steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
I wouldn't necessarily say it's the main thing to focus on but I do think the practice match matters. It's a much more general point than just this one as well. For a sport to flourish it needs to be competitive and test cricket is very heavily weighted in favour of the home team at the best of times, which produces too many one-sided matches and that can't be good for anyone. There should be a mutual agreement to put out decent opposition for warm up games - so could be the equivalents of the Lions team and the County Champions - and no nobbling the conditions. I'm sometimes sceptical of the 'game for gentlemen' stuff about cricket's past but there's a self-interest element here too that goes beyond just winning the immediate series.
Yeah, but self-interest comes from the win at all costs mentality associated with elite level professional sport. For years cricket has sought to exploit that through the nature of pitches skewed in favour of the home bowling attack to the type of ball used. I am not defending it, but unfortunately it is now baked into international sport and cricket is no different.
The long form of the game is really embattled and unfortunately the big three or four- India, Australia, S Africa, England- are in a different universe in terms of resources, experience etc than the other test playing nations. That balance really has to be addressed and measures put in place to rectify it if the long form is to have a meaningful future, as well as bringing on the newer test playing members and trying to encourage others to reach test level. Domestically it may be too late for county cricket in its current form- sadly.
The "game for gentlemen" stuff was always birthday caird pish.