AMERICAN TV executives must have watched the final day of England’s drawn Test in Auckland wondering what all the fuss was about.
The premise of Test cricket must be baffling to our friends over the pond – that a sporting contest could be played over five days and end with no result.
It goes against everything the Americans believe in.
Basketball, American football, baseball, ice hockey – they all have over-time or the equivalent of penalties built in to the rules to ensure there is no such thing as a tied game.
In the American mindset, sport needs a winner and a loser to guarantee a thrilling finale.
How could it be possible to draw in the crowds if they don’t get that sense of closure?
Well, I would say that any England fan who stayed up through the night watching or listening to events unfold in New Zealand would be able to put forward a pretty decent defence of Test cricket.
The willpower and steely nerve needed to bat through three sessions on the final day of a Test series with just six wickets in hand is something special and deserves respect.
It was only the third time in the long history of the sport that it had been done and Matt Prior and Monty Panesar were right to celebrate like they had won once the final ball had been bowled.
Of course, any country with designs on being the world’s top Test-playing team should not be going wild after drawing a three-match series 0-0 in New Zealand.
But, as a spectacle, the final day in Auckland has to go down as a fine example of sporting theatre and deserves to be celebrated in those terms.
BBC cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew, put it perfectly when he said: “The dramatic finish is something only Test cricket can provide.
“It is why it is the purest form of cricket and why it stands out, as far as I’m concerned, above all others.
“It had all the ingredients to make a fantastic finish. Test cricket can throw that up. That is why it needs to be preserved, looked after and respected.”
The truth is that, as long as Test cricket cannot guarantee exciting finishes like the one witnessed in Auckland, it will never have true global appeal.
But when all the ingredients come to the boil like that, I think it is fair to say that few other sporting formats can match if for nerve-tingling drama.
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