Test Retirement

There was a time when players used to retire from cricket at the end of their career. However a new concept has begun to raise it’s ugly head; “Test retirement”. The second announcement in a week of a prominent cricketer came today when Chaminda Vaas announced that he was retiring from test cricket to focus on Twenty20 and Limited Overs cricket. This coming of course, off the back of the much publicised announcement from Andrew Flintoff of exactly the same thing.

It comes as little surprise for this generation of players. Test cricket is a long cruelling game of stamina and can quite easily take it’s toll on the body, so it’s natural to understand why players like Flintoff who has struggled with injuries throughout his career would clearly look to find a way of extending it. Having a long career in cricket can be very lucrative these days, with all the money from the IPL it has never been a better time to play cricket.

In fact, the pay difference between playing test cricket and Twenty20 cricket is so great, that it’s getting to a point where Test cricket is actually becoming a bit of liability.

Look at the recent turmoil currently taking place with West Indian cricket. Pay is the central problem at the moment in the dispute – one can easily speculate the catalyst for this dispute, or at the very least one of the major pain points for some of the high profile players. The Test series between England and the West Indies. It was not part of the Future Tours Program, and the Windies had just recently defeated the English on home soil in a war of attrition 1-0 series. With Sri Lanka pulling out because of their players commitments to the IPL, the Windies were a last minute replacement, and the impact of this meant that star players like Chris Gayle were suddenly out of pocket, significantly.

The reality of the situation is that, unless you’re Australian, playing Test cricket can actually cost you money. Only Australian’s have voluntarily omitted themselves from playing in the IPL, this year Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson were all high profile players that chose to make themselves unavailable for this competition – in fact Clarke and Johnson have steadfastly avoided even being a part of the draft process entirely. Is it really just a coincidence that these players are actually the top 4  money earners under lucrative Cricket Australia contracts?

It’s because they’re just about the only players who can afford it.

The Kat goes to the dogs

It looks like Simon Katich is about to become the unluckiest cricketer ever. With Matthew Hayden set to come back into the Australian Test team, Katich will probably be dropped despite the fact he has scored back-to-back test centuries. This has happened to Katich before when he was dropped following a century in order to make room for Andrew Symonds.

But it seems The Kat has a new relaxed attitude, and doesn't seem as bothered this time round, which helps his cause as I still think he should be a contender to be the next Australian Test captain. It's premature to look to Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey has the very unfortunate ODI captaincy record of 0 from 4 - including failing to defend 346, 336 and 272, as well as a 10 wicket loss - and who else is there if Ponting gets injured?

Just because a batsman is dynamic and young doesn't make him necessarily a good captain, and Clarke has no pedigree. Mark Taylor was one of our least dynamic batsmen, but in my opinion has been the best and most interesting captain during my lifetime. I'd love to see The Kat step up next time Ponting is injured, even if he is not in the current XI!