cash should also be more equal. And there should be clear windows – 3 or 4 a year of say 3 weeks – when there's no other cricket in Full Member nations other than Tests. This would only amount to about 3 months a year, but it would help Test nations to be at full strength. Some countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are playing fewer Test matches than Australia, England, or India in the new World Test Championship cycle. How do you see such reduced fixtures for some nations impacting the global appeal of Test cricket. What steps can ICC and major boards take to address these concerns so as to ensure an equitable growth of Test cricket across all Test playing nations? As mentioned above, my suggested tweaks to the WTC would see all teams in the competition playing 18 Tests (which would be 4 days) every two years. That's a very decent chunk per side, helping each country to develop. With that minimum, then it would be absolutely fine for Australia, England and India to play more. Your book also touches on the important role played by fast bowling in determining the outcomes of Test matches. How have the changes and advances in training, technology, fitness and analytics shaped the growth of fast bowling in the modern era? And how important is developing a robust and lucrative domestic red ball structure in order to produce quality fast bowlers for Test cricket? That's right. I argue that, throughout history, fast bowling is the single most important factor in winning Test matches. I explore how fast bowling has been central to India's transformation as a Test nation, enabling the side to thrive away from home too. Incredibly, Sachin Tendulkar won only one of his first 44 away Tests: India's fast bowling wasn't good enough to support his batting. 50 years ago, when Kapil Dev attended an India Under-19 coaching camp, he complained about only being given two dry chapattis and a spoonful of vegetables for lunch, saying that this was no diet for a fast bowler. 'There are no fast bowlers in India,' a board official at the camp told Kapil. Now, India have a battery of fast bowlers who can thrive throughout the world. The MRF Pace Foundation launched in 1987: the first academy focused upon bowling fast. Now, the country has a series of private academies, which often sponsor the best young talent. Indian Premier League teams have extensive scouting networks: domestic quicks are particularly in-demand. Domestic pitches have also become much more friendly to fast bowlers; Rahul Dravid told me this was one of the most significant changes in helping India succeed away from home. At all levels, India has a much better idea of how to nurture fast bowlers than ever before. How can Test cricket be made more attractive and lucrative for promising players as many young players across multiple nations tend to prefer shorter formats given the greater financial rewards provided by a number of T20 cricket leagues? The concept of a WTC final is brilliant. Being at Lord's last week, you really got a sense of what the match meant to both the players and fans. So, the way forward should be to have clear windows a year when there's no major cricket beyond Tests, so players don't have to choose between franchise and Test cricket. Players generally want to play both. Now, administrators need to make it easier for players to avoid having to choose between playing Tests and earning more money in franchise cricket. Majid Maqbool is an independent journalist based in Kashmir.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
Tim Wigmore's definitive guide to test cricket
Test cricket is on the cusp of its 150th anniversary. For the first time, Test Cricket: A History tells the full, gripping story of the players and stories that have shaped the game's evolution since 1877 Photo: Tim Wigmore's new book Test Cricket: A History tells the story of the game's evolution since its inception in the 1870s. It includes interviews with some of cricket's most significant figures, including Sachin Tendulkar, Pat Cummins, Michael Holding, Ian Chappell and Dale Steyn. By a cover stroke of luck, Tim has just spent five days at Headingly cricket ground, in Leeds, where England have made the second highest run chase in their history to beat India five wickets - the match ending in the last few hours. Tim speaks to Kathryn from Central London.
Time of India
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Pataudi was crucial for Indian cricket. Not in favour of trophy being renamed: Tim Wigmore
Tim Wigmore's 'Test Cricket: A History' — the journey of red-ball cricket since its inception in 1877 — has become a much talked-about book on the cricket circuit in recent times. And with the thrilling WTC final between Australia and South Africa at Lord's being followed by Shubman Gill's new-look team taking on England in a five-Test series, Dwaipayan Datta caught up with Wigmore, discussing the future of the purest format of the game, India's chances and a lot more. Excerpts: There is a lot of talk about T20 killing Test cricket. But after the format became popular, the number of long-winding draws have come down in Tests. What's your opinion — are T20s a boon or bane for Tests? I think Test cricket is more exciting than it's ever been. We're seeing higher run-rates, more games getting over in four days and very few draws nowadays. Scoops, ramps, and reverse ramps are all now quite standard shots in Test cricket. Defensive batting probably has got a little bit worse, but I think almost everything else has got better. Even on the bowling front, you can see Jasprit Bumrah taking wickets with slower balls, yorkers etc, which are T20 tools. So, yes, probably something has been lost, but a lot more has been gained which is actually adding to the spectacle. What is your take on the proposed two-tier system in Test cricket to make it more competitive? Won't it make Test cricket an exclusive club, which is essentially against the essence of sport? I think, firstly, we are forgetting that last year there were quite a few Test upsets — the biggest being West Indies beating Australia in Brisbane. Then Bangladesh beat Pakistan, we saw Sri Lanka winning in England and then New Zealand beating India 3-0. Having said that, I don't mind the two-tier idea itself, but the worry is that this specific proposal seemed to be about getting the big three (India, England and Australia) playing each other even more, which I do not think Test cricket needs. Rather, I do think four-day Tests are worth exploring now with the World Test Championship series having three games each per series — three points for a win, one point for a draw. Of course, when Australia, England and India play each other, they can just have extra matches outside the Test Championship structure. There has been a recent report saying the WTC Final will lose a lot of money because India aren't there. What is your take on India becoming the economic superpower in cricket and calling all the shots? If you look at the history of cricket, England and Australia had far too much power historically and they didn't use that power well. So, what you don't want to see is a bad system of England and Australia having too much power replaced by a system of India having too much power. You need to have a balance. Clearly, the Indian market is at the heart of cricket, but we also need to diversify the sport. Recently, the Pataudi Trophy for the India- England Test series was renamed the Tendulkar -Anderson Trophy. How do you see the development and given the fact that a chapter of your book is devoted to Pataudi, how important do you think he was in the context of Indian cricket? I am not particularly in favour of the name change and I think he was crucial for Indian cricket. The fact that he was quite a good Test match player playing with one eye is in itself a remarkable story. His decision to play with the famous spin quartet, the importance that he gave to fielding and making India a very difficult team to beat at home were all significant. There's a kind of irony that he was deposed as captain before India got their twin successes in West Indies and England in 1971 — the ultimate triumph for a team that he developed. Do you see shades of Pataudi in Virat Kohli's captaincy? The way he brought in the four-spinner theory to Indian cricket, Kohli showed the courage to play with four pacers which in a way changed the course of Indian Test cricket. It's a very interesting question — when Pataudi chose four spinners for the first time (Edgbaston 1967), he knew that wasn't the best option, but he did that because those were the best bowlers he had. But he was always clear that the most important thing was to get more fast bowlers and develop them — so his strategy was more pragmatic than ideological. By the time of Kohli, actually there's been this revolution in fast bowling in India, which has a lot of factors behind it, including the Board's initiative to make pitches for domestic cricket conducive for pacemen. Who do you think has been the most influential figure in Indian cricket? Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Kohli...? No, if you ask me to pick one, I'll go for Kapil Dev. You zoom all the way back and here is Kapil Dev, all of 15-16, in an Indian camp. And he's just been given some chapati for lunch. And he says, 'You know, that's not enough to bowl fast', and the Board official just laughs at him saying, 'We don't have any fast bowlers in India'. That was the kind of Indian fast-bowling culture then. Within 18 months of his Test debut in 1978, Kapil became the first Indian fast bowler to get 100 Test wickets. He made batters across the world acknowledge that India can produce fast bowlers and more importantly, he changed the character of Indian cricket. Bazball has been a gamechanger for English cricket and it's going to be the topic of discussion through the summer with India touring. Can it stand up to the skill of the Indian bowling attack led by Bumrah? Bazball is a real phenomenon; it has helped England go from No. 8 to No. 3-4 in the world, which is quite an improvement, but it isn't a revolutionary record like the Australians of early 2000s had. I think England have slightly refined their method in the last 18 months or so. During this India series, it will be interesting to see how England batters deal with wrist-spin. I think Kuldeep Yadav can be a very big factor for India. I hope Bumrah will play at least four Tests, but my prediction is 3-2 in favour of England. And finally, if you have to make an all-time best Test XI, from 1877 to now, what would it look like? Well, this isn't exactly going by records, it's what I feel is the best. I will open with Jack Hobbs and Sunil Gavaskar, followed by Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Garry Sobers, Imran Khan, Adam Gilchrist, Wasim Akram , Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. In your book, you have written about how in the early 20th century, the ICC (then Imperial Cricket Council), didn't include the US and Argentina. Was that a chance missed and how do you see the recent efforts of promoting cricket in the US? At that point, if you weren't part of the British Empire, you were not eligible to be part of ICC. Cricket was very strong in the Philadelphia area and they had some of the best cricketers of that period. So that was a real chance to grow that was missed and we see that quite often in Test cricket because administrators are more focused on excluding teams — something that has happened with Kenya in the recent there's a new push to promote cricket in America, but they are not going to play Test cricket, that's pretty clear. However, there is quite a big market there and cricket can get quite a lot of money from the US without it being one of the top four or five sports there. As a Test historian, how painful is it to see the decline of the long-format game in the West Indies? It is very sad. We obviously think of their great team from the 1970s onwards, but they were probably the best team in the '60s as well. Even from 1980-95, they were actually very strong. There are a lot of factors behind the decline — money being the most important. It's a high-cost, low-income region, it costs so much to travel between the different islands. And they're not able to generate a huge amount from local sponsors. It is important to share the money from broadcasting rights with West Indies cricket. Cricket has still not died there, but it's getting there.
The Hindu
26-05-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Tim Wigmore's new book chronicles 150 years of test cricket history
In his introduction to Test Cricket A History, author Tim Wigmore says the book is 'meant to be read sequentially, as narrative history.' It is helpful advice for taking on 539-pages of a timeline which covers almost 150 years. Test cricket nuts could read it in any manner they like. Back to front, sideways or a languorous cherry-pick of themes, events, personalities through 35 chapters and once again fall head over heels with this capricious, alluring sporting form. Which may appear archaic and out-of-step but has been, as Wigmore shows and tells, adaptive and reflective of its time. It is cricket that held the first officially-recognised international sporting contest. Ever. USA vs Canada, Manhattan 1844. Everything — world cups, continental championships, globalised sporting hoo-ha, Olympic medals tables, bitter national rivalries — only sprang into life later. Enough preening. That Manhattan match over three days was not considered a Test — that came only 33 years later — but that factoid needed an airing. The duration of Tests has gone from three to four to five days to timeless (on till 1945 in Australia). Today they look like three-day high-speed confrontations with much mulling over returning to a four-days format. Again. Falling allure? In March 2026 when it will hit 150, Test cricket faces perhaps its roughest tide. Earlier this year, the World Cricketers Association released its annual report and player survey findings interviewing 328 players, male and female, mostly international. Forty-nine per cent of them believed that Test cricket is the most important format to play in. The bracket that followed was this: the 49% was 'down from 86% in 2019.' Over the last six years, the relevance of Test cricket has fallen to just below half amongst its very practitioners. The format may have often been suspected of dying every decade but we are perhaps at its most critical moment and not merely because it is up against a shorter format. That has happened before — with 50-over cricket and one-day internationals. Today, it is Twenty20 franchise cricket that has burgeoning commercial value and popular appeal amongst players and its audience. The prospect of T20 eating into chunks off the international calendar, replacing bilateral with franchise competition and hoovering up young talent is very real. Cricket hinges its global ambitions on T20 as it returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles 2028. We have been here before and Wigmore has proof that we — aka administrators — stuffed it. At the turn of the century the United States was 'almost certainly among the four strongest cricket nations' (plus Australia, England and Canada) even as the game grew in Argentina. 'Through the mixture of neglect and deliberate exclusion, the chance to develop a bigger and more geographically diverse game was lost.' The inclusive, expansive world view of the book needs to be the lens through which Test cricket can tackle the decade ahead. Not the Big Three cling-wrapping themselves and Tests into tinier and tinier cliques. Fresh eyes The book's biggest asset is that it is a 150-year-old story told through a young voice. Wigmore, 34, has grown up with 21st century cricket and is free of the love and loathings of the previous century. Little is considered 'holy' and therefore, even less is deemed tainted. This frees the book of many tired first-world readings of issues that have divided the game and the refusal to look objectively at T20. Take one random example: there are enough references of how poor umpiring affected outcomes and careers and therefore neither neutral umpiring nor DRS (decision review system) is anathema. Wigmore tells of a Royal Statistical Society paper which analysed Tests between 1986 to 2012: with two home umpires, visiting teams were 16% more likely to be given out lbw. With one home and one neutral the figure fell to 10% and with two neutrals 1%. The book is full of such gems. Like how scientists have proved that swing bowling has very little to do with cloud cover. Reverse swing, with or without bestial ball tampering, 'has aided one of the most beguiling sights in Test cricket.' Then there's the chucking controversy that demonised Muthiah Muralitharan at top volume. Only for sports labs to discover that bowlers with even the most 'pure' actions were also 'bent' which then led to a change in the law. The commonly-bandied false-ism is that this was done 'to accommodate Murali'. The fact is that the law was discovered to be outmoded and needed a fresh benchmark. These are only some slices of the feast offered by this vibrant, global history of the oldest form of cricket. Told across decades and vast spans of geography, using history, memoir, stats, science and the voices of greats living and gone, it is destined to be a classic. Test Cricket is in a word, monumental. If you're looking for two, add terrific. The reviewer spent three decades reporting sport for various organisations, but now follows and writes about sport on her own terms. Test Cricket A History Tim Wigmore Hachette India ₹899
