Test cricket can still thrive in a crowded marketplace if the right choices are made

Alas, what could have been the biggest Test match for decades was not to be, and blame can be found in a number of places.

Choose the Manchester weather, choose the lack of a reserve day, choose slow over rates, choose 11am start times, choose Ben Stokes’ lack of a declaration but the end result is the same: disappointment. 

Test cricket needs to choose life if it wants to remain relevant.

Attendances in England continue to be healthy, despite the extortionate cost, but if we look beyond these shores Test cricket is in trouble.

The world’s leading commercial driver, India, often play in front of sparse numbers at gargantuan stadiums, which regularly draw in crowds of over 100,000 for IPL matches.

Test cricket in England is still primarily a sell-out occasion but the ECB were so cash-strapped they gambled on The Hundred as a way to keep the coffers full. 

The entire Ashes summer schedule, for both  men and women, was based on giving the tournament a prime uninterrupted spot through the sporting summer. Never before, or again, if the administrators are to be believed, will a home Ashes series be so condensed but this year it lasted just seven weeks. 

According to the world’s top players, Test cricket is still the pinnacle of the sport, but it is nowhere near the most lucrative form of the game.

Short-format tournaments are here to stay, and rightly so. They are fantastic adverts for the sport and a brilliant way to engage with a younger audience.

The Hundred still has an unfamiliar feel to it, but it is essentially skilful bowlers facing off against top-quality batters, it is a fun spectacle, with the added bonus of matches available on free-to-air television.

Test cricket has no choice but to run alongside the limited-overs formats. However, with careful planning, the right funding and ample preparation time there is no reason that other series outside the Ashes cannot reach the same heights we have been privileged to watch this summer.

If cricket can get its act together and look beyond England, India and Australia, the possibility for high-quality series' is vast. 

Give New Zealand a proper shot at the big three - only one of the past eight series between the Kiwis and England has been more than a two-match affair, and  they have not played a five-match contest since 1958.  

Provide Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies the right backing and Test cricket could receive a new lease of life and not just a shot in the arm from the occasional humdinger of a tour.

World cricket needs strength in depth. Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan require proper support not just an afterthought. 

Even traditional powerhouses South Africa have been hugely let down by the Future Tours Programme - their next three-Test series is not until September 2026, with no five-match series scheduled at all.

Put on series between teams who have time to train, a fair share of revenue and promotion in the media and cricket would not need a Bazball era or a phenomenon like Stokes to spark it into life. 

The administrators need to get to grips with the sport as a whole and ensure Test cricket is for everyone, which requires the big three to look beyond their own finances and commit to three, four and five-Test series with the other nations.

And finally, for goodness sake, sort out the over rate . Had 27 overs not been lost to slow play during the first three days in Manchester, we might be in the grips of a fabulous decider. 

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