Test Matches on Television

Two relatively sparsely populated countries have played a gripping Two test series.One that was followed by cricket followers round the world.SABC 3 was the host boadcaster and channels around the world were showing it.The Time difference was such that at least a session and a half could be viewed in India in the evenings.Which of course has been the reason that I have followed Cummins and Philander more than Yadav and Ashwin ,the local debutants this Indian Winter.And this gives me hope for the future of Test Cricket.Inspite of the naysayers and the dwindling Test audiences, test Cricket will never die.It makes so much of low cost programming available to a not very committed audience worldwide that it offers tremondous flexibility.

One can get up in the morning to a test match in New Zealand or Australia and watch for sometime and come back to the match only the next morning, having kept up with basic details on the Net/news.It would be night time in India for the matches in the West Indies and evenings for those in UK/South Africa .The timings in different zones would vary but what is unique is that the Test Match in one's own country would be the least watched on working days except when school children and school teachers return usually after the Tea session.Hence Test Match of high quality or on certain days of any quality would have a passing interest.To that extent a low turn out is not a worry.Since immediate result is not very relevant spending whole days in front of the Television set is not required.
Moreover,Test matches can be dovetailed with international holidays and in case of India with domestic holidays.Consider a holiday in the hills of Himachal for a week for a thousand families in summer for a Test Match involving India and a top contestant outside the FTP.Test Matches can therefore retain a niche.After all inspite of Chetan Bhagat,Amitabh Ghose is also read.Some readers read both.So with Test Matches and the audience.