(REPEATING . ANALYSIS – 02DI10)
By Rupinder Singh
New Delhi, Jan 2 (.): Test cricket’s supposed death has been greatly exaggerated. The Melbourne Ashes Test ended in just two days, yet the stands told a very different story. Nearly 94,000 spectators filled the Melbourne Cricket Ground across those two days, refusing to play along with the long-running narrative that Test cricket is fading, irrelevant or incompatible with modern attention spans.
If anything, the match offered a reminder that duration has never been the true measure of the game’s vitality. England’s much-hyped ‘Bazball’ approach never quite ignited, but that was almost beside the point. What lingered was the soundscape: the Barmy Army singing, joking and rallying around a team that had already lost the Ashes. Their enthusiasm did not depend on the scoreboard. It depended on participation, belonging and the shared rituals that make sport meaningful even in defeat.
This, at its core, is what sport is meant to be. Winning matters, but it is not the only thing that matters.
Progress, learning, identity and experience are equally central. The Australian crowd understood this instinctively, responding not just to boundaries and wickets but to the occasion itself. The spectacle was not manufactured; it was cultivated through decades of trust between administrators, players and fans that attending a match will be worth their time and money. The contrast with India’s cricketing culture is becoming increasingly stark.
Earlier this year, during the India–England Test in Dharamshala, English supporters outnumbered Indian fans in the stands—even though England had already lost the series. Their presence spilled beyond the stadium, into the pubs and streets of McLeodganj, creating an atmosphere of joy, conversation and continuity. The match was an event, not merely a result.
India, meanwhile, remains fixated on trophies, particularly in limited-overs formats. The country continues to chase World Cups with an intensity that borders on obsession, often at the expense of the longer form. The irony is uncomfortable: India currently sits sixth in the ICC Test rankings, despite having reached the final in the competition’s first two editions.
The decline has not prompted widespread introspection, perhaps because Test cricket no longer commands emotional investment unless silverware is involved. This raises an uncomfortable question: does India support cricket, or does it support winning?
Test cricket demands patience, resilience and an appreciation of nuance—qualities that cannot be reduced to highlight reels or medal counts. When the crowd’s interest wanes unless victory is guaranteed, the sport itself becomes narrower, poorer and more transactional.
The Melbourne Test was a reminder that sport thrives when it is treated as a shared cultural experience rather than a results-driven commodity. Test cricket is not dying. It is simply asking to be loved for what it is, not judged solely by who wins.
(The writer is national champion athlete and a broadcast cricket commentator)
. KK