Australia vs India
\n SYDNEY
\nThe World Test Championship final between Australia and India at the Oval starts on Wednesday against a backdrop of fears for the long format given the growth of Twenty20 franchise leagues.
\nNot that there\u2019s anything new about cricket-lovers worrying about the future of their sport.
\nIndeed it was following an 1882 Test at the Oval, after Australia had inflicted England\u2019s first defeat on home soil, that the Sporting Times published a mock obituary of English cricket that referenced its cremation, with \u201cthe Ashes taken to Australia\u201d.
\nThe Ashes has since become a shorthand for Anglo-Australian Test cricket, with a five-match series in England starting next week \u2014 just days after the scheduled finish of the WTC final.
\nOne current concern is that the riches on offer to leading players from T20 tournament such as the Indian Premier League, and the vastly shorter time it takes to earn the money than by playing five-day Test cricket, makes the traditional format of the game much less attractive to leading modern-day players.
\nThe International Cricket Council\u2019s response was to devise the WTC, a two-year cycle of games culminating in a final, in order to give Test cricket greater context.
\nThis week\u2019s match marks the culmination of the second edition, with New Zealand having defeated India in the inaugural 2021 final at Southampton.
\nAustralia and India are two of cricket\u2019s major on and off-field powers, together with England, and the \u2018Big Three\u2019 play the majority of five-match Test series.
\nThe proximity of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston starting on June 16 has led to the WTC final being labelled a \u201cwarm-up\u201d game for Australia.
\nBut Australia star batsman Steve Smith, whose side just missed out on the inaugural final, after losing their last home series India, is adamant it is a match his side wants to win just as much as a 50-over or T20 World Cup final.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re all just looking forward to this (match against India),\u201d Smith told reporters at the Oval on Monday.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s two years in the making, of getting to the final of the World Test Championship, it\u2019s a big week for us and India, so we\u2019ll get through this then we\u2019ll focus after that.
\n\u201cEvery game you play for your country is important.\u201d And India coach Rahul Dravid said: \u201cIt\u2019s something you aspire to, to be in the top two teams so you get an opportunity to play this game.\u201d
\nThe former India batsman added the fact New Zealand had won the first final after qualifying via the ICC\u2019s weighted points systems, was proof of how teams whose cricket economics mean they are often restricted to two-Test series, could still be competitive at Test level.
\n\u201cIf you play less you still have the opportunity to make it to the final, as New Zealand showed last time,\u201d said Dravid. \u201cActually playing less gives you an opportunity to protect your resources.\u201d
\nWhen India, now cricket\u2019s financial powerhouse, won the 1983 one-day World Cup final, it transformed the format\u2019s status in the sport\u2019s most populous nation and with it the economy of the global game.
\nIt was a similar story in 2007 when Indian officials\u2019 scepticism about T20 cricket evaporated after India\u2019s dramatic victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in the 2007 World Twenty20 final in South Africa.
\nDravid, however, was sceptical over whether a victory for India, set to be roared on by thousands of passionate fans at the Oval, the south London headquarters of county side Surrey, would have a similar effect.
\n\u201cTest cricket faces unique challenges, which are not necessarily going to change as a result of one game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia vs India SYDNEY The World Test Championship final between Australia and India at the Oval starts on Wednesday against a backdrop of fears for the long format given the growth of Twenty20 franchise leagues. Not that there\u2019s anything new about cricket-lovers worrying about the future of their sport. Indeed it was following an 1882 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-335995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n