Just to let you know, not everybody’s favorite English cricketer has opened a Twitter-account.
Want to find more cricketers on Twitter?
Enjoy.
Kevin Pietersen starts tweeting
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Monthly Archives: July 2010
Share your thoughts on how to make Test cricket better
Last week I posted 5 steps to make Test cricket better. I will be posting more on the topic, but am also looking to learn from you.
What are your thoughts on how to make Test cricket better?
Post your ideas in the comments or add one at the special Uservoice forum. You can also just vote on one of the ideas, just click on the link below.
Join the conversation!
Eurosport to broadcast Champions League Twenty20 online
I’m a bit late with the news, but Eurosport bought the rights to air the Champions League Twenty20.
The tournament will be broadcast on British Eurosport in the UK, on Eurosport2 in the rest of Europa but – more importantly – Eurosport will also broadcast the tournament online with their Eurosport Player.
The 2010 Champions League tournament will be played in South Africa from September 10 to September 26, and will feature the the top T20 teams from India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies.
The case for a second division in Test cricket
Two days ago, I posted 5 steps to make Test cricket better. In today’s post, I want go a little deeper into the first suggestion: have the current Full Members (who have Test status) and the top Associate Members with Afghanistan (officially an Affiliate Member) play in a multi-tier competition structure. A second – and third division – for Test cricket.
In my view, ‘minor’ Test-playing nations Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are better of playing and competing against sides of similar quality then being trashed by top-sides as Australia or India.
I know there are upsets every now and again, but they are just that, upsets. More often than not due to their opponents playing well under their best.
Generally speaking, Bangladesh are out of their league at Test-level.
Bangladesh versus the best Associate Members are a complete different matter as last weeks results show. Ireland beat them at Belfast five days ago and yesterday Bangladesh lost to an impressive Holland.
Off course Bangladesh will win most games against this opposition, but even when winning they are more competitive in these games than when losing to the top Test-playing countries.
And you learn more and faster in a competitive environment. The progress made by some of the Associate Members – who thanks to the ICC’s High Performance Program have played more cricket against each other in the last years – is prove of that.
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will benefit from playing more games against Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan, Kenya and the Netherlands, for who, in turn, the tougher challenge of playing Bangladesh and Zimbabwe regularly helps closing the gap between them and the Full Members even more.
And having a second and third division also means having play-offs for promotion and relegation. But since I am planning to write a series of posts about this subject, more on that later. 
5 Steps to make Test cricket better
The ICC is thinking about introducing a Test championship in 2013. While I support the move by the ICC to make Test cricket more interesting, I believe a play-off between the top four of the existing rankings table is not nearly good enough.
For Test cricket to survive and for cricket in general to expand beyond its traditional strongholds, the ICC needs to overhaul the current system.
In all fairness, I admit I don’t have a blueprint of how international cricket should look in – lets say – 2020, but here are 5 steps to make Test cricket better and keep it alive for years to come:
- Let Test cricket be part of a two- or three-tier competition structure, complete with promotion and relegation
- Give more games Test status
- Have a Test championship
- Upgrade Test cricket
- Make use of the technology available
Zimbabwe and Bangladesh would be much better of playing Tests against Ireland, Afghanistan or even the Netherlands than lose each and every time against the likes of Australia and England. What exactly are they learning now?
Currently, there are 10 Full and 6 Top Associate Members in the ICC. Afghanistan – officially an Affiliate Member – should be part of a multi-tier competition too. The math is really easy: two divisions with 6 and one – the bottom-tier – with 5 teams. Next step; use the current rankings to fill in the teams for each division. Done.
Several divisions also mean a less cramped future tours program-calendar, which would be beneficial to cricket in general.
Yes, call it Test cricket, even at the second tier. Why not? I am all for traditions, but not when they are holding back countries (Ireland), players (Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce choose England because they wanted to play Test cricket, nothing more) and cricket in general to develop further.
Is there really that much difference between Bangladesh or Zimbabwe and Ireland in terms of quality? Not that I have noticed. So when these countries meet in a five-day game, why not grant it Test status?
I am not talking about promoting them to Full Members – that would probably be to much for the power-hungry national boards – just promote the status of their games in the longest format. Not unlike the recent ‘upgrade’ to ODI-status for the Top Associate Members.
Not such a bad idea by the ICC. (And not completely original either.)
There should also be promotion/relegation play-offs between the numbers one and numbers last of the different divisions.
I look at Tests being played under the floodlights or the refferal system as ‘upgrades’ of the game. They do not alter the heart of the game, but make it move forward.
Traditions born out of 19th century limitations (“the sun is going down so we have to stop playing”) are not what Test cricket is about. Just like the discarded and the often farcical differentiation between Players and Gentlemen, cricket should adept and embrace new developments.
Don’t do it like the FIFA. We have got the technology, so use it.
It is important to create a level playing field, even if it means the ICC and country boards have put in the extra money to get it available. At least in every game at the top-tier. Using the referral system every now and then is not benefiting the game.
There you have it, my 5 cents .. Have anything to add or think all of the above is completely useless? Let me know in the comments!
A bloggers dream come true; my name above an article on Cricinfo.com
It is a good feeling to see your name on cricinfo.com 
A few days ago I submitted a slightly altered version of a post on this blog to Cricinfo’s Inbox. Today I got an email from Cricinfo to let me know the piece was published. You can read it here.
Too bad there is no link to this blog, they never do that on Inbox, but I am thrilled nonetheless.
A funny detail is that they changed the title. (I didn’t submit one, so the credit for that goes completely to Cricinfo’s editors) It is now titled WCL matches hit by bad timing, but looking at the url it was first titled A case of bad timing.
Now the first is probably a better headline, but don’t you agree the second one is slightly cooler?
Not that I really care. I got published on Cricinfo.com.
